Casino Capitalism

NutriSystems (NTRI): A Brief Look At The Numbers

Note: To read an updated blog on Nutrisystem, please click here.

We received some interesting emails following our recent blog about Nutrisystem´s (NTRI) business prospects. The most frequent request from subscribers was whether or not the actual numbers provided by NutriSystem supported our argument. What follows is a brief quantitative look at NutriSystem´s numbers, based on publicly available information provided in NutriSystem´s SEC Filings.

What´s Your Outlook for...?

I´ve recently received a few emails from subscribers asking about my outlook for a few of the stocks I have mentioned on this blog. Instead of going thru each stock individually, I have some  general observations to make.

Up, Down, Up, Down...

I really got a kick out of these three headlines, which were all written today:
Oil Prices Rise to $72 a Barrel in Asia Houston Chronicle
Oil Prices Decline Despite Gulf Storm Forbes
Oil Prices Steady After Iran Reaction Forbes

Ok, wait a second, so which way are oil prices headed? Bets anyone?

The Perfect Marketing Timing Tool

The holy grail of traders is a foolproof market timing tool. It helps you buy at the bottom and sell at the top. Now of course this is impossible to do in practice, but that does not mean I'm going to give up my hunt for that elusive market timing indicator. The potential profits are just too alluring.

Trading Beneath Cash: A Good Investment Gamble?

Today a subscriber asked me to look at a certain company that seemed like an attractive investment due to the fact that the market value of the company, as evidenced by the stock price, was beneath the company's cash on the balance sheet. I took a look at the company in question, and when I saw that they had no attractive operating business at the current time which could potentially provide future free cash-flow growth to shareholders, I quickly passed on the opportunity and did not even consider buying the stock (though I am watching to see what management plans to do with their cash).

Stocks and Horse Racing

Is there a connection between betting at the horse track and the stock market? Benjamin Graham, the father of fundamental investment analysis and one of the most influential investors of all time, seemed to think so. Below are some interesting quotes from lecture ten of The Rediscovered Benjamin Graham, a compendium of transcripts from his lectures given to security analysts in, I believe, 1946. The full transcripts are  available over at Wiley.com.

Preparing for Hurricane Season

With the arrival of the hurricane season, I thought it might be a good idea to review some stocks that may be affected if the 2006 hurricane season is as severe as 2005 (which I pray it is not). Please note, that I do not hold shares in any of the individual companies mentioned in this post. Readers should be sure to do further research on these businesses via SEC filings, if they find them of interest.

Poker Investing?

Seymour Schulich is one of Canada's most successful investors.  He is most famous for selling his company, Franco-Nevada, to Newmont Mining for $5 billion. Recently he has been in the news with the sale of his largest oil investment, BlackRock Ventures (BVI.TO), to Shell Canada for $2.5 billion. So how did Mr. Schulich pull all this off? The secret may lie in his poker playing.

Baruch on Investing

During this holiday weekend, I decided to pick up Bernard Baruch's autobiography, "My Own Story". In general, very few investment books have ever really helped me make money, and I've probably learned more about investing by reading books on evolutionary theory and philosophy. However, Baruch's book was actually an enjoyable read because it provided alot of interesting market history tidbits that I never knew about. I have found that a better understanding of history, particularly how the current market is both different and similar to the market a century ago, definately helps me make better investment decisions. For the record, my favorite historical investment book is Confusion de Confusiones by Josephy de La Vega, a book about markets from several hundred years ago (can you believe how long this game has been going on?).

Bubble Talk Continues

Talk of a commodity bubble continues. This weekend in Barron´s there were two articles about a commodity bubble. Today, the front page of Yahoo! Finance has an article by by Jeremy Siegel about the commodity bubble. What´s going on? Should you sell all your oil investments?