<p>GMCR reports earnings after the close today. That could be a fun one to watch.</p>
<p>Waiting for CF to skyrocket after earnings tonight because I already sold it.</p>
<p>Apple, apple apple…</p>
<p>[Breakout</a> | Finance Blog - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/]Breakout”>http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/)</p>
<p>“In fact, the beat ratio (or percentage of stocks that have topped analysts’ estimates) is running above average, as well, he says, coming in at 77%, which is about five points above the recent average. Mind you, all of these positive surprises are the result of very low expectations and are also being hugely skewed by the result of one company—Apple (AAPL).
As Butters’ research shows, Apple’s better-than-expected $11.6 billion profit (or EPS of $12.30) not only single-handedly accounts for one-third of the profit growth but is actually keeping the entire Technology Sector in the black.
“Take Apple away, and that earnings growth rate for Tech drops down to a decline of 2% from a gain of 11%,” Butters reveals. He adds that the growth rate for the remaining “S&P 499” (ex-Apple) drops to about 4% from 6%.”</p>
<p>Intel, Intel, Intel.</p>
<p>I never wrote those calls. The guys on my Intel board convinced me not too. Maybe I should write $29 calls today. Intel’s price action is better than Apple’s of late.</p>
<p>I am short puts in Intc…</p>
<p>I always have to spend ten seconds thinking as to what that exactly means when I read it (you’re not the only person that posts that sort of thing).</p>
<p>Apparently some UK company is launching Intel’s Orange phone soon. Looks like a pretty nice phone - comparable to Motorola or Samsung phones - only difference is the CPU.</p>
<p>Ok…good info.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I would make more money if I was just long the stock…</p>
<p>Can only make the put premium…when you sell the puts…</p>
<p>And the puts were out of the money…</p>
<p>Intel stock has been insufferable for the long-term investor. You could have made more money LTBH in other stocks - it’s just that Intel is hated by so many and I think that has kept the stock price relatively depressed for a long time.</p>
<p>BCEagle91…Yes…sounds good…</p>
<p>I want to sell more puts so I hope Intel doesn’t run too much…</p>
<p>Razorsharp…GMCR… 31 dollars…wow…</p>
<p>WFM - beats by a nickle, guides up.</p>
<p>36% margins. Wow! What other grocery store has 36% margins? I think most have margins under 5%. They are the Apple of grocery stores!</p>
<p>Ok…BCEagle91… Just for the record…another one of your longs?</p>
<p>That stock was decimated in 2008…</p>
<p>What a move since then…</p>
<p>My advisor recommended this a while ago. We had a discussion on healthy eating on the board yesterday and the day before and I was amazed at the number of traders that went out of their way to buy organic products, whether from local farmers or specialty stores. So I bought some more yesterday. I didn’t realize that they were reporting today.</p>
<p>BTW, my longs are AAPL, PBA, INTC, CEF, WFM, EQR, NKE, ORCL in descending dollar amounts. I have ORCL, NEM, PBA, ECA, AAPL in my wife’s account which I unfortunately don’t pay enough attention to.</p>
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<p>Take a look at Simon Property Group, about 7X since 2008 and we’re in all-time new highs. A testament to the US Consumer.</p>
<p>BTW, NKE hit an all-time new high today too on a breakout move. No idea as to why.</p>
<p>BCEagle91…I had a feeling when you mentioned that Whole Foods is the Apple of grocery stores that you owned some shares…</p>
<p>Whole Foods kicks butt where I live…
There is a new expanded store in Mill Valley and the San Rafael Store is busy…
I don’t know how the Novato store is doing…but I would be surprised if that store wasn’t doing well.</p>
<p>That’s a pretty good list of stocks (I don’t know CEF). Looks ilke you do have a good advisor.</p>
<p>I see that Whole Foods is over 87 now.</p>
<p>INTC, AAPL, CEF, EQR, ORCL, PBA are my picks but I have had some help with them on expert and other boards. CEF is Central Fund of Canada which hasn’t been doing well lately. They’re a bullion ETF - I always have some kind of precious metals position - I fall back to CEF when I don’t think that precious metals are going to do well - so I may lose money on it but I will lose far less than what I would lose with precious metals miners and leveraged ETFs.</p>
<p>NKE is the Apple of sports apparel and footwear. Basically I have several positions in the strongest of the strongest category. It doesn’t give you the best profit potential as these companies are usually very big and smaller companies have more growth potential but it is easier to sleep at night. A bit of trivia: Nike has 7,000 stores in China with $2 billion in annual revenues. They plan to double that number in the next four years. I have never been to a Nike store. I don’t even know of any in my area or in Boston. There is one opening in my town in the new mall in June though - that will be my first visit to such a store. In the US, Nike products are very easy to find in places like Dicks, Sports Authority, TJMaxx, Marshalls, and many other retailers. It appears that the model in China is to open your own stores instead of using distributors.</p>
<p>I have been to Nike Stores…including the one in downtown San Francisco. I like the store.</p>
<p>I used to go to Nike Stores when my kids were younger. Now that they are older…I don’t go to the stores…I am too cheap to shop at the stores for myself.</p>
<p>I used to take a lot of risk…A lot.</p>
<p>But now…I want to sleep at night.</p>
<p>I do like your stocks.</p>
<p>I may have traded Nke once or twice…I can’t remember.
I did buy Under Armour on the IPO.</p>
<p>I have no idea why I sold that stock.</p>
<p>I traded UA earlier this year. My daughter needed something and I took her to Sports Authority and bought her something made by UA. Incredibly expensive for what I thought it did. But she was actually pretty impressed with its performance. So I picked up some of their shares to pay for the item of clothing. Made some money on it and decided that I didn’t want to watch to stocks in the same category and just stuck with NKE. UA has much better growth potential though.</p>
<p>Bought GMCR at $31.10. It went down to $28 or so and I was sweating bullets. Whitney Tilson is still short the stock and thinks it will go down further. I think it is way oversold, but he is a lot smarter than I am. I still see those Keurig machines in every department store and I see people loving their coffee with odd names like doughtnut coffee. My position is not very large, but it still hurts to lose money. I am hoping it will trade to $35 so I can get out quick.</p>
<p>I am planning on trading the new jobless claim numbers tomorrow a.m. Any guesses on how they will turn out?</p>