An Old Portfolio of EX-52 Week Lowbies

I was cleaning out an old watch list I had on Yahoo! Finance called "52 Week Lowbies". As the name suggests, it's a list of well known large cap companies that were at uh... well 52 week lows however over the course of a year, dominated (for the most part). Let's check them out:

PLT (Plantronics): $14.80 August 2006 - $25.95 May 2007 (75%)
WMT (Walmart): $42.31 July 2006 - 52.15 November 2006 (20%)
GPS (Gap): $15.91 July 2006 - $21.39 January 2007 (25%)
ARO (Aeropostale): $21.07 July 2006 - $45.19 (Today!) May 2007 (114%)
FINL (Finish Line): $9.55 August 2006 - $14.97 November 2006 (58%)
YHOO (Yahoo!): $22.65 September 2006 - $33.74 April 2007 (51%)
TTWO (Take Two Interactive): $9.06 July 2006 - $24.80 April 2007 (173%)
CSCO (Cisco): $17.10 August 2006 - $28.99 May 2007 (69%)
CMCSA (Comcast): $20.47 July 2006 - 30.18 Jan 2007 (50%)

Although I have recently hated on large caps *cough* DAMNYAHOO *cough* the truth of the matter is that companies with proven business models usually rebound. Just another lesson in Buying Low and Selling High and if you did with this lot of stock, well my friend, we would be in pretty decent shape now.

So! I'm sure the burning question is... what's next? Well, I have a very short list (The market's been good to us) of stocks that are still at unusual lows. Here they are:

SBUX (Starbucks): $29.60 - 52 week high is $40 (42%)
MO (Altria): $68.30 - 52 week high is $90 (31%)
MOT (Motorola): $18.00 - 52 week high is $26.3 (45%)
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices): $14.00 - 52 week high is $40.00 (185%)

So there are my handful of stocks. I personally own SBUX and AMD and I'm seriously looking at MO and MOT now. As always, do your own research before buying and I'll keep adding to this list as I come across them.

Resolve, Resolve, Resolve

I think it's appropiate to write now that the market has been taken out to the woodshed and been given the beating of a lifetime. Like everyone else, I'm still bleeding... badly. So the question is, what do you do? The bleeding seems to never end and yes, it's scary... really, really scary.

So let's pull it back a little and go through the list and see how we are doing? Well, first off, I'm in much better shape than from where we started (I'm where I started with the market down 15% from where I started). OK, so we're in good shape. So let's take a look at the picks and re-evaluate. Sell the ones that we're not confident in, and keep (maybe invest more into) the stocks that we like.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: If you really like your picks, why are you bailing out so early? It's easy to stay in when things are good however I will personally say that my best gains have come from sticking it out; In and out of the stock market.

So here's mine, how did yours pan out?

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AMD - Yes, They are getting their asses kicked but at some point, they're going to turn the corner and I'm going to be there. It doesn't have much more to fall but buy more as it goes down. Accumulate.

BBI - I still like this stock. It's a superior product to Netflix and they are already laying the groundwork for online downloads. To $20 Scotty! Hold.

COGT - Pursuing more than 20 significant projects in more than 15 countries and any new contracts will send this bad boy soaring. It'll disappear if it goes any lower. Hold.

EXEL - Just like Cogent. It has so many products in the pipeline and is so small that any approval will send this bad boy soaring. Accumulate.

GTW - Ya ya, but I only have a small bet for a turnaround prospect. Leave me alone. Hold.

ISV - It's a 5 star stock on CAPS and is at a low price but I'm ashamed to admit that I only bought the stock because my fiance has it as well. Can't let her have all the fun. Besides, it's a tiny bet. Hold.

WFMI - Now I got out of this one after it jumped 5 dollars two weeks ago. I've always been iffy on a couple of sectors and they are the airline industry and the supermarket industry. Sell

LOOP - It's still higher than the $13.50 price that I got into it with. I'm personally am excited about this one. Hold.

PANL - I am so enamored by the potential of this company's technology. It's lower than what I bought it at and I'll buy more as it goes down. Accumulate.

RRGB - I have a decent bet in this stock and it's still higher than what I bought it at. I can't wait to see how this one rebounds once the market starts to go back up again. Hold.

SBUX - Near 52 week lows and I will continue to buy more as it goes down. Accumulate.

USO - It's higher than where I bought it at and Crude Oil 'ain't' going nowhere but up. Hold.

VLO - It's much higher than where I bought it at and it's gas. Enough said. Hold.

KANA - I only have a small bet for a turnaround prospect. Haven't lost anything, didn't make anything. To be honest, I'm really just in this stock because my uncle Chuck has this as one of his big potentials. Nothing beats making money with your friends and family. Hold.

YHOO - It's way higher than where I bought it at and Panama is picking up traction earlier than expected. Hold.

ATVI - The game companies are still gaining tracking. I'll be buying more as this stock goes down. Accumulate.

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices): A Fighter. Always Has and Always Will Be

AMD and I go way back... waaaaaaaaaaay back. Gosh, this stock has been with me ever since I was in college. Through the years, I have seen this stock get pummeled time and time again and each time it's been pummeled, I've seen it fight back. This is a company of fighters and it's in an epic battle between Intel. So even tho the stock is down now, and will continue to drop in the near term, from what I know as a computer guy and from everything I read, this is why and how I think AMD will fight and fight back in a big way.

Actually, there was an entry in CAPS that solidified everything I believe. So rather than rewrite everything. I'll just let the beauty of the entry speak for itself.

"Engineers of AMD have a new brilliant and revolutionary idea. Together with ATI they'll bring the CPU and GPU on the same chip. But this is just the beginning of a new era. In near future they will probably mold a physic-engine, and any kind of accelerated units that your imagination allows, within a single chip. (Ref: AMDs analyst day at 14. Dec. 2006, presentation of Phil Hester, AMD's Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/
InvestorRelations/0,,51_306_14668,0
0.html)

This means no more FSB speed limit between CPU and GPU. After this fact was declared (actually much before 14.Dec), NVDA has tried an urgent counter attack, and announced a new NFORCE motherboard with 1033 MHz FSB speed in addition to its new 8800 GeForce serie. This however doesn't compensate the fascinating idea of hardwired CPU-GPU.

Similarly Intel's hurriedly planned 45 nm chips cannot counterbalance this revolutionary idea. In fact most of the end-users will not even have interested about the nm scala of these chips.

If the system intelligently optimized and perform better, it should sell better. Marriage of AMD and ATI is something more than targeting the game and multimedia market. With this new concept, they will change the rules. They will redefine the art of computing and they will break the new speed limits.

Imagine how the motherboards will shrink. And imagine how AMD will invade the laptop market. Hardware that we add on today's motherboards, or some addons like on board vga's will be shifted from the surface of motherboards into the processor. This means however means cheaper laptops, cheaper motherboards, but more apportionment for AMD since it offers more functionality on its chips.

In long term this means motherboards will be cheaper, but AMD chips will be sold for higher prices, because on their chips they will bring more than multiple-cpu's. They will cancel the need for graphic cards, or on the board vga's. And in future, they will probably cancel the need for basic audio functions, they can easily bring physic -engines for gamers, etc. etc... Possibilities are limited with your imagination."

It is vision like this that brought apple from it's mediocrity. And what it comes down to is something truly unique, powerful and desireable. That's for the long term though.

In the short term. I think that AMD's newer lines of processors (It's current generation is pretty old), it's growth and integration of the ATI brand, and the Vista bump will bring it back up from the depths. i think it's a fairly solid, innovative company that has made pretty big gains in market share. Even though the price war between itself and Intel is hurting them both, I don't see either going anywhere significant in the near term.

The way I look at things, the near term drop in prices as a AMD cocking it's fist to throw a massive punch.





Notes:
In Portfolio: Yes, got in at 19... *tear*
Duration: (Pre-Earnings) Long term, (Post-Earnings) Really, really long term
Superbowl Prediction: Bears... No, Colts, No, Bears... I dunno... It's gonna be a great game!