Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

Today is Oscar Sunday and I am betting that Slumdog Millionaire is going to win Oscar in following categories: Best Picture Best Director Best Screenplay Best Original Score and maybe 1-2 more The story is quite touching as well as entertaining and also have a mix of bollywood (with songs) as well as typical British narrative. It would be fun to watch today's Oscars Last few weeks were horrible in terms of my stock picking - I am almost tempted to suggest not to buy anything at this moment but that's like not making any calls. So let's get to stock pick of the week: Company: General Electric (GE) Buy Price: $ 8 to $ 9 Target price in 12 months: $12 to $ 14 Company Background: This company does not need any introduction since it is one of the most known company around the world with businesses in any sector we could think of. My logic behind picking GE as stock of the week is for following reasons: History of surviving through 125 years of ups and downs which had a great...

Last 2-3 weeks have been pretty bad - that is an understatement considering the mayhem in the markets and portfolios across world. Unfortunately there does not seem to be an end in sight. Dow is already nearing 50% loss from its peak and is at 6 year low. Many many supposedly blue-chip companies are trading in single digits with bluest of blue (GE) heading into that direction and trading at 14 year low with yield more than 13% at current dividend. There are talks about nationalization of Citibank, Bank of America and maybe Wells-Fargo. So where are we heading - considering my recent record, I should stop making predictions (same is true for many pundits on CNBC and prestigious universities across world). The honeymoon period with new President seems to be over. Obama is trying his best to instill confidence but market and people don't buy into it. Markets would continue to do downward and may even touch 7000 (marking 50% loss from its peak). It is not far-fetched assumption since ...

Obama got to a bumpy start as compared to expectations. Granted that he got his stimulus package passed on congress less than one month in office. However I wish his team would have handled the bank rescue plan ( announced by Tim G) much better. Markets did not like general guidelines and was looking for much solid plan. Given Obama's track record, I was also expecting much better, crisper plan from him. Hope he does better next week when he announces mortgage plans. Now let's talk about stock of week recommendation: Company: XL Capital Symbol: XL Recommended buy price: $ 4 to $4.40 Target price in 12 months: $ 6 to $ 7 Background: XL capital is a provider of insurance and reinsurance coverage to industrial, commercial and professional service firms, insurance companies and other enterprises on a worldwide basis. This stock got punished last year due to rating cuts and overall financial industry demise. However despite most difficult year, it keeps on giving dividend (I got ...

Finally markets turned positive after nearly 5 weeks of negative returns in hopes of bank bailout plan to be unveiled on Monday and hopes of passing stimulus package by next weekend. After all markets are all about hopes. Some of the Macro -trends I predicted earlier in the year are becoming real with BDI index doubling in last 4 weeks or so. If this continues on sustained basis, it would be an excellent news for shipping industry. Unfortunately my pick 2 weeks back (DRYS) is not doing that good. I recommended it between 9-10 and now it is trading at 6. I would say this provides even great buying opportunity for making 100% (rather than 50% I predicted). Now coming to stock of week: (you must be thinking that I am crazy to even consider recommending a bank stock but without risk there is no gain) Company: Barclays Symbol: BCS or BCS -D (Preferred D) Buy price: $ 5-6 for BCS and $9-10.50 for BCS -D Target sell price in 12 months: $10 for BCS and $18 for BCS -D Context: Here are rea...

Superbowl weekend is here and my prediction is that Steelers would win with comfortable margin. Of course lot of folks would like to see underdogs cardinals win but the pressure of appearing in their first super-bowl would be too great to bear. Let's see what happens. I am going to watch it for game and ads - to check out which companies still have money left for superbowl ads:-) Worst January in terms of major index return is over - this does not look good for the rest of year since "as Jan goes so does the year" has been proven more than 70% time. Dow hovering around 8000 could go below Nov 08 lows before rebouncing . Lot depends on bank bailout plans to be unveiled next week by Obama and team and how stimulus plan does in senate. Now coming to stock of the week - this week, I am reiterating two of my previous recommendations. OIL and HIG . Both of these were covered in Barron's 2 weeks after I recommended on my blog. This is just re-enforcement of my belief that...