• Multiply Your Money with Bontrust
    Posted by on May 7th, 2009 at 9:49 pm

  • Paging All Chinese Lenders to the Yellow Courtesy Phone
    Posted by on May 7th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    This does not look good.
    big.chart050709a.gif
    Meanwhile, Libor is at a new low.

  • “I Assure You It’s Just a Bear Market Rally”
    Posted by on May 6th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    image803.png
    Listen folks, it’s just a bear market rally.
    Nothing to see here, please keep moving.
    I’m telling you — it’s all phony, none of this counts.
    Look at the tape. It’s just shorts, nothing more.
    Goldman prolly wants to unload some crap.
    Trust me. I’ve seen this a hundred times.
    Have you seen those phony bank “profits”??
    Load up on gold, my friend. $2,000 here we come!
    They’re just setting you up for another decline.
    Do you have “sucker” written on your forehead?
    Roubini said it’s a false rally.
    I assure you it’s just a bear market rally.
    Vote Ron Paul.

  • Market Winning Streaks
    Posted by on May 6th, 2009 at 7:37 am

    The Nasdaq is now up for the ninth straight week. Jason Goepfert at Sentimental Trader takes an interesting look at historic winning streaks.
    20090504_streaks_up.PNG

  • More on NICK’s Earnings
    Posted by on May 6th, 2009 at 7:10 am

    I’ve looked through Nicholas Financial’s (NICK) earnings and the numbers look solid. Almost all the metrics improved over last quarter. However, there could be some seasonality to their business. Comparisons with a year ago almost seem like comparing them to the 19th century.
    The company earned 20 cents a share. Annualized, that’s 80 cents which means the stock could be going for around four times earnings. Book value per share is now $8.21. Also remember that in 2006 and 2007, NICK earned over $1 a share.
    The big worry I have each quarter is the line “Provision for credit losses as a percentage of average finance receivables, net of unearned interest.” That’s the unhappy line. The good news is it fell from 8.77% in the December quarter to 6.26% in the March quarter. That’s a difference of $1.3 million which is huge for a company like NICK. It’s still higher than a year ago, 6.26% to 5.20%, but we’re not seeing the huge increases from previous quarters. In the third quarter, for example, loss provisions were up 225% from the year before.
    I have little doubt that NICK will survive the only question is when will things turnaround. Delinquencies are down a lot from last quarter, though that may be seasonal. There was a similar drop, though not as large, between the third and fourth quarters of a year ago. Delinquencies are still up from a year ago, but again, they seem to be leveling off.
    The bottom line is that this was a very good quarter for NICK. In fact, I wasn’t expecting to see numbers like this until later in the year. At this rate, the loss provisions may soon show year-over-year decline. That will be time to celebrate.
    I’ll repeat what I’ve said before about NICK. It won’t be a fun stock to own. It’s small and may drive you crazy. In fact, most investors shouldn’t own it. But if you have a long time horizon and can safely ignore a microcap, then NICK is a great buy.

  • NYT Climbs to $5, the Sunday Paper Not the Stock
    Posted by on May 5th, 2009 at 10:18 pm

    A few weeks ago, I noted that the price of a Sunday New York Times ($4) was worth more than one share of the New York Times (NYT).
    The good news is that the stock has rallied since it hit its 52-week low of $3.44.
    The bad news is that they’re raising the price of the Sunday paper to $5.
    I wonder who will make it to $10 first.

  • GM plans 1-for-100 reverse stock split
    Posted by on May 5th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

    That’ll help get the share price up:

    General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it is planning a reverse stock split that would give shareholders one share of new stock for every 100 shares they currently own.
    The automaker said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the deal would be part of an agreement with the Treasury Department in which the government would assume at least half of GM’s debt in exchange for company shares.
    The filing said both sides are still negotiating the terms of the debt swap.
    Under GM’s plan, the U.S. government would get a 50 percent equity stake in exchange for about $10 billion in loan forgiveness. The UAW, for its part, would get a 39 percent stake in exchange for $10 billion in payments to its health care trust in stock. GM would issue up to 60 billion shares as a result of the bond exchange, Treasury loan and VEBA agreement.

    At this point, wouldn’t it be easier to split the Treasury 100-to-1?

  • NICK Update
    Posted by on May 5th, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    Just for the record, the stock did volume of 1,200 shares yesterday. Today the stock opened at $3.22 shot to $4.37, a gain of 37%. Then promptly fell back to $3.52 which is a loss of nearly 20%.
    Overall, it’s a gain of 10.7%.

  • Found Deep Inside an SEC Filing
    Posted by on May 5th, 2009 at 4:25 pm

    First Financial Bancorp (FFBC) discuss its retirement plans:

    These changes also resulted in revisions to our non-qualified retirement plans. Generally, benefits under previous formulas were frozen and current participants accrue under new formulas. The changes reflect a shift towards account balance formulas and a shit away from traditional annuity-type formulas.

    At least they’re not wasting money on copy-editors.

  • “Don’t Open Your Mouth And Say Dumb Things”
    Posted by on May 5th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    The fun begins at 6:55:

    (Via Joe W and ZeroHedge)