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IDS World Markets Mon 2nd March 09


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Anyone look under the hood at IBM lately?

 

They have been systematically destroying the balance sheet at that company over the last few years.

 

At Dec 2005 LT debt to tangible equity was .70

 

As of Sep 2008, that same ratio is now 3.25

 

As they continue to steadily buy overpriced stock.......

 

Just sad to see company after company ruined by playing accounting games so the execs can rob the shareholders blind....until they leave nothing but a corpse behind.

 

I don't know about sad, but IBM (along with GE and AIG) were some of the most "financially engineered" companies in the history of the US.

 

Lou Gerstner is probably one of the most finanicially savy folks I have ever known....I was a very very young finance pup and he was on our Board & Finance Committe -- different Fortune 50 company (which I was the go-fer for)....

 

To say this guy was smart is a real understatement......equal kudos goes to Hank Greenberg of AIG and Jack Welch of GE (regardless of what you may think of them personally).....these guys were masters of managing their respective companies financial statements.

 

Guess when Gerstner took the CEO spot at IBM?

 

April 1993

 

big.chart?symb=ibm&compidx=aaaaa:0&ma=0&maval=50,200&uf=0&lf=1&lf2=0&lf3=0&type=4&size=2&state=11&sid=2595&style=320&time=20&freq=2&nosettings=1&rand=4615&mocktick=1&rand=5653

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The spread on some of these Closed end funds and ETF's are just insane.

A few percent between the bid and ask on a few of them.

 

 

 

I'm gonna take a wild guess we trade just under 700 today on the S&P.Trying to find a bottom here though....

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I don't know about sad, but IBM (along with GE and AIG) were some of the most "financially engineered" companies in the history of the US.

 

Lou Gerstner is probably one of the most finanicially savy folks I have ever known....I was a very very young finance pup and he was on our Board & Finance Committe (which I was the go-fer for)....

 

To say this guy was smart is a real understatement......equal kudos goes to Hank Greenberg of AIG and Jack Welch of GE (regardless of what you may think of them personally).....these guys were masters of managing their respective companies financial statements.

 

Guess when Gerstner took of the CEO spot at IBM?

 

April 1993

 

big.chart?symb=ibm&compidx=aaaaa:0&ma=0&maval=50,200&uf=0&lf=1&lf2=0&lf3=0&type=4&size=2&state=11&sid=2595&style=320&time=20&freq=2&nosettings=1&rand=4615&mocktick=1&rand=5653

 

So great, they get a short term pop out of the company, and then leave it as a rotting corpse when their ponzi scheme jig is up.

 

UFB that you could condone, let alone cheer on such behavior...

 

Whatever floats your boat I guess...

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Not willing to pull the trigger quite so quickly with the potential devastation that could be dead ahead....

 

But great trades!

 

Yeah, me either. Been hopping in and out a bit, since I'm expecting a decent rally if we don't collapse, and I do not wish to give back more profit than I have to.

 

712-670 puts us in the window where wave 3 would normally be expected to end...

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So great, they get a short term pop out of the company, and then leave it as a rotting corpse when their ponzi scheme jig is up.

 

UFB that you could condone, let alone cheer on such behavior...

 

Whatever floats your boat I guess...

 

That rection may be alittle over da top :blink: ....but whatever..

 

The point (maybe I didn't make it properly) is that there are several factors to sucessful management of a company and all have to be managed in sync to garner the multi-decade success of these companies....

 

Optimal management of the financials is one.....you still have to grow the business, do good M&A, manage costs, etc etc etc to be successful.....all those guys did that to a "T"

 

The collapse in these firms didn't happen until they left.....did they sow the seeds to the demise? Could they have remediated or reduced the subsequent destruction if they were still there? We'll never know.....but having been exposed on a working basis with two of the aforementioned -- these guys were just different than most corporate type by miles......most notable is their attention to detail.....there is nothing that gets by them

 

Jusy my opinion.... :ph34r:

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Completely flat here.

Waiting for that low to come in about 2-3 weeks.

 

Besides that, it's small scalps here and there.

 

Trade safe.

 

 

Then long off that low?

 

Reason I ask is that I am just sitting on a ton of tradable cash in my account.....waiting waiting......other than some spec buying, but that's real small po-ta-ters.

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Not willing to pull the trigger quite so quickly with the potential devastation that could be dead ahead....

 

But great trades!

 

I know, I should have just tightened stops, but I have to get some writing done today and I can't do it when I have open positions...

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