Author Archives: Scalper1

How To Be A Long-Term Investor In A High Frequency World

Wall Street so far in 2016 has had some insane swings both up and down that have been breaking all historical records, as the inmates are truly running the asylum this year and are totally off their meds while doing it. The main culprit causing this madness are the high-frequency algorithms that are just trading off the bid and ask spreads and now account for 90% of the volume on a daily basis. Thus, it is insanity to try to follow the daily movements of the markets as there is no way you can compete on a daily basis with these machines as they don’t care if stocks go up or go down and have no idea what the underlying companies do that they are trading 1,000 times a second. All they care about is if they can make a penny a trade profit for each of those 1,000 trades they make a second. By doing so, they make $10 a second in profit (1,000 trades), $600 a minute, $36,000 an hour and that comes out to $270,000 a day in profit. So as you can see, these algorithms in total are trading about $90 billion in volume a day so each firm can make around $270,000 profit a day. That’s a pretty penny but the damage it causes to the markets are intense as we get these wild swings. Anyways, these algorithms operate in milliseconds and there is no way to compete against them. The average day trader who tries, on average ends up losing 90% of their assets within three years of starting operations, as there is no way a human can compete against this madness. To combat this, though, you have to become a long-term buy and hold investor and pretty much pay little attention to what the markets are doing on any given day or week. All you need to do is just read the news on your holdings and that’s about it. But you must firstly have a tool that allows you to get the best analysis possible on Main Street. We don’t compete with high frequency algorithms on a daily basis, but instead have our own algorithm, Friedrich, that high frequency computer algorithms can’t compete against, as all they concentrate is on the bid and ask spread, while Friedrich concentrates 99.9% on Main Street. Thus, while high frequency algorithms are buying and selling 1,000 times a second, we are buying and holding until Friedrich tells us to sell, which could be 5 years from now or never. Thus, Friedrich emulates the strategy of Warren Buffett in a sense as that is how I designed him but is extremely high tech. How do I know that high frequency traders are controlling the direction of the market and have it do what they want? Well, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT ) came out with a report the other day and said it would miss estimates by a ton next quarter, which should have crashed the stock by -20%, as analysts need to reduce their numbers dramatically. Well, the exact opposite happened as high frequency traders decided to crush the short sellers and force them to cover, and Caterpillar actually is doing amazing on Wall Street even though it is getting crushed on Main Street. Click to enlarge How do I know that Friedrich works so well? Well, I designed it to take advantage of the moon craters that these high frequency traders leave in their wake. So instead of getting rid of high frequency traders, I now welcome them as their destructive behavior actually creates bargains for us like we saw with our recent purchase, Ryman Hospitality (NYSE: RHP ), which we bought cheap after it was hammered and now is skyrocketing because its management is elite and the company is a virtual monopoly. Click to enlarge About a month ago, I tested a Chinese ADR to see if Friedrich works just as well internationally as it does in the USA. Click to enlarge As you can see, it is a Chinese auto dealership and the stock was $67.73 and fell to $16.09, but it actually scored a “6” on Friedrich in early February and was selling at $18.23. Thus, Friedrich recommended it to be a strong buy and just a month later it is now up +53.54% . Click to enlarge The Friedrich Datafile for Bitauto Holdings (NYSE: BITA ) that I created today; as you can see, it is no longer a “6” but is a “4” now, but still has a long way to run. In that Datafile, you will also see that we added a new row called “Super Three Sell Criteria” right under the Super Six rows. We are still in beta testing, which I will spend the weekend doing, but come Monday all future lists will also tell everyone when to “SELL” . How well does it work? Well, just look at the Datafile for BITA in your attachment folder and you will see that in 2014, it triggered an automatic sell at $88.18. Thus, that sell trigger would have had you sell when the Wall Street price was $89.11 and you would have not only got out at the top but would have avoided seeing the stock price of BITA being attacked by high frequency traders, who brought it down to $16.09. Thus, you would have avoided losing -81.94% in just a year and then would have gotten a Super Six buy signal at $18.23 and been up +53.54% in just a month. So just as Donald Trump says that he loves his protesters, we now love high frequency traders as they complement our own more powerful algorithm, Friedrich, as they create opportunities for him. Such results cannot be expected to happen every time, but in backtesting it, I could see some wonderful results. Hopefully, after beta testing the Super Three Sell Criteria, we will be able to launch on Monday and have all Datafiles include it from now on. Thus, in our constant effort to make Friedrich as user friendly for the pro as well as the novice investor alike, we have Friedrich basically giving you an opinion on when to BUY and then when to SELL, and when we expand internationally and are fully automated on that end as well, Friedrich will be an all seeing monster, with the ability to tell investors from all over the world when to buy and when to sell, and more importantly, when to stay in cash when markets are overvalued. Thus, we have “Extreme Capital Appreciation through Extreme Capital Preservation”. Thus, as you can see, having Friedrich in my hands, I no longer try to predict what the market will do but just concentrate all my attention on Main Street and in waiting for buy signals from Friedrich. It is my belief that if Main Street is in serious trouble, eventually it will show up on Wall Street. I find that the Federal Reserve, the bureaucrats and corporate CEOs are all lying all the time and are cooking the books. Want proof? This is what came out from the SEC this week. Click to enlarge For those of you who have been with me for some time, you know that I have been screaming from the rooftops about how non-GAAP reporting results in very bad behavior by management, analysts and the press as the Pro-Forma reporting is actually fiction and even Warren Buffett wrote about it in his latest Annual Letter to Shareholders as his biggest concern. “Wall Street analysts often play their part in this charade, too, parroting the phony, compensation-ignoring ‘earnings’ figures fed them by managements,” Buffett said. “Maybe the offending analysts don’t know any better. Or maybe they fear losing ‘access’ to management. Or maybe they are cynical, telling themselves that since everyone else is playing the game, why shouldn’t they go along with it. Whatever their reasoning, these analysts are guilty of propagating misleading numbers that can deceive investors.” ~ Warren Buffett Thus, I am happy that the SEC will finally address this corruption. Friedrich is already GAAP ready, so you will actually see what a company is actually doing on Main Street when you use any of our Friedrich Datafiles as it is “AS IS” reporting. The markets have come back in the last couple of weeks as the following game is being played by management and by hedge funds taking advantage of the following phenomenon: There is such a thing on Wall Street called a “black out period” where for 5 weeks during earnings season companies and management cannot buy their stock back, so the crash of January was caused by this black out. Well, when the black out was lifted CEOs went hand over fist to buy back stock, borrowing at extreme levels to do so. This forced the shorters to cover and the rest is history as even oil shorters covered as well and that is why oil has rocketed as well. So for about 20 weeks of the year, companies cannot buy back their stock and for 32 weeks they can. This, of course, causes the wild market swings that we saw this year, as in January, there was the black out going on, and thus, there was no backstop to stop the selling. Then when the black out stopped in February, every CEO and their mother went and bought their stocks, borrowing insane levels of money and putting each firm’s balance sheets in serious trouble. The reason Friedrich cannot find anything to buy is because the debt on Main Street is insane and the prices on Wall Street are so overvalued as no one does any research anymore and people are just buying and selling without any clue what they are doing. With the Federal Reserve lying to us that Main Street is doing great a few months back, Friedrich knew they were lying as he sees what results each company is reporting on Main Street and was not believing a word of it. Well, just this week the Federal Reserve came out and said that the economy was not doing as well as they previously thought, so they did not raise rates. Now when someone tells you that things are bad, do you rush out and buy stocks or do you logically hold off and use caution? Well, hedge funds took the “bad news as good news” and bought anything that was not tied down. Unfortunately, this bad behavior is starting to catch up with the hedge fund industry, as 979 hedge funds closed operations in 2015 and 864 closed in 2014. This is all because these hedge fund portfolio managers basically do zero analysis as a group and just take massive risks with their clients’ money. Bill Ackman, who is the poster boy for terrible analysis and high risk, is down -26.4% this year on top of the -20.5% that he lost in 2015. When his main holding Valeant (NYSE: VRX ) fell -56% in one day earlier in the week, he lost -$764 million of his clients’ money in just one day! So as you can see, hedge funds are closing down as their clients are losing tons of money due to their doing little, if any, analysis and being totally reckless with their clients’ assets. In just two years 1,843 hedge funds closed down operations and those were flat years. Imagine what will happen when the trap door opens and the markets finally get hit? As for the government, the numbers by the Fed are cooked as well, and this is mainly because of ObamaCare, as many people cannot work more than 29 hours at one job otherwise the business owner will need to pay into the system. For example, if I were to decide to go work 5 jobs at 8 hours a week in each, I would be counted five times in the government’s jobs report. So those forced to work two to three jobs so their employers don’t pay ObamaCare tax are the reason the unemployment rate is only 5%. So as you can see, with everyone cooking the books at extreme levels, you can see that this will end badly one day. But investors have no clue what they were doing because you would imagine with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton looking like they will compete against each other for the Presidency, both are going to cause massive changes to the international business environment by using tariffs and going after the drug industry. But instead of being concerned about all this and selling stocks, investors are just piling in because their neighbor is and thus we have HERD MENTALITY! DISCLAIMER: This analysis is not advice to buy or sell this or any stock; it is just pointing out an objective observation of unique patterns that developed from our research. Factual material is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but the poster is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results of actions taken based on information contained herein. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer to buy or sell securities or to give individual investment advice.

Affymetrix Rejects $1.5 Billion Origin Offer; Stock Likely To Dive

Genetic-analysis company Affymetrix ( AFFX ) on Sunday rejected a $1.5 billion, $16.10 a share offer from Origin Technologies, saying it will stick with its planned $14-a-share takeover  by Thermo Scientific ( TMO ). Shares of Affymetrix hit an eight-year high  Friday on Origin’s offer, soaring 14% to 15.99 on the stock market that day. Barring another bid, shares are likely to tumble Mondy back to around 14, where they have traded since Affymetrix agreed to Thermo Scientific’s offer on Jan. 8. Affymetrix said “Origin appears to be a newly-formed shell entity with no assets of which Affymetrix is aware, and whose sole source of funding for the proposed transaction is $1.5 billion in potential debt commitments.” That would be “materially short” of the funds needed to actually complete the deal, said Affymetrix, citing share compensation, a termination fee for Thermo Scientific and other items. Origin Technologies was formed by a group of ex-Affymetrix executives with the purpose of buying the company. Origin President Wei Zhou, a former senior vice president at Affymetrix, also started genomics company Centrillion Technology in 2009. Wei and said that Origin has the option of combining with Centrillion after acquiring Affymetrix.

Apple’s New Smaller iPhone May Be Nothing To Text Home About

You probably won’t need to hold onto your socks during Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) spring product launch event on Monday. That’s the message from Wall Street analysts trying to set realistic expectations for what’s likely to be announced. The tech press has been reporting for weeks that Apple will unveil a new 4-inch iPhone, a new 9.7-inch iPad and new Apple Watch bands at the media event Monday at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. “While we expect to see several ‘under the hood’ improvements across devices, we are not expecting the same exuberance as last year when Apple shared final details of the Apple Watch,” Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz said in a report Friday. “Moreover, we worry investors will find the next several Apple media events underwhelming.” Uerkwitz rates Apple stock as outperform with a 12- to 18-month price target of 120. Apple shares rose 12 cents to 105.92 on the stock market  Friday. Apple has a bunch of innovations in the works for release in 2017 and 2018, he said. They include possibly an iPhone with an OLED display, a virtual reality headset, 360-degree camera, and a hub for smart-home products using Siri, Uerkwitz said. Any surprises at Monday’s event likely will revolve around pricing for the new products and possibly the Apple Watch or the introduction of new MacBook or Mac Pro computers. Apple CEO Tim Cook also is likely to use the event as a platform to reinforce the company’s argument that the federal government has overstepped its legal bounds by demanding Apple hack its iPhone security. Apple and the Justice Department are set to square off in a federal court on Tuesday in a criminal case where the FBI wants Apple to develop software to bypass its password security measures. Because Apple gets most of its revenue from the iPhone (68% of sales in the December quarter), most of the attention Monday will be focused on the rumored iPhone SE. The new 4-inch iPhone will replace the same-size iPhone 5S, which was introduced in September 2013 and is still on sale. An iPhone For Emerging Markets The new model is expected to sport an A9 chip, NFC technology to enable Apple Pay and a 12-megapixel, rear-facing camera to bring it up to snuff with the other iPhones. But it reportedly won’t have a pressure-sensitive screen like the premium models, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, which have 4.7- and 5.5-inch displays, respectively. The SE will be targeted to customers who prefer a smaller size handset as well as emerging markets because of its expected lower price. The iPhone SE “is likely to be a low-volume (for Apple) product that has minimal effect” on its earnings and stock price, Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves said in a note Thursday. Hargreaves is bullish on Apple with a price target of 127 because of likely growth in the iPhone 7 cycle starting this fall. “Investors are not excited about this new phone,” Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang said in a research note Tuesday. Zhang is “bearish” on prospects for the new iPhone SE because he expects that its price will be similar to second-hand iPhone 6 handsets in large emerging markets. “Second-hand iPhone 6’s are sold online at $350 in China, which we believe will be same price range of the iPhone (SE),” he said, adding that the price difference is such that many users will go with the larger display phone. Apple faced a similar pricing problem when it launched the iPhone 5C handset alongside the iPhone 5S. The 5C was priced only $100 cheaper than the 5S but had a cheaper-looking plastic casing. Sales of the iPhone SE are likely to be “ modest ” at 10 million to 15 million units annually, RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani said in a research note Thursday. Still, the new phone could provide a buffer ahead of the launch of the iPhone 7, he said. Component suppliers likely to benefit from the iPhone refresh cycle include Jabil Circuit ( JBL ), Broadcom ( AVGO ), Amphenol ( APH ) and Texas Instruments ( TXN ), he said. Broadcom and fellow Apple chip supplier Microsemi ( MSCC ) both hit new buy points late last week. Also Monday, Apple is expected to unveil its third-generation 9.7-inch iPad Air, which will be given similar functionality and accessories to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The current iPad Air 2 was launched in October 2014. The iPad Pro with its Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil debuted last September. But the tablet business has been in decline at Apple and the new iPad is unlikely to change that, analysts say. “We do not expect the updates to materially change our outlook for iPad units, which seem likely to continue declining through fiscal 2016, but at a moderating rate,” Hargreaves said. Apple holds an IBD Composite Rating of 66 out of a possible 99, factoring in earnings growth, stock performance and several other metrics. Chipmaker Broadcom gets a 98 , Amphenol a 91 and Texas Instruments an 84. Jabil is not currently highly rated by IBD, with a Composite Rating of just 47.