Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising, Scandals

Zac Bissonnette has written extensively about how penny stocks, or stocks trading below $5, promote themselves through massive name lab connections, massive name celebrity connections, ads on CNBC and how sometimes, just sometimes, they have to settle with the SEC. As somebody who’s made and nearly lost a small fortune playing penny stocks, I’ve decided to get people to stop whining about the unsightly side of this niche and learn to profit from it!

And, I mean profit from it legally — that being to buy these stocks when they’re being hyped and to short sell them when the hype wears off. The old Manhattan two-step. While I like to short sell, these stocks are already priced so low, the risk-reward ratio favors buying them. That’s right; I’ll gladly buy into companies I know to be questionable because my time horizon is short and I know no matter how often Zac and other people write about this subject, there are new suckers all the time. The great fool theory and all that. Time and again, these suckers naively throw their hard-earned cash into these long shots without bothering to learn about the dangers involved. Since you’re reading this, you’ve already proven that you’re not just another sucker and that’s good — congratulations!

So, go on, follow these stocks and learn to play the hype game — BloggingStocks willing, I’ll be writing many more articles to help demystify this greatly misunderstood niche. I think you’ll find that while penny stocks are more volatile than stocks like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), they’re surprisingly liquid and the games they play are surprisingly similar to the games played by respectable Wall Street companies.

Timothy Sykes writes for the blog timothysykes.com, is a former hedge fund manager, the star of Wall Street Warriors and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund.

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Filed under: Products and services, Apple Inc (AAPL), Marketing and advertising, Research in Motion (RIMM)

When Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) hit the scene a few years ago, not that many people were interested in accessing work and personal email on the go from a handheld device. But, the company changed the paradigm of wireless email by allowing customers to be instantly notified of incoming email messages regardless of where they were: on the subway, on vacation (ehh), or even in a meeting.

Since then, companies have realized that when it comes to wireless communications, one of the killer apps (if not the killer app) may not be voice calls, but email wireless access without the need to lug a laptop everywhere. RIM has thus captured the hearts and minds of millions of customers with its BlackBerry products (often called “CrackBerry” since they cause portable email addiction). It has released a multitude of cellphone/email handsets for every major U.S. wireless carrier recently, and has even shifted away from just business customers to consumer-targeted devices with cameras and MP3 playing ability onboard. What can RIM do for a second act? Try to sell products directly to consumers instead of relying entirely on wireless company sales?

RIM has recently partnered with U.S. cellphone retail outlet Wireless Giant to open a small store in a Detroit suburb in what could be the begin to what Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has done, and done well: sell products directly from retail stores. However, signaling to wireless companies that you’re willing to bypass them and sell directly to consumers can sometimes inflame executive egos. Wireless carriers depend on those long-term contracts to actually make money, you see. But, in this case, RIM will be selling its phones — many models, to be exact — to work with networks such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. That ought to cause any apprehension to disperse from the wireless telecom companies. At least, for now.

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Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising, Scandals

Zac Bissonnette has written extensively about how penny stocks, or stocks trading below $5, promote themselves through big name lab connections, big name celebrity connections, ads on CNBC and how sometimes, just sometimes, they’ve to settle with the SEC. As somebody who’s made and nearly lost a small fortune playing penny stocks, I’ve decided to get people to halt whining about the unsightly side of this niche and learn to profit from it!

And, I mean profit from it legally — that being to purchase these stocks when they’re being hyped and to short sell them when the hype wears off. The old Manhattan two-step. While I like to short sell, these stocks are already priced so low, the risk-reward ratio favors buying them. That’s right; I’ll gladly buy into companies I know to be questionable because my time horizon is short and I know no matter how often Zac and other people write about this subject, there are new suckers all the time. The great fool theory and all that. Time and again, these suckers naively throw their hard-earned cash into these long shots without bothering to learn about the dangers involved. Since you’re reading this, you’ve already proven that you’re not just another sucker and that’s good — congratulations!

So, go on, follow these stocks and learn to play the hype game — BloggingStocks willing, I’ll be writing many more articles to help demystify this greatly misunderstood niche. I think you’ll find that while penny stocks are more volatile than stocks like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), they are surprisingly liquid and the games they play are surprisingly similar to the games played by respectable Wall Street companies.

Timothy Sykes writes for the blog timothysykes.com, is a former hedge fund manager, the star of Wall Street Warriors and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund.

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Filed under: Products and services, Apple Inc (AAPL), Marketing and advertising, Research in Motion (RIMM)

When Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) hit the scene a few years ago, not that many people were interested in accessing work and personal email on the go from a handheld device. But, the company changed the paradigm of wireless email by allowing customers to be instantly notified of incoming email messages regardless of where they were: on the subway, on vacation (ehh), or even in a meeting.

Since then, companies have realized that when it comes to wireless communications, one of the killer apps (if not the killer app) might not be voice calls, but email wireless access without the need to lug a laptop everywhere. RIM has thus captured the hearts and minds of millions of customers with its BlackBerry products (often called “CrackBerry” since they cause portable email addiction). It has released a multitude of cellphone/email handsets for every major U.S. wireless carrier recently, and has even shifted away from just business customers to consumer-targeted devices with cameras and MP3 playing capability onboard. What can RIM do for a second act? Try to sell products directly to consumers instead of relying entirely on wireless company sales?

RIM has recently partnered with U.S. cellphone retail outlet Wireless Giant to open a small store in a Detroit suburb in what could be the begin to what Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has done, and done well: sell products directly from retail stores. However, signaling to wireless companies that you’re willing to bypass them and sell directly to consumers can sometimes inflame executive egos. Wireless carriers depend on those long-term contracts to actually make money, you see. But, in this case, RIM will be selling its phones — many models, to be exact — to work with networks such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. That ought to cause any apprehension to disperse from the wireless telecom companies. At least, for now.

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Filed under: Time Warner (TWX), Marketing and advertising

Score another big success for Will Smith. His latest blockbuster, I’m Legend, grossed $76.5 million in its opening weekend — the ideal December opening for a motion picture in history.

The record take also crushes Will Smith’s second best opening by nearly 50%; I, Robot, a hit by any measure, debuted with revenue of “just” $52.1 million. Not only that, but it also ranks as the best December opening of all time, beating the $72.6 million start for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in 2003, Warner Bros., the Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX)-owned studio stated.

And all this from a man who isn’t particularly talented; he stated so himself. He recently explained his success to 60 Minutes this way:

I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. I’ve viewed myself as slightly above average in talent. And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping? I’m working. While the other guy’s eatin’? I’m working. While the other guy’s making love, I mean, I’m making love, too. But I’m working really hard at it.

There’s some career/life advice to pass onto your kids. Success generally requires some talent, but that’s not the major factor. Most successful people have gotten there through hard work. A good work ethic might be the most important talent of all.

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Lincoln Place Mural. Photo by Frank Lynch.
Urban Rustic Makes Whole Foods Look Like Key Food [Gothamist]
Reinventing Grand Army Plaza: What Are Your Ideas? [Streetsblog]
Slope Renovation from Hell Goes On & On & On… [Curbed]
Garfield Hangs Out Next to the Gowanus Canal [Gowanus Lounge]
Scott Stringer Mulls Public Suggest Run [City Room]
Cemusa’s Bus Shelter Cement Problems [Runnin’ Scared]

For more visit Source:www.brownstoner.com

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CLINTON HILL $500,000
609 Myrtle Avenue GMAP
Two-bedroom, two-bath condo, 1,073 square feet, with dining area, high ceilings and central AC; building features elevator, laundry and roof deck. Common charges $334, taxes $67. Asking price $520,000, on market 12 weeks. Broker: Felicia Putter, The Developers Group.

FORT GREENE $615,000
101 Lafayette Avenue GMAP
Prewar one-bedroom, one-bath corner co-op, 850 square feet, with formal entry foyer, dining area, walk-in closets, updated eat-in kitchen, beamed ceiling, casement windows, herringbone floors and S/E exposures; Griffin building features doorman and laundry. No board approval. Maintenance $911, 36 percent tax-deductible. Asking price $579,000, on market 22 days. Broker: Rodolfo Lucchese, The Corcoran Group.

PROSPECT HEIGHTS $749,000
296 Sterling Place GMAP
Prewar two-bedroom, two-bath co-op, 1,400 square feet, with dining area, 91/2-foot ceilings, washer/dryer, renovated windowed bath, kitchen with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances, window AC and S/E/W exposures; Sterling Arms building features elevator and storage. Maintenance $777. Asking price $749,000, on market 15 days. Broker: Mitch Wexler, The Corcoran Group.

Just Sold! [NY Post]
Photo of 609 Myrtle by Nicholas Strini for Property Shark

For more visit Source:www.brownstoner.com

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Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Scandals

In the past, I’ve written about mPhase Technologies (OTC: XDSL), an obscure penny stock that has been touting its technology on YouTube, and has hired Jonathan Lebed, who settled stock manipulation charges with the SEC as a teenager, to pump its stocks.

Oh, and the CEO, Ronald Durando, recently signed a consent decree with the SEC and agreed to forfeit $150 thousand in gains derived from an alleged pump-and-dump involving a now defunct company called PacketPort.

Given that series of red flags, why have investors given mPhase, a company with a long history of huge losses, a market valuation of almost $25 million? At least part of it probably stems from the companies much-hyped research it is conducting at Bell Labs.

A piece in Sunday’s New York Times talks about this trend of companies conducting research at universities. It’s a great deal for the labs for one reason — they get paid:

A vanguard group of universities is giving corporations greater access to ivory-tower laboratories — for a price. Stanford has paired with Exxon Mobil in a deal worth $100 million over 10 years. The University of California, Davis, is getting $25 million from Chevron. And Intel has opened collaborative laboratories with Berkeley, the University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon.

Of course, big companies are setting up research partnerships with universities for access to their labs and minds. But an unscrupulous penny stock promoter can easily find a lab willing to take some money to grant it to conduct some sort of research there — and then promote it in press releases, dumping the stock on an unsuspecting public.

Bottom line: When evaluating a stock, look for earnings, sales, and good corporate governance. Don’t be impressed by big-name connections, licensing agreements, and “deals.”

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