Market watch 02.16.06

Introduction to Investing

How to start off in the Investment world?

Learning about today's economy trends and making this work for you is a vital skill to insure one’s economic security, prosperity and survival. Weather you goals is to retire in ten years, twenty years, or just secure some economical savvy, well we hope we can help you with that here. With the new millennium, the Information age, it seems the “Gen Xer's” are at the helm. So how does one new to the Internet investing platform work? It is our intentions to aid you with that here and now.

I)
What are my investment goals? Retire at 40? Supplemental income, higher returns on cash than bank’s interest?

II)
It is not our intentions to determine any ones priorities, we are just sharing our experiences. We categorize portfolio’s to three chief components.
a) Cash
b) Retirement accounts
c) Investment accounts


a) Cash- Accounts that contain Monies or the equivalent (Such as low-risk, short-term securities such as CD’s = Certificates of Deposits) this is the Chief component of the three. Some determine that this should exceed 4 months of annual salary.
b) Retirement- Secondary component (more conservative) generally consists of long term investments. As one comes closer to retirement Bonds may play a more prolific role.

c) Investment accounts- Final and more aggressive of the components. This generally is more focused on short term near term. The term “Who dare’s Wins” could come into play. We advice that the investment account be the tail end of the three components.

What are Penny stocks

What Are penny stocks? pennystocks?

Penny stocks or pennystocks are shares that trade from .001 of a penny to $5.00. They currently trade in decimals.
They are much more risky than other investments, but have tremendous reward potential. Some penny stocks have gone from 25 cents to $20.00, while others have become worthless.

In the past, penny stocks or pennystocks had a bad name because of risk and lack of information about the companies and the fact that the spread between the bid and the ask were sometimes more than 50%... In addition penny stocks were considered to be easily manipulated.
Nowadays, investors are quickly learning that penny stocks represent all the small companies across America that are great and have yet to grow or be discovered.

The SEC keeps a close eye on manipulation practices and prosecutes those who break the laws.
Many investors like penny stocks because it does not take significant cash to get started, and one can own a portion of a good company and live the American dream.

Our goal is to inform you Let you know What are penny stocks, penny stocks or hot pennystocks.

The upside of penny stocks, is the ability to turn a small investment into a fortune.
The downside is the risk, volatility of the shares, and the lack of corporate transparency.
We advise anyone interested in penny stocks, pennystocks to do their Homework on the company.

With penny stocks, or pennystocks one needs to all aspects of the companies business.
Management is KEY. I have seen management squander money self seeking items rather than what’s best for the company and shareholders.
You also should look for the following things, among others, to ensure that you are only getting involved with the absolute best penny stocks.

• Market Liquidity (this will make it easier buy and sell.


• Are the shares good if they trade on the pinksheets or pink sheets, OTC.BB or otc bb, or Grey Market? Grey Market has no information is like throwing money away or at least that’s what the regulators are suggesting. We take that point of view as well. Since pinksheets.com , the pinksheet stocks have much more information available and because of pink link the electronic trading platform now available to Market Makers and pinksheet traders, the spreads have tightened. The OTC Bulletin board is like the old Nasdaq small cap.


• The NASDAQ Small Cap or AMEX, they will have to report to shareholders regularly, and must adhere to strict requirements of the exchange. OTC-BB and Pink Sheet stocks are generally less transparent or cooperative)


• Strong business plan and results (Check the financials to see if they are making more money than they are spending and if their operational plan makes sense)


• Look for a trend of improvement (Share prices go up the most when a company has momentum. If they keep making more money each year than they did the last, the shares will probably benefit as the company grows.)


• Lean heavily on the opinions of professionals (When a a newsletter or service reviews a company, and analyses all the details, it is a good starting point for you to read that report and decide if the company fits with your trading goals.)

Our goal is to find the best penny stock list.

European Markets:

Up slightly in early morning trading;

Stocks that are components of the Dow:

~HPQ Hewlett-Packard – earnings jump 30% on a 5.6% sales increase, driven by cost cutting and improved results across its portfolio of businesses. Credit Suisse Upgraded from Neutral to Outperform, and Soleil raised the Price Target from $36 to $39, and Deutsche Securities raised target from 28 to 33;

~HON Honeywell - CIBC Wrld Mkts Upgraded from Sector Perform to Sector Outperform and raised price target from $40 to $48;

~GM - General Motors Downgraded by Bernstein from Outperform to Mkt Perform $35 » $22;

Oil/Gas:

~Oil prices bounced based on positive remarks by Morgan Stanley about the Integrated Oil section - they like XOM, CVH, AHC, OXY, and MRO. XOM target raised to 78 and MRO target raised to 87;

~Baker Hughes – should help the oil sector with it’s good earnings;


~SLB, RIG, DO – upgraded by RBCM;

Breaking News:

~A Cerberus group has emerged as the leading bidder for the majority stake in GMAC that parent GM is seeking to sell.

~Cellphone venture Helio plans to announce an exclusive partnership with MySpace, a popular social-networking Web site.

~Arcelor’s net rose 53% on cost-cutting in Europe and growth in Brazil. The steelmaker raised its dividend 85%, as it tries to fend off rival Mittal's hostile bid.

~Barrons online – They highlighted two small cap companies: MEDX and ALKS;

~XMSR – down 2 points this morning on a resignation – could be a scalp at $22.50;

~AMAT – posted a good quarter and traded higher in Germany;

~Housing Starts were spectacular and CNBC stated that the housing arena continues to suprise and amaze.

~AGT - Smith Barney still favorite large cap;

~CSG - share price up on renued take over talks says WSJ;

Upgrades

• Ticker Company Brokerage Firm Ratings Change Price Target
  
• CBI Chicago Bridge Hibernia Southcoast Capital Hold » Buy $30
  
• OPTN Option Care Jefferies & Co Hold » Buy $13.50 » $17
  
• FADV First Advantage Matrix Research Sell » Buy
  
• DVW Covad Kaufman Bros Hold » Buy $1.50 » $2.50
  
• FIS Fidelity National Information Services Credit Suisse Neutral » Outperform
  
• THC Tenet Healthcare Credit Suisse Neutral » Outperform
  
• SNPS Synopsys HSBC Securities Neutral » Overweight $22 » $27
  
• GENZ Genzyme Thomas Weisel Peer Perform » Outperform
  
• AEA Advance America Cash Jefferies & Co Hold » Buy $16.50
  
• ISLE Isle of Capri Brean Murray Sell » Hold
  
• PNC PNC Bank Bear Stearns Underperform » Outperform
  
  
• ENDP Endo Pharm Lehman Brothers Overweight
  
• ARRY Array Biopharma Merriman Curhan Ford Buy
  
• SVC Stewart & Stevenson Ryan, Beck & Co Outperform $32
  
• AIR AAR Corp Susquehanna Financial Positive
  
• AIQ Alliance Imaging Stanford Research Buy $7
  
  
• PENN Penn Natl Gaming Nollenberger Capital Buy $37 » $38
  
• HPQ Hewlett-Packard Prudential Overweight $38 » $39
  
• CMX Caremark Rx Prudential Overweight $72 » $75
  
• AMAT Applied Materials RBC Capital Mkts Sector Perform $20 » $21
  
• QLGC QLogic RBC Capital Mkts Outperform $37 » $38
  
• NBP Northern Border RBC Capital Mkts Sector Perform $44 » $52
  
• SNPS Synopsys Needham & Co Buy $23 » $24
  
• NTAP Network Appliance Needham & Co Buy $31 » $35
  
• DAKT Daktronics Needham & Co Buy $31 » $38
  
• PNC PNC Bank Banc of America Sec Buy $68 » $75
  
• BLL Ball Corp Banc of America Sec Buy $46 » $48
  
• LAMR Lamar Advertising Banc of America Sec Buy $50 » $54
  
• HPQ Hewlett-Packard Banc of America Sec Buy $33 » $36
  
• CONR Conor Medsystems CIBC Wrld Mkts Sector Outperform $26 » $30
  
• ODP Office Depot FTN Midwest Buy $34 » $40
  
• CMX Caremark Rx First Albany Strong Buy $56 » $58
  
  
• GMRK and TDW - upgraded by RBCM
  
• WMS – upgraded by Bank of America with a 31 target
  
• ATYT – upgraded by Merrill Lynch
  
• PNC – target raised to 82 by Bear Sterns
  

Downgrades:

• EXPE Expedia Soleil Buy » Hold
  
• BDAY Celebrate Express CIBC Wrld Mkts Sector Outperform » Sector Perform
  
• TOT Total S.A. Credit Suisse Outperform » Neutral
  
• CECO Career Education Piper Jaffray Outperform » Market Perform
  
• RWY Rent-Way Matrix Research Buy » Hold
  
• HILL Dot Hill Systems Needham & Co Buy » Hold
  
• FL Foot Locker Credit Suisse Neutral » Underperform
  
• TOA Technical Olympic USA JMP Securities Mkt Outperform » Mkt Perform
  
• EXPE Expedia Lehman Brothers Overweight » Equal-weight
  
• AZR Aztar Morgan Joseph Hold » Sell
  
• AGP Amerigroup CIBC Wrld Mkts Sector Outperform » Sector Underperform $22.50 » $16
  
• MDCO The Medicines Co RBC Capital Mkts Sector Perform » Underperform $19
  
• PENN Penn Natl Gaming Jefferies & Co Buy » Hold $37
  
• RAIL Freightcar America Jefferies & Co Buy » Hold $47 » $65
  
• PFCB PF Chang's CIBC Wrld Mkts Sector Outperform » Sector Perform $52
  
• EMR Emerson CIBC Wrld Mkts Sector Outperform » Sector Perform $91
  
• AZPN Aspen Tech Matrix Research Strong Sell