China/Greece/China/Oil/China Cross-currents

Did you catch the 2-3% gyrations in the stock market by buying and selling stocks at the right time? Is that even possible to do for the long-term?

No sense trying to game these near-term market gyrations, as they are being driving by cross-currents from China/Greece/China/Oil/China, and trying to game what headlines/policies/schemes are being worked and how the stock markets will react to those headlines/policies/schemes near-term is not a way to make sustainable money. Slow down everybody, let these markets do their thing and we’ll take advantage of the sweet pitches as they come.

As for China, let’s talk about that for a bit here. I don’t know if the average investor/trader realizes just how wild the Chinese stock markets have been this year. After nearly tripling since January, the Chinese stock markets are down 30% plus in the last few weeks. There’s an outright Chinese stock market crash out there, and the government in China is panicking about it as they are appearing powerless to stop the panic selling from retail and institutional investors.

Do you know anybody who nailed the moves up and then back down in China so far this year? Do you think trying to game a stock market on the other side of the planet, where laws and customs and investor protections are very different than they are here is a good idea?

Can someone explain to me how the capital structures in most Chinese stocks are arranged? Do you have any idea what you own in the largest, most high profile Chinese stock that I can think of, namely Alibaba? Did you know that Alibaba trades here in the US, but is based in Cayman Islands but does operations and is sort of based in China?

Did you know that hundreds, nearly a quarter of all Chinese stocks have had their trading suspended? Does that sound like a good place to put any of your hard-earned money?

All of this is why you’ve heard me explain many times over the years that I don’t like to own any non-US-based companies and stocks with a few exceptions such as our current Sony position.

So yea, Chinese stocks are crashing…but are still UP on the year!

“Chinese stocks fell for a fourth session of the past five on Tuesday. The Shanghai Composite shed 1.3 per cent, while the tech-heavy Shenzhen Composite lost 5.3 per cent. The Shenzhen index is now up 36 per cent this year.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16ab…

Two Trade Alerts

But the China/Greek panic-induced selling around the world has indeed hit some of our own positions too of course. There are several of our stocks that are down big enough now that I’m interested in starting to scale into some of them.

A couple trades I’m making today — I’m nibbling some more SYNA common stock finally. I think Synaptics is having a very strong quarter selling to Apple and Samsung but the stock has been hit off rumors that Apple might be designing its own Synaptics-like sensors for future iPhones and iPads. I think there’s likely a big pop coming in the near-term if the earnings report from SYNA is stronger than expected, as there are lots of shorts that have borrowed shares of SYNA to sell and would likely be scrambling to buy it back if the report is strong and there’s no official word about an Apple-designed product hitting the market.  WHEN At any rate, today I’m nibbling some SYNA common stock around $82 per share.

I’m buying my second tranche of Iconix, which is a very small position for me. The stock’s next catalyst will be the upcoming earnings report WHEN and I’ve got no idea how strong or weak the report will be. After that though, the next catalyst for ICON will be how well (or poorly) the new Charlie Brown movie does when it hits the movie theaters for Thanksgiving and onto into Christmas. If the stock were to get hit after its upcoming earnings report, I might be looking to nibble on some more common stock and maybe even some call options that would expire out in early 2016. At any rate, today I’m nibbling some ICON common stock below $25 per share.

Tensions high in the Scuttles today. Interesting. And I love this from @RobertMarcin: “that goes for everyone, bulls and bears alike. i dont want or need any self congratulatory, promotional posts only on the days the markets go your way. this site isnt for advertising ur good calls. its for real time dialogue about the stock market on every day. and on the long and short trades we are all doing IN REAL TIME, to make money.”

AppleCare+

Cody Willard, chairman of Scutify and Futr, told Benzinga that AppleCare has “great margins.” He said it is a very profitable endeavor and that Apple should do anything it can to increase sales.

“Who can even tell if their battery life is running at 80 percent of what other people’s battery life is running at?” Willard questioned. “There might be a few phones turned in that Apple replaces because of this new offering. More to the point, there will be lots more people who will fall for this pitch and buy AppleCare+ and Apple will make lots of money on that.”

Willard said this as someone who recently purchased AppleCare+ alongside his new Apple Watch.

“I’m not the average consumer,” he said. “I dropped my watch in the toilet. I dropped my phone in a river. I run over my phone. I forget it on top of my car. I set my watch down and step on top of it. The average person shouldn’t buy AppleCare+. The average Cody Willard should buy AppleCare+ every chance he gets.”

Willard also dismissed the notion that Apple’s new battery warranty will have any impact on the environment.

“They’ll recycle those batteries anyway,” he said.
Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/analys…

The best analysis and cut-throat explanation of the Greek Debt Crisis right now and how we got here. (With some interesting parallels to be applied to the US and its RepublicanDemocrat Regime and how it controls the media/elections.)
http://99getsmart.com/the-trut…

I’m not a fan of buying IPOs from the Private Equity guys doing the selling, esp when they’ve loaded up the company with debt: “Spanish-language broadcaster has $10.6 bln in debt: 5 things to know about Univision’s IPO” $FV http://t.co/L2jU0nhwEv

Is Google Glass 2.0 coming soon?
http://t.co/aURqOPgabS #Wearables $GOOG