This is better than the Coney Island Cyclone. One day, I’m stone broke. The next day I’m filthy rich. Here’s the last two days.
Ah, the joys of investing in biotech. A Wall Street analyst had a $45 price target (also called PT) on this — until yesterday when she cut her PT by more than half to $20.
ARWR’s drug isn’t as good as projected. My gullible friend who invested on the analyst’s recommendation is now heavily out of pocket.
Had he been working for Steve Cohen, he would have found out about the drug’s failings in advance of the public, sold short and made hundreds of millions, as S.A.C. Capital Advisors did with Elan and Wyeth. All this may eventually put you in jail for insider trading. But you’d be stinking rich for a few years. If you’d like to read all about S.A.C. and an experimental drug called bapineuzumab (known as bapi in the trade), read the latest New Yorker magazine’s article called “The Empire of Edge — How a doctor, a trader and the billionaire Steven A. Cohen got entangled in a vast financial scandal.” Click here. If that link doesn’t work, it may mean you’re not a New Yorker subscriber. So, subscribe. it’s a great magazine. Buy this issue on the newsstand.
A wonderful twist on life insurance.As you know, I think life insurance is a waste of money — unless your heirs will need the money to pay off Uncle Sam without being forced to sell the family business at a fire sale price. But I have no family business. My assets are liquid. And my income is not what it used to be. Hence insurance premiums would be a burden.
Here’s a deal I got offered yesterday:
+ I sign up for life insurance.
+ I don’t pay any premiums. You read right. Keep reading.
+ When I die, my trust (set up for my kids and their kids) get 65% of my life insurance payout. The guys who paid my premiums over all those years will get the remaining 35%.
My new friend has signed up over 20,000 people in the last ten years to this deal. He puts them into “pools.” Institutions, hedge funds and others fund the insurance premiums. You can figure out the returns with mortality tables. They’re high. (Except on me, since I’m living forever.)
I’m very tempted. If any of my readers is interested in this deal (and who wouldn’t be?) send me an email. This may be the find of a lifetime.
I don’t get a commission. Shucks.
Useful tips:
+ Reboot your modem, your router and your computer every few days. Your local DNS caches get messed up and slow you down. Don’t ask for an explanation. Just reboot everything regularly.
+ Get your boarding pass exactly 24 hours before your plane leaves. The airline may offer you a cheap upgrade to a better seat or to business or first class. Works with United.
+ Never pay retail. There’s always a discount coupon somewhere. Sign up for their newsletter. Sign up for their credit card. Try the AAA card. Call the company and beg for a cheaper price. Asking always works. With hotels, with retailers and with airlines.
+ If you’re still paying your cell carrier for SMS messages, you should be using WhatsApp. Its messages are 100% free. Everyone overseas uses WhatsApp, because international SMS is very pricey. I love WhatsApp. It’s better than normal SMS messaging.
+ The easiest, cheapest, most convenient way to set up conference calls is through SaveOnConferences.com. Click here.
+ The Robin Hood Investors Conference starts Monday October 20 at the Grand Hyatt in New York. It features hedge fund managers’ Best Ideas. It’s the best investment conference of the year. I’ll be there. I was there last year.
For the Robin Hood Investors Conference, click here.
Syria is a total mess. If this map doesn’t fit on your iPad/iPhone/PC screen, tap or click on it
The map comes from FP — Foreign Policy magazine. To put this mess into perspective, ask yourself which is larger Syria or Oregon? The answer is below.
What our President is trying to accomplish there is beyond my tiny brain.
Several ex-members of the Obama administration have recently written books criticizing Obama.
Mr Obama’s “most conspicuous weakness”, according to Leon Panetta, is a “frustrating reticence to engage his opponents and rally support for his cause”.
Congress is on leave, not in session and not debating what we’re doing in Syria/Iraq, etc.
The best wedding video ever. I once photographed 83 weddings one summer. Got me money. This video is priceless.
Totally wonderful. Click here or here.
Harry Newton. Oregon is 98,466 square miles. Syria is 71,998 square miles. That makes Oregon 37% larger than Syria. this is Oregon:
It’s a beautiful state. It has mountains and beaches. It has vineyards and great weather, especially during the summer. My son and his family live in Portland. I have a classmate who retired to Bend (approx in the middle). Oregon is paradise. Syria is not. What we’re doing in Syria is beyond my comprehension. Syria is the 32nd largest oil producer, even lower than Australia. ISIL is not in Oregon, (or Australia) and will never be there. Obama is waging war against ISIL without Congress’s approval or even Congressional debate. Remember the famous quote: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Obama has finally lost the plot.
Why does ISIL want with the town Kobani? Two reasons:
+ Kobani is close to the Turkish border. Much of ISIL’s clandestine trade — selling oil it has illicitly acquired from Syrian and Iraqi oil fields — goes through Turkey. ISIL needs the money. Turkey probably makes money on this. Hence their reluctance to intervene.
+ It gives ISIL a chance to further weaken the Kurds. Although they are from the same branch of Islam, ISIL sees the Kurds as an obstacle on their road to total domination of the caliphate (new Muslim state) declared by their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Harry,
Your life insurance thing does not sound legal. I thought that you had to have an “insurable interest” to pay for someone else’s life insurance (and benefit from it). Too many people were killing off people they had insured.
At any rate, make sure you read the contracts very carefully. For example, what happens if the third party stops paying? Who then is obligated to pay? You? This could be a scam designed to hook you into buying insurance.
There’s no free lunch!!! I’d run far away from this.
Points: I haven’t signed up. I haven’t read the fine points. My immediate reaction was the same as yours. There’s no free lunch. But this one comes with impeccable references. So, I’m going to keep checking. And I’ll keep everyone informed.
“(Except on me, since I’m living forever.)”
This is the explanation why my boomer parents cannot not spare any of their vast fortune on grandkids or their kids.
Many of the kids I grew up with are in the same position.
Harry, I wish your example of generosity was more widespread.
I doubt your children complain much, but if they do, you may want to run the status quo by them.
Re: airline upgrades…2 days ago we flew on Delta Portland, ME to Phoenix via Detroit and Atlanta…the DET/ATL leg made the trip extra long but the $1000.00 Delta paid us (we were flying on miles for ten bucks each) helped to ease the pain. I always ask if they are looking for volunteers and often get paid for minor inconveniences…this is the highest we have ever been paid.
As a native Oregonian, I agree with your assessment of the Beaver State.
Sorry, meant to say we would all be better off using one universal app – imagine no texting fees…surprised the youth hasn’t figured it out. Perhaps if they paid their own cell bills…
You have no grandchildren? My teen grandchildren simply Skype… and do multiuser video. Believe me, they know! Everything!
Many people talk about whatsapp however it has serious security flaws…Google it. We would all be better off with on messaging app. The remainder of the company is struggling however Blackberry’s messaging app is fantastic and far more secure…just make certain you download the correct one if you are an android user, the fakes have fishing software attached.