Today’s links: Iowa, IO, waa!
Here’s what I was reading and thinking about when I wasn’t trying to get my hands warmed up in the chilly NM mountain air this morning.
On Insurance Stock Indexes – Merkel’s thinking about starting an insurance-only hedge fund and the reason I like the idea is because that is a sector that he has more experience analyzing and trading than probably any one else on the planet — and he’s developed an edge there with that experience and insight. He knows more about the Prudentials PRU, MetLife’s MET, and Hartford’s HIG of the market than anybody I’ve ever met. When you trade a stock or invest with a hedge fund manager, are you sure you/they have an edge?
Amazon is getting very oversold – Brian Gilmartin’s been bulling on Amazon AMZN for about as long as I can remember — for the last several hundred points, I would guess. Anyway, he’s saying Amazon’s chart is looking oversold and that the fundamentals heading into the quarter end are…well, if you’re gonna own or trade the (Ama)Zonian, you better read what Brian’s saying.
Safety first is 2012 strategy – They’re preaching caution in this column. Of course, Warren Buffett preaches that we should be greedy when others are cautious. I’m thinking the markets will find a path of least resistance that will be generally higher this year, in large part because so many managers and pundits are indeed cautious.
Iowa Race Heads Down to the Wire – I predict that my friend Ron Paul wins Iowa by about 5% or so over Romney and the rest of them are way back. And then we’ll see a huge onslaught of anti-Ron-Paul propaganda from the Super PACs funded by the same banks and corporations so dependent upon ongoing government subsidies/welfare/etc that Ron Paul threatens so badly. These banks get trillions in welfare assistance every year from the Fed/Treasury/Republican-Democrat-Regime and they are not going to let that taxpayer-funded lifeline go easily. Romney, of course, is a classic Republican/Democrat Corporatist crony and everybody knows that the establishment wants a no-choice election between Romney and Obama, both of whom will simply continue the same neo-liberal/neo-conservative policies of the establishment.
Fusion-io: Morgan Stanley Boosts Rating; Shares Jump – I think there’s a lot of long-term upside in Fusion-io FIO and I was buying my here a few weeks ago (see Another trade and don’t forget today’s chat for example). Morgan apparently sees some upside potential here too. They’re talking some corporate flash growth market growth of 10x in the next few years. Crazy numbers, but be aware that crazy numbers like that bring in competitors too, so we’ll need to stay on top of FIO and the markets its helping develop.
