Business Owner Investment Blog

We Sold AVR Today

2007-04-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

Aventine Renewable Energy (AVR) brought us a gain of 21.3%. We bought on February 1, 2007, so we owned the stock for 74 days. 365 divided by 74 equals 4.93. 4.93 x 21.3% = 105% annually. Pretty cool.

We have some cash now, so, maybe this one?

PWEagle

Or this one?

LaborReady

Or maybe the company you see by clicking on the title of today's post.

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Business Owner Investment

We Sold USPH Yesterday

2007-04-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

We decided to take our gain on U.S. Physical Therapy (USPH). We bought on September 13, 2006 and sold on April 9, 2007 for a gain of 20.05%. How many days did we hold it? 30+31+30+31+31+28+31+28(days from March 13th to April 9th) equals 240 days. 365 divided by 240 equals 1.52. 1.52 x 20.05% = 30.48% annualized. As I have mentioned before, I don't know if this is the method the SEC approves of, but it's a basic math problem to me. As long as mistakes aren't made, I believe this formula comes close. I might have to check the math on the post from last week as this multiplier looks familiar.

Interestingly, Zacks has something good to say about USPH.

Click on the title of today's post to view the Google Finance page on USPH.

From the USPH website:

U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. is the developer and operator of over 250 outpatient physical and occupational therapy clinics nationwide.

Our philosophy is to form a true partnership with therapists who have the skills, relationships, and drive to open their own outpatient therapy clinic. We combine your strengths, clinical skills and physician relationships, with our strengths, financial and operational support, to form a partnership that delivers high-quality care built around your treatment philosophy.

For 15+ years we have partnered with over 200 therapists across the country and helped them reach their dream of owning and operating their own therapy clinic. You have never seen a “U. S. Physical Therapy” clinic because they don’t exist; our clinics are individually named and operated by our partners. Our philosophy is to operate locally with partners who have a vested interest in their clinics success while providing them the support they need in a highly-regulated, competitive and ever-changing health care environment.

Our clinics are built around our partners and their skills and interests. As such, no two clinics are the same. We have clinics that specialize in sports medicine, hand therapy, spine, occupational medicine and some that do general therapy. We have many partners who have one facility and many others with multiple locations. The U.S. Physical Therapy partnership is what we as partners make of it, working together to develop opportunities in your market.

One Year At Scottrade

2007-04-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

One year ago we bought Timberland (TBL) and the results were unfortunate. If we measure from that day, we achieved 5.27% increase in our total portfolio. Not stellar, but not terrible for our "shakedown cruise". I believe most people of at least average intelligence can do better with stocks than mutual funds. As we progress, I expect we will do that.

The one year mark is not necessarily a true measure for a couple reasons.

1) We deposited only 9.32% of the total funds we would deposit on April 6,2006.

2) We didn't deposit the other 90.68% of our funds until August 22, 2006.

How would we account for this lack of opportunity to invest funds? We could have possibly included the interest earned by the other funds from April 6 to August 22. I prefer to multiply each percentage by the amount of time the funds were available. I don't know if this is the way "they" do it. I am learning and looking for a reasonable method of calculation.

9.32% x 365 days = 34.02 days

90.68% x (7 months & 15 days or 31 days + 30 + 31 +30 + 31 +31 +28 + 15 =) 227 days = 205.84 days

34.02 + 205.84 = 239.86 which rounds up to 240 (days with the ability to invest)

365 days divided by 240 days equals 1.52

1.52 x 5.27 = 8.01

8.01% is closer to the respectable increase for which we are hoping.

Without Timberland we could have been in double digits, just by investing in a stock that broke even. The Google Finance page on TBL is below. In our back office at Scottrade, when I search TBL, they have its S&P ranking listed as 1 star (strong sell). I'm not exactly sure of all the ins and outs, but my guess is that that is not a good sign.
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=tbl

After the remainder of the money was deposited here are the first two posts. The very first post on this blog is quickly available by clicking on the title of today's post.

http://businessownerinvestment.blogspot.com/2006/09/up-day-did-you-think-i-forgot.html

http://businessownerinvestment.blogspot.com/2006/09/we-beat-them-again.html
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Business Owner Investment

We Bought OPMR Earlier Today

2007-03-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

We bought Optimal Group (OPMR) less than an hour ago. According to their website,

"Optimal Group Inc. is a leading payments and services company with operations throughout North America and the United Kingdom. "

Let's see if this one does better than our average holding.

Click on the title of today's post to see the Google Finance page on Optimal Group.

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Business Owner Investment

3 Star Winners & 1 Not So Much

2007-03-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

First the bad news

The McClatchy Co. (MNI) down 1.60%

Now, we have three stocks up over 2% today.

Aventine Renewable Energy (AVR) up 2.61%

Candela (CLZR) up 3.65%

Value Line (VALU) up 4.30%

Click on the title of today's post for the most recent article I've seen about AVR.

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Business Owner Investment

We Finally Took The Hit With TBL

2007-03-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

We started this experiment April 6, 2006 and now we have faced the music with Timberland (TBL), the first stock we bought. We sold it for a loss of 24.55% less than half and hour ago and it's currently trading below the price we got for it.

Click on the title of today's post for the Google Finance TBL page or click below for Bloomberg's.

Bloomberg TBL page

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Business Owner Investment

AVR The Star Winner Again

2007-03-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

Wow. Two great days in a row preceded by a good day. For a couple weeks there, things weren't looking so good, so this is definitely a much needed change.

Aventine Renewable Energy (AVR) is the Star Winner two days in a row. All of these stocks were up more than 2% today.

VCI up 2.36%

EGY up 2.41%

Candela (CLZR) up 2.42%

IUSA up 4.43%

AVR up 5.73%

Click on the title of today's post to see who was bubbling under a 2% gain.

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Business Owner Investment

Our Big Winners Starring AVR

2007-03-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

Just in case someone thinks I'm a Pollyanna, click on the title of today's post to see what I assume is bad news about one of our stocks. Then, take a look at the winners.

I really like when a stock has more than a 2% gain in a day. I know that daily isn't usually that important unless you're a day trader, but it can be fun.

Because this is my first Big Winners post, I'm going to let InfoUSA slide in. You might remember that their Super Bowl commercial was possibly the only one that made money for the company, but many people who are not part of their target market didn't get it. I'm sure not reaching the people that they weren't trying to reach while getting their message across to likely customers is no skin off their nose. Just because many Super Bowl commercial watchers prefer entertainment and laughter doesn't mean those commercials actually achieved more sales. I still remember years ago when a guy I know thought that a car commercial was really dumb. I tried to tell him that Cadillac definitely wasn't aiming for him, but to no avail.

So, starting us off is InfoUSA (IUSA) with an uptick of 1.94% - almost 2% territory. Next is Vaalco Energy (EGY) - up 2.05%. Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (JTX) was up 3.10% today. Valassis Communications (VCI) - up 4.45%. And, today's star of our portfolio...

Aventine Renewable Energy! (AVR) up 6.42%.

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Business Owner Investment

McClatchy Has The Time?

2007-03-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

As in my previous post, I'm wondering about the time involved in making this latest news payoff.

The Sacramento Business Journal reported that McClatchy signed on with Corzen to better keep track of external market conditions that may affect revenue and expenses. The McClatchy Co. (MNI) owns CareerBuilder as well as The Sacramento Bee and The Miami Herald. We currently own McClatchy.

http://www.mcclatchy.com/

---
For those of you who have teenagers you would like to see graduate from college or university, I started a new blog with them in mind - Fgyp, pronounced Fuh-GIPE - For Great Young People.

http://fgyp.blogspot.com/

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Business Owner Investment

If He Has The Time, Doctor, If He Has The Time

2007-03-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

I'm a Star Trek fan from way back. I may be both a Trekkie and a Trekker in denial. I've never given myself those tags, but some people who are not fans think I know a lot about Star Trek.

Candela's progress reminds me of a scene in an episode ["Arena"] with Captain Kirk trying to outwit a reptilian creature called a Gorn. The advanced aliens [I was thinking Leptons, but Wikipedia assures me that they are Metrons.] that placed these two combatants on the same planet assured them that the raw materials to destroy their opponent and achieve victory for themselves and their crew exist on that planet.

While Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy watch helplessly on the ship's viewscreen, they notice that the components for gunpowder and many other minerals are plentiful if Captain Kirk can put the clues together. He does finally realize what he's got, but he's slowed by an injury caused by an opponent. After Kirk gathers diamonds and ingredients to make gunpowder, he has to build a primitive cannon to blast the thick hide of his opponent. Meanwhile, the extra strong Gorn gets closer and closer, moving in for the kill. As his shipmates watch from space, McCoy says something positive about Kirk figuring out the problem and being able to finish the task and save himself and the crew. Spock replies with what I guess is one of the top 20 lines remembered by fans of the original Star Trek series:

IF HE HAS THE TIME, DOCTOR, IF HE HAS THE TIME.

Candela made an acquisition recently which you can read by following the link below. Motley Fool seems to think that they are behind, but all is not lost. Read the Motley Fool article by clicking on the title of today's post.

Candela's symbol is CLZR and as of Friday's close, our holding is down 5.75%.

Will Candela achieve victory for themselves and their crew (shareholders)?

If he has the time indeed...

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000191537&fid=942

As for my "Trekkiness" I did have to visit Google and Wikipedia to find some of the Star Trek information like "Arena" as the name of the episode and a couple other bits, but I admit that that quote is emblazoned in my memory forever. Visit the TinyURL/Wikipedia link below to read more:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ytp4wt

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Business Owner Investment

Just Got Back From Fran Cannon's Seminar

2007-03-06T15:03:00.000-08:00

Get some real learning from the seminar this Saturday. I did. Met some great people. Valuable contacts. I even met a real estate agent, Suzanne Beckstrom, in person for the first time after speaking on the phone and emailing back and forth for the last year. Go! Meet some people. Read the previous post[BELOW] for more information. Help each other build your business! Here's Suzanne's site-

http://www.suzannebeckstrom.com/

Click on the title of today's post to see some video of another great seminar teacher, Marshall Rosenberg. See you Saturday.
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Business Owner Investment

Asking, Negotiating And Agreements Seminar

2007-03-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

Asking, Negotiating and Agreements Seminar

Attend as my private guest...

When you attend this powerful one day Seminar on "Asking, Negotiating & Agreements" you will always be able to ask for exactly what you want and never be disappointed by other people.

Ask for what you want and get it...

When you learn the "Secrets of Asking" people will rush to give you what you ask for and they will keep their agreements with you!

Ask for and Receive ...More Money!More Love!More Business!
More Success!

Fran Cannon has 2 Masters Degrees in Business. Over the last 15 Years Fran's Companies have conducted over 500 seminars and shown thousands of people how to have greater success in their personal, professional and business lives. Choose which one of the Seminar dates that works for you!

1) Tuesday March 6th 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
2) Saturday March 10th 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Location National University in Kearny Mesa 9388 Lightwave Ave. San Diego , CA 92123

Click Here to View Google Map

Do Not Pay $295 ... Come as my guest!

To Attend - Please Register @ 619-284-7664 Or Email:mailto:Fran@FranCannon.com

Who Do You Know?

Whether you are a Business Owner, a Business Professional, a Sales Professional, an Instructor or a Coach you will find a compelling new way to look at Asking, Negotiating and Agreements.

With these new skills you can have the life, money and business you want just by asking! Join us for an exciting and fun day of learning with a very entertaining seminar that could make you very rich!

I would like to personally invite you to my new Asking, Negotiating & Agreements Seminar.

Whether it's sales, closing a deal or dealing with your children. The power of asking is a powerful skill to master. Please attend as my guest and I would ask that if you know anyone that could benefit from this event please forward this in email form using the SEND TO A FRIEND feature at the bottom of the email.

Sincerely, -Fran Cannon
http://emailer.jugglemail.com/go.shtml?20070301114830567826&iwin4u2@adelphia.net&mailto:fran@francannon.com• Cannon Business Institute

To send this email to a friend, click here or on the title of this post.

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Business Owner Investment

Server Unavailable

2007-02-15T09:23:00.000-08:00

Server Unavailable

That's the message I got more than once today from Myspace. Hopefully this answers any questions about why I still blog at blogspot.com. I got that message in the middle of creating a post and lost that post. I was actually saving the "draft" before I finalized it. When I save a draft at blogspot, at least I have the draft if something goes wrong, which happens a lot less than it used to happen. By the way, something similar occurred when I was first writing this explanation at Myspace. So, they lost my stuff twice. Good site, needs work with respect to blogging. Will this matter to the stock price of their parent company?

Click on the tile of today's post to see a good book.

---

Oh, spend some time enjoying Natalie Merchant's music:

http://www.nataliemerchant.com/

We Sold BLDR & Bought VALU

2007-02-13T05:34:00.000-08:00

I locked up more profit yesterday. We would still buy BLDR if we were starting today. One thing for sure, watching CNBC is not the same as watching the market with your money in it. That's a good reason to have good reasons for what you do, no matter what strategy you choose.

We made 18.49% from August 31st, 2006 to February 12, 2007. August has 31 days, but since we are starting on the 31st, we notice that 30 days later is September 30th which has only 30 days. 30 + 31 + 30 + 31 +31 +12 days in February equals 165 days. 365 divided by 165 equals 2.21. 2.21 times 18.49% equals 40.86% annualized. That's nice.

Here's the BLDR summary from Finance.Google.com:

Builders FirstSource, Inc. is a supplier and a fast-growing manufacturer of structural and related building products for residential new construction in the United States. The products offered include its factory-built roof and floor trusses, wall panels and stairs, as well as engineered wood products. It also manufactures custom millwork and trim that it markets under the Synboard brand name. In addition, it supplies customers with an offering of professional grade building products, such as dimensional lumber and lumber sheet goods, various window, door and millwork lines, as well as cabinets, roofing and gypsum wallboard. The building products and services are grouped into five product categories: prefabricated components, windows & doors, lumber & lumber sheet goods, millwork, and other building products & services. Its full range of construction-related services includes professional installation, turn-key framing and shell construction, and spans all its product categories.

Summary For VALU:

Value Line, Inc. is engaged in producing investment-related periodical publications through its wholly owned subsidiary, Value Line Publishing, Inc. (VLP), and providing investment advisory services to mutual funds, institutions and individual clients. VLP publishes in both print and electronic formats The Value Line Investment Survey, a periodical investment services, as well as The Value Line Investment Survey - Small and Mid-Cap Edition, The Value Line 600, Value Line Select, The Value Line Mutual Fund Survey, The Value Line No-Load Fund Advisor, The Value Line Special Situations Service, The Value Line Options Survey and The Value Line Convertibles Survey. VLP also provides current and historical financial databases in standard computer formats and markets investment analysis software, The Value Line Investment Analyzer, Value Line ETF Survey, Mutual Fund Survey for Windows, Value Line Daily Options Survey, Value Line Electronic Convertibles and Value Line Research Center.

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Business Owner Investment

Pacer Downside Surprise

2007-02-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

I was just thinking how Pacer Global Logistics (PACR) has steadily risen since we bought it early September. No huge gains in single days or weeks. No huge swings. Just a hard working stock. Logistics is not an exciting enterprise to most people, yet profit is there for the diligent. Then today. If the opening holds, we'll lose around 75% of our gains today. Whew. Pacer still makes the list of stocks we would buy today. A couple analysts downgraded the stock.

Below you'll find links to Yahoo's Upgrades and Downgrades History for Pacer as well as the Pacer Global Logistics homepage. Click on the title of today's post to see the Wikipedia entry for Logistics.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ud?s=PACR

http://www.pacerglobal.com/

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Business Owner Investment

Timberland Looks Like A Great Place To Work

2007-02-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

Timberland (TBL) gives employees the opportunity to volunteer and get paid for it. If you check out their benefits page, you might want to apply to work there. Check it out by clicking on the title of today's post.

We bought Timberland in April and the stock took a dive within weeks as did the rest of the market, except we're still down almost 12% in this stock. We're grateful to be there compared to where the stock was, and I'm guessing that we have a 75% chance of selling it for a loss in a couple months. We'll see...

I want to urge those who haven't joined the music technology revolution to buy a Zune. I'm enjoying the heck out of it. The Blasters sound great on my computer right now [!] and so does Mozart, Talking Heads, The Jam and The Clash and Lone Justice and Oingo Boingo and Beethoven and Johnny Cash and Social Distortion, Wall of Voodoo, Norah Jones, X, Roger Miller, various composers, Los Lobos, George Winston, Jon Anderson...it's truly fun to keep saying, "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about them!' And it only crashes as often as other Microsoft stuff.

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Business Owner Investment

Checking On Nathan's Famous A Bit

2007-02-02T17:48:00.000-08:00

I wrote a bit about NathansFamous.com at Helium. Lots of people have loved their food for a long time. It's not a deep examination, just a cursory glance.

http://www.helium.com/tm/128085

Thanks to Paul in Carlsbad, California for mentioning that you cannot view the portfolios I created on Google. I'm looking into a solution.

Click on the title of today's post to visit a financial website.
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Business Owner Investment

I'm Puzzled By IUSA Investors

2007-02-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

Click on the title of today's post for the InfoUSA report titled:

infoUSA Reports Record Fourth Quarterand FY2006 Results

I'll be conservative and say that this report looks very good to me. I have not been over it with a fine tooth comb, but what I have read tells me a great story. Maybe things will change after the call. This is from the report:

The Company will host its fourth quarter conference call on February 2, 2007 at 4:00 pm Eastern time. To access the conference call, please dial 800-901-5231 (international 617-786-2961), passcode 12202388, approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. A replay of the call will be available from 7:00 pm Eastern time, February 2, 2007 through midnight Eastern Time, February 9, 2007. The replay number is 888-286-8010 (international 617-801-6888), passcode 19850423. A live webcast of the conference call will be available at the Company’s Investor Relations web site, http://ir.infousa.com.

As of this minute, IUSA is down 14%. I'm still puzzled.

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Business Owner Investment

Will The Super Bowl Help InfoUSA?

2007-02-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

I know that some people make up scenarios to illustrate a point, but this actually happened to me a few minutes ago. I got the mail and noticed that an envelope addressed to me and Cannon Business Institute said "See our Super Bowl Commercial February 4, 2007 YES! It's true...we will be on the Super Bowl. Special Offer Inside. SNEAK PREVIEW - Salesgenie.com/tv".

I thought I recognized Salesgenie.com and when I looked it up I found that I was right. Salesgenie.com is part of InfoUSA (IUSA) and we own the stock and it's currently up around 40% for us. Click on the title of today's post to visit InfoUSA.com or click below for the site on the envelope in my mailbox.

http://www.Salesgenie.com/tv

There's a brief preview of the commercial that they are broadcasting during the Super Bowl. I think this will help the stock a lot. However, I just saw a report today on how overpriced Super Bowl commercial time is given the alternatives like the internet. With InfoUSA using snail mail, the internet and television combined, maybe this will be huge for them. I wouldn't mind if the stock went up another 40%.

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Business Owner Investment

We Sold CECO And Bought AVR

2007-02-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

I decided to take some profits yesterday by selling Career Education Corporation (CECO) for a 50.8% return and this morning we bought Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings (AVR) with a majority of the proceeds. We bought on August 29th, 2006 and sold on January 31st, 2007.

August has 31 days, September 30, October 31, November 30, December 31, so 31 + 30 + 31 + 30 + 31 = 153 plus 2 days from the 29th of January to the 31st is 155 days. 365 days divided by 155 days equals 2.3548. I included the extra digits for the real sticklers. 2.3548 times 50.8 equals an annual rate of return of 119.6238%. Really, really cool return.

By the way, it's possible that I'm making some kind of obvious mistake and people who calculate this sort of thing all the time could catch it. I'm open to someone correcting me here. I enjoy math and created this scheme of calculation on my own.

Also, I don't have anything against Career Education Corporation. I have seen a few of our stocks up by 30 or 40% or more and then fall back dramatically. I just wanted to take some profits and reinvest some of the profits in something else. If we were starting today, we might choose CECO. Amazingly, it still fits the criteria after its recent runup.

Click on the title of today's post to view the Career Education graph at Google Finance. Click below to view the Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings graph.

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=avr

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Business Owner Investment

Candela Call

2007-01-31T11:19:00.000-08:00

Read the transcript of Candela's (CLZR) earnings call by clicking on the title of today's post.

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Business Owner Investment

Motley Fool Hails InfoUSA

2007-01-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

We already own InfoUSA! It's nice to see that Motley Fool likes it now. We're already up almost 40% since September 1, 2006. I love buying value. InfoUSA's stock symbol is IUSA. Read the article by clicking on the title of today's post.

I created a Google Finance portfolio of what we currently own. Visit by clicking the link below.
http://finance.google.com/finance/portfolio?action=view&pid=2

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Business Owner Investment

Career Education Up Over 50% Since Purchase

2007-01-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

We bought CECO August 29th at 18.88 and at this moment it's 28.67. August 29th to January 29th is 31 days +30 + 31 + 30 +31 for a total of 153 days. 365 days divided by 153 = 2.39. 50 times 2.39 equals an annualized rate of 119.5%.

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=ceco

Click on the title of today's post to see my other blog, YouStepUp.

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Business Owner Investment

CNNMoney Web Tips For Entrepreneurs

2007-01-25T10:05:00.000-08:00

I was not aware that nearly half of all U.S. businesses do not have a website. Boost business for even the tiniest company with these tips. Click on the title of this post to view the CNNMoney article.

ABHH, CLST, FMXIQ, OPTI were left off the portfolio mentioned in the previous post. I'm not sure of the reasons, but Google would not add them to the portfolio. You can still search them at Finance.Google.com -

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=ABHH&hl=en

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=CLST&hl=en

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=FMXIQ&hl=en

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=OPTI&hl=en

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Business Owner Investment

Today's Investment Candidate Portfolio

2007-01-25T08:08:00.000-08:00

I created a portfolio of investment candidates for today. Right now we are 99%+ invested, so there is no available cash. I will create these portfolios from time to time. You may notice that some of the stocks we currently own are candidates. When the time has come for us to sell a stock according to our discipline, we can choose to continue with it if it is still on the list. Also, this list is for today. Tomorrow will possibly bring some changes. Theoretically, all stocks could change tomorrow, but my best guesstimate is that a complete change of all the candidates might not happen even once in 50 years or maybe even 200 years. Much likelier is that there would be 1 to 8 different stocks tomorrow.

http://finance.google.com/finance/portfolio?action=view&pid=1

Visit my Toastmasters club where I speak about investing on occasion. Click on the title of today's post to see our club's blog.

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Business Owner Investment

Candela's Wild Ride

2007-01-24T15:35:00.000-08:00

Wow. Down 20% early, it never occurred to me that Candela (CLZR) would end up in positive territory. Candela closed up .34% at 11.94.

Career Education Corp (CECO) was also up 2.23% to 26.61. Is this just delayed reaction to the lifting of the government restrictions on the company? Read what The Chicago Sun-Times wrote by clicking on the title of this post.

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Business Owner Investment

A Bit On Scottrade And My, Oh My Candela

2007-01-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

I'm experimenting with where to put my writing, so I have written an article on experiences with Scottrade. It's not comprehensive, just a start. The editing process is a little different for me, so there are some things I want to change. For instance, the article starts with "We started using Scottrade in 2007..." which should read 2006. Here's the link:
http://www.helium.com/tm/118250

Yesterday we saw a change in Career Education (CECO) which was a couple percentage points smaller by the end of the day. Today seems to be the most drastic down day we have had in any single stock, but right now it's not as bad as it was in early trading. Candela (CLZR) was down 20%. As I type this it's down 8.49%. I'm pretty sure this will be the worst one day showing for any stock we have owned up to this point even at this level. View a minor discussion about Candela at Google Finance by clicking on the title of today's post.

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Business Owner Investment

News From Career Education, Candela, Jackson Hewitt

2007-01-23T04:23:00.000-08:00

I usually look for news about our stocks at Google Finance. Yesterday was a big news day. Career Education moved up 5.75% by yesterday's close on good news. Curiously, Candela (CLZR} moved down 4.32% on what I would interpret as good news. Jackson Hewitt (JTX) moved down a little - .11% - on bad news.

Career Education news http://flingk.com/n1pnnyc

Candela news http://flingk.com/wp0ijq7

Jackson Hewitt news http://flingk.com/l7k5sbt

Recently, other companies we hold have made news, including:

InfoUSA (IUSA)http://flingk.com/yj60fl7

McClatchy (MNI)http://flingk.com/vbee54a

Pacer (PACR)http://flingk.com/fp3o59i

Another minor article relevant to Jackson Hewitt can be viewed by clicking on the title of today's post.

January has been anything but a slow news month for our stocks.

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Business Owner Investment

Good News For Career Education Corp.

2007-01-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

Click on the title of today's post for the SmartMoney article. You can also visit Finance.Google.com and enter the stock symbol (CECO). How much is good news worth?
At this moment the stock is up 7.52% today.

We Are All In Sales

2007-01-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

Many people do not like the word or the concept of sales. A man who used to successfully teach military recruiters during the Carter administration told me that sell comes from Selje, a Norwegian word for service. Real selling is serving the person to whom you are selling. Chew on that a while. Are you serving people?

You may need to sell someone on a concept or idea, even if your main income is not from getting people to buy products and services. I have even heard of a soldier in Vietnam who "sold" an enemy soldier on the "idea" of not killing him through his eyes. The last enemy soldier to leave his platoon's area after defeating most of them in a firefight decided to have compassion on him because he pleaded with him through his eyes. Though they spoke different languages, a truly big sale happened.

We all sell, it's just that some of us are afraid of or put off by a word.

You can click on the title of today's post and find a checklist to help be prepared for selling. justsell.com calls this being "salesready". Are you salesready?

Our Experience With Scottrade

2007-01-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

My article on some of our experience with Scottrade is now available by clicking on the title of today's post.

The stock symbol for VAALCO, which we purchased earlier, is EGY.

We Bought VAALCO Minutes Ago

2007-01-16T07:21:00.000-08:00

If you watch this blog, you stand a chance of trading similarly. We just bought VAALCO Energy @ 6.66 a share.

I recently started writing on another site and will provide links to articles mostly related to investing. I am waiting for acceptance of an article about some of our experience with Scottrade. Until then, here's an article on a helpful mindset for employees -
http://www.helium.com/tm/116701

Is Scottrade Always Right?

2006-12-31T01:33:00.000-08:00

I don't mean to pick on Scottrade, as it's entirely possible that other brokers have a lag time. I awoke and something told me to check out their figures. The words below are in my back office right now as they were when I made the previous post.

Unrealized Positions
As of: 12/30/2006

The trouble is, the figures don't add up at this moment. I expect that to change over the next couple days. I'm cross-pollinating my blogs, so here's a little more:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog&pop=1&ping=1&indicate=1

New Year And John Edwards Comment

2006-12-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

If you would like to see the comment on my Myspace blog of a presidential candidate with a legitimate shot at making it without alienating 40% of the populace, click on the title of today's post.

We started using Scottrade in April of 2006. We had just one stock, Timberland, until late August. Ultimately, I believe that when we sell the stocks, we measure the gain, so that will be a few months at least. However, for people who like a fresh start in January, here are the raw percentages. [Remember, you can have a fresh start anytime. I urge you to give people a fresh start in January and all year 'round. Consider giving and receiving forgiveness. End of sermon!]

LONG INVESTMENTS

BUILDERS FIRSTSOURCE, INC (BLDR)

16.74

CAREER EDUCATION CORP (CECO)

33.22

CANDELA CORP (CLZR)

18.02

INFOUSA INC (IUSA)

41.82

JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE (JTX)

1.66

MCCLATCHY CO CL A (MNI)

6.69

PACER INTL (PACR)

7.91

PORTALPLAYER INC (PLAY)

9.01

TIMBERLAND CO CL A (TBL)

-7.75

U S PHYSICAL THERAPY (USPH)

-3.00

VALASSIS COMMS INC (VCI)

-19.89

Total

10.20

Technorati And Infinite Regression

2006-12-29T11:50:00.000-08:00

I'm a little rusty on the terminoloy, but it seems Technorati is keeping track of everybody these days. Here's the link where this blog is mentioned:
http://technorati.com/blogs/http%3A%2F%2Fbusinessownerinvestment.blogspot.com

Now I've mentioned that Technorati has mentioned me and I'm mentioning them so they'll mention that I'm mentioning them and...

You can check out MY Myspace at:

http://www.myspace.com/youstepupnow

Visit My YouStepup Blog & Myspace

2006-12-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Click on the title of today's post to visit my YouStepUp blog. Click on this link to visit a business/investment post on my Myspace blog:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=102972234&blogID=210612883&MyToken=392c9312-c01b-4ee7-ba18-f26450275945

Merry Everything!

2006-12-27T07:46:00.000-08:00

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah. I did. In fact, I'm pretty sure my Jewish friends are still celebrating. Have a Happy New Year, too! I know I will. I am loving value investing. I have a Myspace now at:
http://www.myspace.com/youstepupnow

I am trimming down the number of blogs, but I intend to keep this one.

Don't forget to use Bloomberg.com. I couldn't get live quotes through Scottrade or Finance.Google.com for a while at the open, but Bloomberg was right on top of it. How else would I know that most of my stocks were up?

How Are We Doing?

2006-11-17T07:54:00.000-08:00

Wondering where I've been?

I decided to spend my time living my life and let the stocks do what they do.

We have owned these 11 stocks for an average of 3 months and 17 days. Here are the symbols again:

BLDR

CECO

CLZR

IUSA

JTX

MNI

PACR

PLAY

TBL

USPH

VCI

Our numbers are based on the market close from November 16, 2006.

VCI, our big loser, is down 14.81% and we have two more losers, TBL and USPH, which are down 6.56 and 10.00 respectively. All eight remaining stocks are up, but it should be noted for nervous nellies that in the beginning we had eight losers and and three winners. In fact, before we bought any other stocks, Timberland[TBL] was down around 25%, so it has made a recovery. People who bought it just a couple weeks after we did are quite pleased right now.

Here are the big winners:

BLDR Up 10.97%.

CLZR Up 34.06%.

CECO Up 38.36%.

Pretty cool!

Now, for the biggest winner...

InfoUSA[IUSA] UP 49.29%!

How does this average out? Our group of 11 stocks is up 12.36% in less than 4 months. That'll work.

Up 1.0% Beating S&P 500 By A Smidgen

2006-10-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

Our group of stocks up 1% today!

S&P 500 Up .95%

That's really the one we are aiming to beat year over year.

On another note, here's an interesting site:

Coghead.com

We Beat The S&P 500 Again!

2006-10-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

This is getting to be bunches of fun.

Dow Jones Up .08% - Not very much at all - 9.36 points.

NASDAQ Up .16%

S&P 500 Up .20%

Russell 2000 Up .18%

Our group of stocks is up 1.38% today. We beat all four indexes!

Today's post title is also a link to Expressions Unlimited Toastmasters Club. Come see me there.

How Did We Do As Dow Hits Third Straight High?

2006-10-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

Our group of stocks was up .68% today.

Dow Up .11% - Third record high in three days.

NASDAQ Up .67%

S&P 500 Up .22%

Russell 2000 Up 1.31%

Beat NASDAQ by a smidgen and Russell beat us, but again, we beat the S&P 500.

So soon to beat the S & P?

2006-10-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

OK. Second day in a row that the Dow Jones Industrial average hits an all-time high. We beat the Dow and the S&P 500 and came close to the other two indexes.

Our group of stocks remain the same, so you can check out previous posts.

Us Up 1.9%

Dow Up 1.0%

NASDAQ Up 2.1%

S&P 500 Up 1.2%

Russell 2000 Up 2.1%

Let's see where we are in about a year and then two or three or five, especially against the S&P.

We Beat Them Again!

2006-09-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

We have added two more stocks:

MNI

USPH

Today our portfolio of stocks is up 1.32% and that beats all these

Dow Up .8%

NASDAQ Up .54%

S & P Up .75%

Russell 2000 Up .38%

This is becoming more fun.

Up Day - Did You Think I Forgot?

2006-09-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

Long time no see.

Great day to let you know what's happening. Coincidentally, I just got done with some sausages and onions. Yummy lunch. Fun day for our stocks. Up 3.28% today.

What have we got so far? Here are the symbols:

BLDR

CECO

CLZR

IUSA

JTX

PACR

PLAY

TBL

VCI

You can find out more about these by visiting Bloomberg.com

By way of comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a little less than 1.0% today and here are the results [in percentages] for a few indexes.

S&P 500 Up 1.04

NASDAQ Up 1.96

Russell 2000 Up 2.39

3.28% looks pretty cool today.

Welcome To Breakfast Business Owners!

2006-04-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

It's a little after six and the sausages should be done any minute. The tea is cooling and she'll be getting up soon. I love what she does with scrambled eggs these days. Most people would do just fine with more bell peppers in their diet.

Later in the morning we expect to take the plunge with Scottrade.