Harry Newton's In Search of The Perfect Investment
Technology Investor. Auction Rate Securities. Auction Rate Preferreds.
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8:30 AM EST Monday, June 30, 2008: Today
is the end of "windows dressing." It's the last day the funds (mutual,
hedge, ETFs, etc.) have to sell stocks and accumulate cash. By
having all that cash on their June 30 balance sheets, they can show
how smart they are.
Most
people won't find this cartoon funny.

But, if you're one of my readers, maybe you will find it funny. I have been
nagging since November, 2007 that Cash is King, except for commodities
(especially oil), oil services, mining stocks and the picks and shovels companies
like Bucyrus and Syngenta. And of course, shorts on financials, like Lehman
Brothers.
As to where we
go from here? We now have The BIG (contrary) Theory. Now that every newspaper,
magazine, web site and local guru has said we're in a bear market, we no longer
are. None of my successful fund managers worry about "the market"
-- unless you're buying broad index funds. They worry about individual opportunities.
And those I'm now mulling. It's obvious that the opportunities in the second
half of this year are going to look very different to those in the first half.
As the world economy
contracts, commodities may go down in the second half? From today's Bloomberg:
June 30 (Bloomberg)
-- Commodities are heading for their best first half in 35 years. The next
six months may not be as rewarding because record prices for oil, copper and
a dozen other raw materials may crimp consumption and encourage growth in
supply.
The 19 commodities
in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index jumped 29 percent this year, the most since
1973 and more than any second-half gain in at least five decades, data compiled
by Bloomberg show.
High costs are
slowing the pace of demand for gasoline in the U.S., and gold purchases in
India, the biggest buyer, plunged 50 percent from a year earlier. Producers
are expanding supplies of wheat in the U.S. and steel in China.
Now we have "bargain
prices," many people will be tempted. I remain ultra-wary of trying to
catch falling knives. Financials and the auto makers are not coming back
any time soon. In fact, some will go bankrupt.
Free Bloomberg
-- at www.Bloomberg.com -- remains,
in my unhumble opinion the greatest source of financial stories and free market
statistics. Everyone should read the site every day.
If I had read
this article, which Bloomberg published on May 30 last year,. I would be substantially
richer today. I would have sold financials short with much greater intensity
and conviction than what I did.
The story is called
Subprime
Fiasco Exposes Manipulation by Mortgage Brokerages.
And you must read
it, even today. It will give you an understanding of why it all went so horribly
wrong -- and why it's still going horribly wrong. Bloomberg won a big prize
for this story.
Today
is the last day for buying a PC with Windows XP: After
today you'll be forced into Vista, which may not be to your liking. It's not
to mine.
Manure
thief falls into dung, flees naked. I don't
make this stuff up. I can't. Sadly, I don't have pictures.
BERLIN
(Reuters) A woman trying to make "manure bombs" using stockings, slipped
into a slurry tank and fled the scene naked, German police said Friday.
Two women entered
a farm in the northern village of Eberholzen Wednesday evening and started
to fill the stockings with manure.
"One of
them slipped into the manure tank, right into the cow muck," said a spokesman
for local police. "The other one helped her out. We found their clothes
in a field. One seems to have run off completely naked, the other in her underwear."
Police said
it was unclear what the women had intended to do with the "manure bombs,"
but added the incident could be linked to victory celebrations surrounding
the Euro 2008 semi-finals on Wednesday evening, when Germany beat Turkey 3-2.
"The women
can get their clothes back from the local police station -- unwashed,"
the spokesman added.
Wimbledon
continues today. As I write this column, Roger Federer
is about to play Leighton Hewitt. You can watch zillions of hours of tennis
today. That will be much more enjoyable than watching the ticker today. Here
is the TV schedule.
All times listed are Eastern Standard Time (L) = Live (T) = Taped
Monday, June 30 |
7:00 am - 10:00 am |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Monday, June 30 |
10:00 am - 1:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
NBC
(L) |
Monday, June 30 |
1:00 pm - 6:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
ESPN2
(L) |
Monday, June 30 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Early
rounds |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Tuesday, July 1 |
7:00 am - 10:00 am |
Quarterfinals
(Ladies') |
ESPN2
(L) |
Tuesday, July 1 |
10:00 am - 1:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Ladies') |
NBC
(L) |
Tuesday, July 1 |
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Ladies') |
ESPN2
(L) |
Tuesday, July 1 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Ladies') |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Wednesday, July 2 |
7:00 am - 10:00 am |
Quarterfinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Wednesday, July 2 |
10:00 am - 1:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Gentlemen's) |
NBC
(L) |
Wednesday, July 2 |
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Wednesday, July 2 |
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm |
Quarterfinals
(Gentlemen's) |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Thursday, July 3 |
7:00 am - 12:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Ladies') |
ESPN2
(L) |
Thursday, July 3 |
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Ladies') |
NBC
(L) |
Thursday, July 3 |
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Ladies') |
Tennis
Channel (T) |
Friday, July 4 |
7:00 am - 12:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Friday, July 4 |
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
NBC
(L) |
Saturday, July 5 |
9:00 am - 2:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Saturday, July 5 |
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
NBC
(L) |
Sunday, July 6 |
9:00 am - 3:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
NBC
(L) |
Sunday, July 6 |
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm |
Semifinals
(Gentlemen's) |
ESPN2
(L) |
Visiting
England to watch the tennis?
An Israeli recently arrived at London's Heathrow airport.
An immigration
officer asked him: "Occupation?"
The Israeli promptly
replied : "No, just visiting !"
There's
a pun here.
Bear walks into a bar, says to the bartender "Gimme a drink".
The bartender
says "hey, we don't serve animals in here".
The bear says
"gimme a drink or I'll eat this woman right here".
The bartender
still refuses, and the bear eats the woman right up. "Gimme a drink, now",
he says.
The bartender,
steadfast, says "we don't serve animals, and we certainly don't serve animals
on drugs."
The bear seems
taken aback, "on drugs?"
The bartender:
"Well, that was a bar bitch you ate."
The
second worst pun
Did you hear about the blind prostitute?
You have to hand
it to her.

This column is about my personal search for the perfect
investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered
with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor.
I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three
reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column
is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect
Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas,
concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address
is . You can't
click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software
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