On May 22 I purchased some GM stocks at 1.38 as a hedge against it not going bankrupt, thus hurting the value of my Ford shares. Well, GM did announce bankruptcy a week later, and the value dropped, but not that much. GM became GMGMQ, and actually surged up to 1.66 on June 10, so I sold, and made 20% in little less than three weeks.
So I looked for three more endangered species, and that day found:
Freddie Mac FRE 0.72
Fannie Mae FNE 0.69
Sirius XM Radio SIRI 0.35
...........Yearly Low Yearly High Current Price Percent Change
FRE ..........0.25 ..........5.52 ............1.73 ...............240
............(09/16/08) ...(09/03/08) ...(08/21/09)
FNE ..........0.30 ..........7.95 ............1.2 ................174
.............(11/21/08) ...(08/28/08) ...(08/21/09)
SIRI ..........0.05 ..........1.41 ............0.702 ............201
............(02/11/09) ...(08/22/08) ...(08/21/09)
The Federal government owns 78% of Fannie Mae (U.S. Federal National Mortgage Association) and 80% of Freddie Mac (U.S. Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp). They both surged in price recently because they actually showed a profit this past quarter, and, additionally, their lifelong Republican leader, James Lockhart, a Bush appointee (they were high school and college classmates) resigned on August 7. President Obama has yet to name a permanent overseer of the FMs. As much of the economic collapse can be blamed on housing, chances are that Mac and Mae will expand their importance over the next few years. Their upside potential should be good, although I’ve already doubled my investment in ten weeks.
Sirius XM Radio is a whole another story. Sirius and XM Radio officially merged a little more than a year ago (July 29). However, there was an announcement of possible bankruptcy on February 10 and the stock dropped to 0.05 the next day. Liberty Mutual (49% owner of Direct TV), however, took over about half the stock, stabilizing the company. More recently, the stock has jumped up because there is a rumor that the XM SkyDock will soon be made available for your iPod or iPhone, that will convert your device into a Satellite SM radio receiver. There are 170 stations, including Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey. My problem with this company is that it will cost you $19/month (or $13 through the internet) to subscribe (they have close to 20 million), when there are free radio signals and a bunch of free internet radio stations. I kind of liked this service, though, which was offered at the Four Seasons Hualalai. What about the future of Sirius? I don’t know.
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There are now three storms in the East Pacific, which just got formed, and Hilda is at 40 MPH, less than a week from Hawaii, if she moved northwest. However, all models have her going south. Typhoon Vamco is about a thousand miles from Wake Island, but should begin to weaken.
Hurricane Bill, now at 85 MPH, continues to move north and should not impact the U.S., save for the surf. He should weaken quite a bit before affecting Newfoundland.
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Well, I have reached triple digits, as 101 countries have now visited this site. Ninety three countries to go: 4349-101-184
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