Active Trading

Borrowing billions of dollars to try to build a business from scratch is always a bad idea. Companies tend to under-estimate expenses and over-estimate revenues in order to sell stock and debt at attractive rates. When investors and lenders get wise, they tend to stop putting fresh money into the business, often when it is only half built. That was the ignominious fate suffered by Sirius Satellite Radio, which was forced to merge with rival XM Radio back in 2007. That effort simply combined two money-losing entities into one larger money losing entity known as Sirius XM… Read More

Borrowing billions of dollars to try to build a business from scratch is always a bad idea. Companies tend to under-estimate expenses and over-estimate revenues in order to sell stock and debt at attractive rates. When investors and lenders get wise, they tend to stop putting fresh money into the business, often when it is only half built. That was the ignominious fate suffered by Sirius Satellite Radio, which was forced to merge with rival XM Radio back in 2007. That effort simply combined two money-losing entities into one larger money losing entity known as Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI). As a quick refresher, Sirius generates the bulk of its new customers by offering limited free-trails to buyers of new cars. The company is also aggressively pursuing the used car market these days. According to the Department of Transportation, there were more than 250 million passenger vehicles on the road in the United States in 2007. Sirius estimates that 27 million of those vehicles have factory-installed satellite radios. About 11.6 million of those vehicles have active subscribers at the wheel, with 15.3 million that are active radios but are not enabled. Read More

Among the biggest losers in Wedneday’s early trading are Delta Petroleum (Nasdaq: DPTR), FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN) and Xenoport (Nasdaq: XNPT). Top Percentage Losers –Wednesday, July 7, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Xenoport (Nasdaq: XNPT) $6.51 -26.9% $25.42 $6.35… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Tuesday’s early trading are Taseko Mines (AMEX: TGB), Ctrip.com (Nasdaq: CTRP) and Monsanto (NYSE: MON). Top Percentage Losers –Tuesday, July 6, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low CTrip.com (Nasdaq: CTRP) $32.05 -15.8% $72.66 $19.45 Taseko Mines (AMEX:… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Tuesday’s early trading are BP (NYSE: BP), Broadwind Energy (Nasdaq: BWEN) and JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO). Top Percentage Gainers — Tuesday, July 6, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Broadwind Energy (Nasdaq: BWEN) $3.58 +28.3%… Read More

Hey, second quarter, good riddance to ya. The sharp drops in the market were no fun, but with earnings season around the corner, perhaps investors will again find reasons to buy. Right now, it seems that most investors can find many more reasons to be bearish than bullish. And that’s actually good for stocks. You have a chance to make money when stocks are loathed.  As investors have been digesting the ramifications of a possibly slowing economy, they may have overlooked some important news… Read More

Hey, second quarter, good riddance to ya. The sharp drops in the market were no fun, but with earnings season around the corner, perhaps investors will again find reasons to buy. Right now, it seems that most investors can find many more reasons to be bearish than bullish. And that’s actually good for stocks. You have a chance to make money when stocks are loathed.  As investors have been digesting the ramifications of a possibly slowing economy, they may have overlooked some important news coming out of specific stocks. So it helps to take a look back and point the spotlight once more on some of the most compelling stocks from this week’s StreetAuthority winners and losers. PolyMet Mining (AMEX: PLM) As we noted on Monday morning, PolyMet Mining stood to benefit from a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to let the company move forward with its application to mine copper and nickel at a large Minnesota mine. Shares initially surged higher, but ended the week even lower than… Read More