Chuck Norris Day

Today is officially Chuck Norris day. I salute our patron of roundhouse kicks and great, rugged looks.

My friend scott reminded me that if I want steak, I don't need to go to a resteraunt or store...Instead, according to Scatty, "You will just go to a pasture. When you arrive to this pasture it will be full of perfect cuts of meat. How is this possible? Chuck Norris wanted a glass of milk straight from the source. The cow looked at him funny and roundhouse kicks are as good as butcher knives."


Below are some more great facts on Chuck Norris. courtesy chucknorrisfacts.com


Guns don't kill people. Chuck Norris kills People.

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
The chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain.
There is no chin under Chuck Norris' Beard. There is only another fist.
Chuck Norris has two speeds. Walk, and Kill.
The leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart Disease 2. Chuck Norris 3. Cancer
Chuck Norris drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls.
Chuck Norris is my Homeboy.
Chuck Norris doesn't go hunting.... CHUCK NORRIS GOES KILLING
Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.

Blogs everywhere ... and my perspective on China

First point - kudos to my bud Pilsner for his foray into the blogosphere. Check out http://pickemupandputemdown.blogspot.com/. And, his first post was dedicated to the Landingstrip. How fitting. Thanks pils.

I had some thoughts concerning his first post. I am not here to dispute or agree with it - just offer another perspective, AND look for others to chime in.

Pilsner says "China has opened up the borders more now than ever before. They are cashing in on the greatest asset they have: LABOR. Billions of people just waiting to work at anything for about any wage. Mark my words, as that country develops fiscally it will become a power to be dealt with. It will not always be rooted in such basic financial principles."

What got me thinking was that China, or more specifically Beijing is getting ready to be inundated with thousands of foreigners for the summer Olympics in 2008. So, a traditionally communist country is going to have to open up to a lot of democratic thinkers that are going to be sharing their viewpoints and influencing all these billions of people with ideas that the Chinese govt never wanted them to hear. Little JingJing, the mascot shown here, might finally have a chance to understand the opportunities other mascots have (especially US mascots). I have to hope that Jing Jing may start getting ideas about moving or revolting...plant the thoughts oh yee, Olympic tourists!

I could go on, but thanks to our friends at Newsweek, they already put my thoughts into a well-written and concise article; published nonetheless. Below are some excerpts. I totally agree with all the commentary. The Olympics are scaring the crap out of the Communists - the exposure of their tactics and the country's current state will take an incredible amount of effort for them to monitor/control.

Excepts taken from "Games and Grievances" by Melinda Liu in Newsweek (5/9/2005, Vol. 145 Issue 19, p46-47, 2p, 1c)...

"The torch won't reach the city until Aug. 8, 2008, but pre-event jitters are rising already. Slobs in the stands are the least of Beijing's fears. What really unnerves China's leaders is the thought of mass unrest on live international TV. Chinese embassies around the world are already besieged by human-rights activists demanding big changes before the Games. Street demonstrations in China are practically everyday events lately, and activists are sure to get more feverish as 2008 approaches, bringing 30,000 international journalists to Beijing. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to push for [their] interests," says Carnegie Endowment China watcher Minxin Pei. No one wants a replay of Mexico City in 1968, when security forces opened fire on student protesters, killing at least 30 on the eve of the Games. China's leaders wish even less for anything like the 1988 Seoul Olympics: mass protests leading up to those Games ultimately helped force South Korea's military rulers to give way to a freely elected civilian government."

Liu goes on...

"Prosperity and widening social freedoms have transformed China's attitudes. The frequency of collective acts of protest--though nothing like the 1989 Tiananmen unrest--has soared sixfold in the past decade. "It's kind of a push to democratize," says Jin Yuanpu of the Humanistic Olympic Research Center at People's University. People are less and less afraid to speak out against official corruption and bungling, and the run-up to 2008 has only encouraged such independent-mindedness. Liu says that when officials dreamed up catchphrases like "the green Olympics" and "the people's Olympics," no one guessed the public would take the words so deeply to heart. But many ordinary Chinese now believe they should have more say in how the place is run. "Their political sense is maturing," says Chen Gang, mayor of Beijing's Chaoyang district, where many of the 2008 events are to be held. "The Games are changing our society."

What it comes down to is that the Olympics are a great chance for communism to be finally exposed for what it really is. China never, USA forever.

China's mascots have nothing on the Gapper (Cincinnati red's mascot)

A Look at the Oil Services Sector

The market has rallied strongly since this summer thanks in large part to the tech sector, but one sector that has lagged is the oil services sector (see OIH the ETF that tracks the oil sevices index). This good thing if you're looking to buy. The long-term view can't get much better. Basically, as long as people need oil, they'll need the companies in the OIH to get it out of the ground for them. World-wide demand will continue to grow, especially from China and India (so even if every hippie in the US starts driving a prius tomorrow these companies will still make money). And if you hate filling up the car everytime gas goes up, buying oil or oil service companies will take some of the pain out of that experience. At least you can make some money on rising gas prices (can't beat 'em, join 'em). One last reason to own something from this sector, is that they tend to move opposite the general market, since high energy costs are generally bad for the economy. So this makes a nice addition to a balanced portfolio.

My picks (Best of the OIH)

I did a little value analysis on the top 10 holdings of the OIH. Basically, I took those companies with debt/equity ratios equal to or better than Halliburton (HAL), the top holding, then took the best of those in terms of PEG ratio. This isn't really a magic formula, but it gives me a sense of which companies are the cheapest to buy in terms of earning power and growth and not carrying much debt. The PEG ratio is the foward P/E (price/earnings) ratio divided by the growth rate. The foward P/E is the best measure of a the relative inexpensiveness of a company; basically it tells you how much you're paying for $1 of future earning power per share (lower is better, S&P avg is near 18 for reference). The PEG ratio tells you how much you're paying for growth, 1.0 is pretty much like even money (i.e. stock grows 15% a yr and sells at P/E of 15). Cramer recomends paying up to 2.0, but only for the hottest growers, like google. The real values are in the less than 1 catagory.

The 3 names that rose to the top in order of foward P/E ratio are BJ Service Company (BJS) P/E=9.9 PEG=0.42, Noble Energy (NE) P/E=13.37 PEG=.28, and Global Sante Fe (GSF) P/E=14.59 PEG=0.33. All three of these have very low PEG ratios and all sell below the market avg P/E of 18. Of these three I know the most about GSF, since I bought some last March at the peak like a fool. GSF is an offshore oil driller and signed one of the largest drilling contracts ever with a saudi company and should start drilling in this Jan. They're also buying back shares, which helps increase shareholder value. For more info on the other companies and what they do, look at the company profiles on yahoo finance. And read their annual reports before buying anything. Also, if you look up ratios and estimates on 3 different sites you'll probably find 3 different sets, so I only use them as a guide to find businesses that I like. Also, I'll be buying an equal dollar amount of all 3 of these stocks on a virtual trading acct tomorrow at open so I can track my picks and rate my preformance. I'll be looking to add to my GSF position as well when I have more money.

Also, HAL is probably a buy as well, but i'd wait for the Dems to start giving them hell next congressional session. They can't really stop them from making money, but the bad press may make for some nice entry points if it knocks the price down.

Next week I'll take a look at taking a position in gold or gold miners and then sometime soon I'll go bottom fishing in the housing sector to look for winners in a sector no one wants to touch. Housing will be back, it's only a matter of when.

With that, I leave you with Cramer's rules of investing and commandments of trading.
Enjoy,
MC

P.S. All three of the aforemention companies were up today when the OIH was down slightly. This is good.