My Sick Mind

If you believe, as I do, that "The Star Spangled Banner" is a song about a war that we lost, and how the big positive of the deal is that "the flag was still there," then maybe you'll get this.  Whatever .... There has been a lot of bluster, screaming, outrage, and other stuff over the National Anthem and what people do while it is played - at sporting events, mostly - because that's where they play it, mostly. Stand, kneel, sit, take off your cap ... do whatever they tell you, right? And, for the record, I have stood at Fort McHenry and looked out at the place where " the flag was still there ," and yeah, I got a little chill thinking about it, but that's where it stopped.  Mostly, it's because of the ceremony of the thing.  Otherwise, it's just a song praising war.  But I digress... The kerfuffle started when a few NFL players decided to do something other than stand at attention while the song was being played.  That c...

I really hate to write about such mundane things as investing and life, because they don’t get nearly the page views of my rants on gun culture and the ridiculous state of politics in America - but here we go. What have I been doing lately, while the market has been going nuts (up and down) and some people have been scared out of it. I hate to sell and trade, but sometimes, it’s necessary. I sold my position in Extreme Networks (EXTR) after a double over the past year.  In retrospect, I could have sold it much higher, but I usually wait for earnings, and this latest report was absurdly negative, so I decided to cash-in my profit rather than wait for the upturn, which may take more than a year. I also sold 25% of my stake in Square (SQ).  As much as I love the company I felt like the stock had run-up to $55 from my purchase price of $26, so I felt it prudent to take some profits and watch it go, if it does.  There has been some selling over a recent battle with Pay...

Some things are just too hard to figure out with our small people brains. Lawn darts killed three children between 1970 and 1994, and as such, they were made illegal in the United States and Canada. On 19 December 1988, all lawn darts were banned from sale in the United States by the Consumer Product Safety Commission after they were responsible for the deaths of three children since 1970.  In 1989, they were also banned in Canada. In 1982, some nutjob poisioned  some Tylenol capsules.  As a result, we can’t open a bottle of pills or a beverage without going through a major operation, even though authorities never identified who was responsible. The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide.  A total of seven people died in the original poisonings, with several mo...

It’s been a long time coming (as the song said) but finally, The United States (or parts of it) have come to the realization that marijuana isn’t the horrible evil our ancestors viewed it to be. In a quest to fund government, several states have found it convenient to legalize the “Evil Weed” and collect taxes on its consumption, much as they do with alcohol.  As it is with a lot of things, it’s a bad idea until we run out of ways to collect taxes.  Then, things that were once considered horrible - alcohol, gambling, and cigarettes - are now wonderful because the states can tax them.  Resistance is futile, and the resistance has met its match with marijuana.  States have run out of ways to tax us, so now, marijuana is no longer considered vile.  It’s a revenue source, which makes it ... well, a good idea. Today is April 20.  Once considered an inside joke among pot heads, it has now become a national media day of recognition.  As it is with a ...

The events of the past week are ridiculous on so many levels that it's almost funny. When I read Tweets about it, I had no idea what had happened - only that something shitty happened at a Starbucks in Philadelphia.  Being a scant 20 minutes from the location, I felt odd that I didn't know what was going on.  Well - we all know now, so there's no need to recap. The finger was pointed at Starbucks, but the real finger should have been pointed at the Philadelphia police department and the individual who called them to quell the so-called disturbance.  You see, Starbucks owns and operates 19,300 locations in the United States alone, and singling-out one for some racist behavior (so they say) is both unfair and ridiculous. Whether or not the two men violated store policy by asking to use the rest room without purchasing anything is minor.  Refusing to leave is the issue, and the cops needed to be sensitive to the problem.  Arresting them was the worst-case ...

So, you want to invest in the stock market?  Well, mama told you there’d be days like these - didn’t she?  If she didn’t, then she’s a fool, and nature abhors a fool. She also should have told you that nobody makes money panicing.  So, don’t join the crowd and sell over macroeconomic conditions that do not necessarily affect your individual holdings. Look at what you own and hold on, because you bought value companies at a good price - at least that’s what I’ve been telling you to do. The market is in “correction territory,” having dropped another 2.23% today, and closed at a level below the 200-day moving average for the first time since 2016. OK - that’s the technical stuff.  What’s going on? We have a President in the White House who Tweets his sick mind at 3 in the morning, blasting such stalwarts as Amazon and claiming that he has some grand idea that the US Postal Service is losing money because of them.  Here’s a clue:  The USPS has been los...

Perhaps you have enjoyed my posts about the stock market (mostly in the correct direction) or laughed at my good-natured jibes at modern America, or had a chuckle over my disassociated viewpoints about things and stuff. Well - I’m guessing that is about to come to a crashing halt. The most recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida - and by “most recent school shooting” it should alert you as to what is coming - has brought to mind several things that you humans have been debating but have brought upon yourselves.  What? The good-old Second Amendment to the Constitution, for one.  It was written by a group of white slave-owners who also believed that one shouldn’t vote unless HE was a land owner.  This came in a time when single-load muskets were technology, and militias were formed to fight-off British invaders.  Gain some perspective. Nowadays (I’m sure you’ve heard) we have semi-automatic weapons, and guns that can fire-off hundreds of rounds a second. ...

It's not much, time-wise, but this is a graph (I know, I said "charting") of the S&P 500 sectors' performance during the year so far. Unexpectedly (probably) the top growth sectors are coming from the riskiest areas, while the staid, old-guard stocks are underperforming.  Make of it what you will, but so far, the growth in our market is coming from some surprising areas. It will be worthwhile to look at this again after earnings season, which kicks-of on Friday with the big banks. OK, so here's your chart.   I took a look at this today and, even though I don't put much faith in charting, some things are too difficult to ignore. It's a five-year chart of one of my favorite stocks, Salesforce.com (Symbol: CRM) If we go back to May of 2012, and draw a line along the peaks in the stock, we can see that it has achieved higher highs, all the way through to late July of 2017.  In addition, during that same time period, the lows have ...

If you’re following along - and why wouldn’t you be? - you would have been reading about my pride and angst over my investments and their consequences. It’s a struggle, but fun. Strange, and fun. I didn’t sell anything - much to my joy and dismay.  Square has begun to trade along with Bitcoin, and Pfizer seems to have found a new life with the FDA approval of a new drug.  Such is life for drug companies.  It’s the risk-reward scenario that we embrace when we invest.  The stock has approached its 52-week high, and I suspect that it has room to run here - and my patience is being rewarded.  I no longer view the stock as a potential sell, especially with the new tax plan. Darden Restaurants reports this week.  I don’t own it, but the “pin action” may translate to my favorite DelTaco (TACO) and its struggling $12 stock price.  In other news, the new 21% corporate tax rate may help dissuade DelTaco’s current 40% tax rate and help them control some ...

I’m pretty happy with my investment choices - and if you’ve been following along, you would be, too. [Ooops] The options at this point are:  What to do with Pfizer and Key.  Pfizer pays a dividend in a week, so I’m content to stick with it until then.  For some odd reason, I’ve stuck with it longer than I had anticipated.  Only my investment in Ford was more agonizing.  Key is a great bank, but they are a ... bank, and as such tend to waffle with this goofball that is in the White House and his so-called tax cut - but I digress. I continue to be long DelTaco (TACO) and would advise you to be, too. They will struggle with costs and the eternal problems of bringing people into their restaurants, but ... people have to eat somewhere, and the stock is priced right, and if you aren’t in already, at the $12 area, you should be.  The management team knows what they’re doing. Ride along.  It says here, I’m 60 and I’m supposed to be risk averse, but I enjoy t...

Thanksgiving is coming.   No kidding.  What bugs me about it is the choice of food.  We're supposed to eat turkey.  Why?  On account of, because.  It's what we eat.  We make no effort on any other day to cook a giant turkey - other than Thanksgiving. Mostly, people find something to complain about.  It's too dry. It's tough. It's cold (have you ever burned your mouth on Thanksgiving turkey? No). For what?  Here's an idea:  Gather your friends and family, and eat fish, or chicken, or burgers, or ... GOD ... whatever.  Be thankful.  Isn't that the idea? Our annual company Holiday party is coming. Egad.  I've been there 26 years and have not yet attended one.  I'm not sure what that says about me, other than the idea that I don't like going to parties alone and I don't care to have someone sitting around counting my drinks.  Especially since it's in Atlantic City, and they seem to pick the furthest possible pla...

As a young person in the 1970s, I had a few favorites.  I was enthralled by the prog-rock movement spearheaded by Yes and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer; and my boyhood dreams of being a musician were fueled by the likes of them.  I had a few guitar heroes:  Robert Fripp, Peter Banks, Jan Akkerman among them, but there was one lurking in the background that I didn't acknowledge until later in life.  Terry Kath. If we go back to the early 1970s (where I come from) the world of pop music was cluttered with nonsense, and even as a youth, I recognized it.  My bus rides to school were dominated by questions like, "Have you heard 'Hocus Pocus' by Focus?" and if you were listening to 92.5FM (WIFI) so that you could hear the "long version" of Yes' "America."' You have to remember, those were the days when, if you didn't hear something live, you couldn't "YouTube it" or go back to your DVR and re-watch it.  It was a "...

“Beat and raise.” Those are the two best words a shareholder can hear out of an earnings report.  That is exactly what Square (SQ) did this week. They beat analyst’s estimates and raised guidance for 2018. For some reason, the stock fell a bit after the report, but once investors heard the conference call, SQ rose another 1.5% to another 52-week high near the $38 mark. The “payment space,” as Wall Street would call it, is hot.  Paypal (PYPL), Visa (V), and MasterCard (MA) are leaders in the industry, but Square is gaining market share, and working on their banking side, making loans to small businesses and building a customer base that will either make the company a strong independent processor or make it an attractive take-out candidate.  Either way, investors (like me) win.  So far, it’s been a nice ride. Meanwhile, Pfizer (PFE) struggles along as almost dead money, and while it’s a nice dividend play, at 3.6%, young-at-heart investors (like me) would like t...

I try to stay modern. I'm holding onto the Internet, online stuff, and my iPhone with all 8 fingernails in an effort to keep up with those goddamned kids who find this stuff so simple that they can walk, text, drive, and talk on their phone at the same time.  By the way, if you think you can ... you cannot. I'm with you on a lot of this junk.  The whole "text instead of call" thing is right up my alley.  When my phone rings, I dread picking it up. "Just text me, or send an e-mail," is my usual response.  And this comes from a person who grew up on rotary dial phones and looking for change to use the phone when I was away from home. How quickly I learned your ways, Millennials. The one thing I cannot join you in is this movement back to vinyl records.  I don't remember what year it was, but at some point, somebody (probably Sony) invented the Compact Disc player.  I was so excited.  No longer would I have to store giant 12-inch recordings...

It's Earnings Season again.  And as such, it's a little daunting to keep track of it all, but I'll give it a shot.  So, how am I doing?  I write a lot about my investments, and I'll quickly tell you if I fail, but this last quarter and the last six months have been mostly positive. While I still eschew big-time growth names that I find over-valued, I tend to stick with stocks with one of two potential issues: 1 - There is a growth story, and we are at or near the beginning of it. 2 - There is value in a mature company. As in life, I don't like to over-pay for anything.  If I think a stock has run-up into a valuation that is either "priced for perfection" or just plain over-priced, I'll pass - and I'd advise you to do so, too.  It's not that I don't appreciate the risk, but I don't necessarily want to pay for it.  Tesla, Facebook, Nvidia, Google - are some of the names that, if I had a 5-year-old, I would happily invest in. At m...

When the summer night has changed its warmer breezes to the icy cold of silent winter freezes Will you be there? When the cloudy skies are blocking out the Sun and suddenly your nose has begun to run Will I see you there? Will you stand by me beside the cold night? Or are you afraid of the ice?  - John Palumbo "Ice" Crack the Sky, 1975 Apparently, not.  At least that's the feeling I got from the last woman I gave my heart and time to.  She dumped me like a bag of trash left out on the sidewalk.  (sorry if that isn't as poetic as the lyric I posted) I put myself out for people, on occasion.   In some cases, the effort is reciprocated.  In others, it is met with a stunning lack of recognition.  Mind you, it's not what I'm in it for, but the idea is that - at some point, the effort has to be recognized.  Gifts, time, effort, and companionship are expended and the time and effort are virtually (or literally in this case) not reco...

“I did not know how to reach him, how to catch up with him... The land of tears is so mysterious.”  ―  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ,  The Little Prince Yes, the land of tears is mysterious, whoever you are.  The land of tears is mysterious.  If you do not  believe that ancient idea, consider one more current ... “The only time you look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbor's bowl to see if you have as much as them.”  ―  Louis C.K. Take that,  millennials. That's the difference between sympathy and empathy.  Most of you probably don't know.  You can sympathize with someone with whom you have not shared similar experiences, but you can only empathize with someone with whom you have shared similar experiences with.  And, therein lies the problem - at least as it is with this. Most of you cannot empathize with me because you have either (a) been with someo...

If this wasn't an honest appraisal of my life, then it's worthless - and I don't want this to be worthless. Whether I'm recommending investments or letting you in on my otherwise private thoughts, there is a sense that this is an opening of my mind, such as it is, and hence, the title. I'll stand by my investment recommendations, DelTaco and Extreme Networks among them, and so let's move beyond that and delve into the inner workings of my (egad) mind. Love has eluded me over the years, and it continues to do so.  I find it oddly interesting that so many have found it so easily, while it betrays me at every turn.  It's at the point now where I see someone and think, "Oh well, that's never going to happen."  The sense of doom is paramount.  Lately, I thought that the soul mate that I so desperately seeked was in Alabama, of all places.  As it turned out, she was there physically, but not there in form or spirit.  I don't mi...

It’s been a while since I have opined on the stock market.  Mostly because I have had other more important things to say.  Nevertheless, I still pay attention, and I think you should, too.   Recently, Morningstar rated 20 stocks as “Undervalued and Sustainable,” which appeals to me because I hate overpaying for things, and want whatever I buy to be around in a decade or so - since I plan on that, too. I went over the list (as you should, too) and found five that appear to be attractive in today's environment, and have some risk involved, with the requisite reward at the end of the supposed rainbow. Mattel (MAT) looks like a disaster now, but t heir capital-allocation program has committed an incremental $250 million-$300 million to business improvements in 2017, potentially helping speed up the profit turnaround. So, if  you  are confident in their ability to turn the existing portfolio into a profitable enterprise, you could find a bargain h...

Eighteen hundred and some-odd posts on this worn-out site.  Sometimes, I think I've covered it all - and other times, I think I haven't covered anything at all.  Or maybe it's both?  So, there's that.  Meanwhile, my fascination with how people connect lingers. There's this story about the Las Vegas lunatic that shot-up a concert.   LAS VEGAS (AP) — The girlfriend of the Las Vegas gunman said Wednesday that she had no inkling of the massacre he was plotting when he sent her on a trip abroad to see her family.    Marilou Danley issued the statement after returning from her native Philippines and being questioned for much of the day by FBI agents still trying to figure out what drove Stephen Paddock to open fire on 22,000 fans at a country music festival from his 32nd-floor hotel suite. "He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to ...