My main reason I haven't taken or started to work towards the GMAT for the last 3 years. I'll dominate the fuck out of the math section, just like I did on the SATs.....Verbal, grammar, anologies, etc....
European banks are in the shitter and caused the market to open down. Then 30 minutes later the Philly Fed Index came out and it was ass horrible (forecast 2.0 actual -30.7, last month as 3.2 ... >0 signifies expansion / <0 signifies contraction of manufacturing in the NE). I saw the 10 year trading inside of 2.0% and is now hovering around 2.06%. Crazy. The risk off/fear trade is on.
Philly Fed index report was fucking horrific also, should i definitely take the GMAT while still in school? thinking about doing it my last semester in school since the scores are only good for 5 years
My funds became available this morning. Right on time! Just bought a bunch of shit. Got PETS at $9.60, which is great.
GMAT guys, keep in mind the new Integrated Reasoning section starts 2012. Not sure if that's in this year's prep books yet or not.
After some quick friarjuggs research, that looks like a very good thing for people who have great data analysis experience from internship experiences.
Just like them at that price, which is about their 2-year low. They just posted a great quarter of revenue and profit growth.
Huh? They reported sales declines ($73.6 mil vs $74.4 mil last yr) and EPS declines ($0.22 vs. $0.32 last yr). Analyst Report C & P: FQ1 results are reflective of an increasingly competitive backdrop, with EPS falling short of low expectations. The competitive threat from brick & mortar and other online retailers has forced further pricing discounts and increased advertising spend, much to the detriment of margins. Average cost to acquire new customers, which is a key operating metric, increased 11% yoy despite an already weak year-ago comp of +21%. While PETS' current valuation and the company's capital position mitigate some downside risk, we see little reason to own the stock at current levels and maintain our Underweight rating. -FQ1 results impacted by increasing competition & discounting. FQ1 sales were $73.6 MM (-1.1% yoy), which straddled PJC ($73.1 MM) and consensus ($74.1 MM) expectations. New customer sales of $17.0 MM exceeded our $16.4 MM estimate, due to higher than expected advertising spend. Gross margin of 32.77% was 173 bps lower than our estimate, primarily attributable to aggressive product discounting. PETS repurchased ~1.1 MM shares at an average cost of $12.67, spending nearly $13.6 MM. In spite of aggressive share repurchases, EPS of $0.22 was $0.05 lower than our $0.27 estimate and $0.02 lower than consensus of $0.24, due to weaker gross margins and increased advertising spend. PETS finished FQ1 with ~$2.96/share in cash, investments and auction rate securities, down from $3.23/share reported on 3/31/2011. -Estimates move lower on gross margins & advertising. We are adjusting our estimates following weaker than expected FQ1 EPS performance, with our model now incorporating a more negative margin impact from 1) aggressive pricing discounts and 2) increased advertising spend. While we believe that increased advertising expenditures may help support relatively flat yoy sales growth over the next several years, the aforementioned changes lower our FY12 and FY13 EPS estimates to $0.71 and $0.72, down from $0.82 and $0.81 previously. -Maintain Underweight rating, lowering PT to $10/share. While we feel that valuation and the company's capital position will mitigate some downside risk to the stock, we see little reason to own PETS at current levels given the increased competitive landscape and our expectations for a more challenging advertising backdrop during 2H11 and 1H12. Importantly, disappointing trends in key operational metrics continue, including average cost to acquire new customers (+11.2% yoy), new customer order size (-1.4%) and average order size (-2.4% yoy). Lastly, while new customers grew +2.7% in the quarter, we note that a 14.3% increase in annual advertising spend was needed to support this growth.
By the way, I know you've been contemplating an online MBA, or other alternatives to facilitate a move to FL (if I remember correctly). Florida has one of the better MSF programs, which would be a cheaper, shorter option compared to a full-time MBA. Here's some info, and some of their placement history: http://msfhq.com/category/d-f/university-of-florida/ http://warrington.ufl.edu/fire/programs/msf/placement/history.asp
I went to UGA for grad school, and I know they didn't care at all about the writing portion. It was all verbal and math, heard some other schools were the same.
I appreciate it, penny packer. The reason I was going to move to FSU is due to their top 10 masters in risk management and insurance. It's looking like I got the job in Atlanta so now Georgia State is going to be my go to.
Any recommendations for ETF's? I'm already deep in SPY and QQQ, I'm looking for another long-term either growth or emerging markets ETF. I'll be in it long to LOOOOOOOONG term, so some volitilty doesn't concern me a whole lot and I figure now is looking like a decent time to be getting further into some long term holdings. Also, do I just ride out the beating I'm taking on C or do I cut my losses? This was one that I thought I was willing to take the ride for a long time, but I'm down a shade over 30% and I don't really see anything promising to make me think I'll ever get back to even. I'm leaning towards sticking it out, but contemplating biting that bullet and finding something else to try to make some of that back with. Just for some reference, my holdings are(in order of $ invested) QQQ, SPY, DD, C, DE, VTG and MIG. I just got out of RGR after being up 88%, so I've got a fair amount that I'm looking to reinvest somewhere. I may even look at getting back into RGR if they fall back to a price I like them at. While I plan to let it sit there, I will pull out when I'm up big and reinvest as I see an opportunity. I would say I've been quite conservative so far, I also have stuck with a few stocks that I'm familiar/comfortable with, but I'm certainly looking at it in the long term and figure I need to branch out a bit.
It depends, I'd probably say I intend on being in anywhere from 10-25 years depending on the economy. RGR was one I looked at that way, but sometimes when you're up big, you get out while you can and look to get back in or at something different.
Sorry that VTG has been so ugly. The levered oil trade has obviously not worked and VTG is the extreme of that. I think there is still value there (RIG acquiring a competitor 1-2 weeks ago implies the same) but it either has to come via buyout or better market.
Well, I got into VTG at $1.36, so I think there is plenty to be made there. I could make 30-40% and it still won't be NEAR its book value.
thinking about going after a region or a broad index? longer term maybe take a lil more risk if you like one region in particular. just shooting from the hip there seems to be a lot of talk about turkey these days. they seem somewhat well positioned to end up a leader in the eastern european/middle eastern countries ... this article may be useful, i like SeekingAlpha.com or IndexUniverse.com for these sort of ETF questions. this guy makes an argument for buying small cap emerging market ETFs cause they are heavily weighted towards consumer staples/discretionary and health care ... http://seekingalpha.com/article/288163-the-emerging-markets-in-emerging-markets
some dude from Raymond James was on CNBC today, issued a strong buy rating for BAC and said that JPM rumor was complete BS ... gold bubble anyone?
don't think it's a bubble, more of just a correction. it was so overbought the last few weeks with all of the flight to safety buyers
rabid whatcha think of the HY market these days? still a good time for ETFs/Mutuals? still one of my favs in the 401k
i don't think you need to approach it any differently than listed stocks, if you feel good about the company go ahead and buy. just know that there can be liquidity risk depending on how thinly traded the stock is. also, companies on the OTC markets tend to "riskier" because there are a lot of start up companies that may not be profitable, or old companies that are doing poorly/bankrupt. that's not to say you can't invest in "blue chip" OTC companies, a lot of foreign stuff trades OTC, like Hyundai or Nintendo
Thanks, im looking more for information about OTC derivatives and how much money you need to access the OTC markets. I know its in the millions but not sure how many. Also wondering if there is a ticker tape of trades for derivatives. I know there is a OTC bulletin board for equity trades but thats not really what im looking for.
oh snap ... well i don't know anything about that but if a bloomberg terminal can find it we got one of those at work
Would never be allowed. BAC is already over the FDIC's cap on % of nation's deposits (the cap is 10%). JPM is at ~9%.
yeah we just use ours for otc equities and fixed income so i'm not sure we'd have that kind of service
More attractive than it was but equities look cheaper to me. However, at least HY bonds give you a coupon so I could make an argument for it and it makes sense as a diversifier.
Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO, can't be good news for his overall health. Wonder how much the stock will fall.
If AAPL drops pretty "low" tomorrow I think that I am going to purchase a few 60 day contracts and try to clean up. Thoughts?