The Mark-to-Market Mantra

Replacement accounting is as old as the financial hills. Realistic asset valuation is one of the first things an honest auditor or credit rater will question. These are also means of corruption. Dishonest and inept regulators will mark-to-market their personal portfolios, even as they turn blind official eyes to the savings of the citizens they are sworn to serve. 

Mark-to-market works both ways. You can use the regulatory shield to hide enormous assets from acquisitive eyes. This is the route favored by the Washington elite which builds nest-eggs for retirement while enjoying the vast powers of office. Brands are typical examples of assets that are not reported on financial statements. Land is another basis of manipulation: you can get away with any valuation you like. Greenspan is an authority on this. He not only predicted the housing melt-down, but is a consultant for cronies who have made top-dollars out of the mess. 

Join the powerful since you cannot beat 'em. Use brands and under-stated land values to make a killing out of the current stock market misery. Use retail audits and 10-Q submissions to achieve this. You can also use your hands and feet and generate primary data.

Write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com or post below if you need top stock picks based on the Mark-to-Market Mantra. 

How to Dodge the Tab for the Bail Out Bill

The world is both global and unipolar. That means we all feel ill when the United States wheezes. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 divides all of us in to two camps: the fortunate few who will benefit, and the masses that will foot the bill. Where do you stand?

Washington's bail out plan has Wall Street pulling unseen strings. It is an 'us versus them' thing. Large banks have proved that trust is for the birds. It is up to each of us to build investment portfolios for retirement that can weather all storms. Here are 5 top leads to a bail out plan that works for you:

1. Invest in the domestic economies of the BRIC block. 

2. Buy stocks of companies with mines

3. Invest in corporations with brands at low and multiple price points

4. Support organizations that use environmental conservation as a competition lever

5. Add biotechnology and nanotechnology to your stock portfolio

Do you need help to make this bail out plan work? Just write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com

A Stock to Treasure

The NASDAQ trading symbol is sure to catch your eye. However, there is more than a name to draw attention to this wonderful stock. Converted Organics Incorporated turns organic waste in to cash. This is exactly the kind of thing we need to climb out of the current Financial Sector morass. Politicians may spend interminable hours chewing the cud on Capitol Hill, but you can gain most by investing in the right stocks.

The management has acquired appropriate technology for organic waste conversion. This converts avoidable cash outflows in to valuable assets. The company also has long-term lease options in places such as Rhode Island. This makes the late-September 2008 stock price of around $6 a rare bargain. It is an opportunity to grab without delay.

Write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com or post below for more leads to stocks such as COIN.

Debate Time and Petticoal Mirror Stock Investing

Debate time will not be the useful fun. It is hard to enjoy sparring between Presidential candidates at a time of such financial distress. We can be reasonably certain that Wall Street will get its bail-out in substantial form. However, all we have with respect to jobs, incomes, and homes, are strings of banal statements, and apprantly good intentions.

This is not to say that debate time has to be wasteful/ The trick is to listen intently for what is not said, and the non-verbal communication. Everyone can put best feet forward for the cameras, but it is what goes on behind the hidden portions of podiums that tells the whole story. This is what we learn from the expletives of President Bush, recorded when he thought that no microphones were around to pick up his verbal habits.

The Petticoat mirror has followed hemlines to extinction. Liberated ladies no longer need these aids to check on appendages of modesty and decent upbringing. However, the unscrupulous will continue to use convex optics to steal furtive glances at what most women still like to hide. Fortunately, there are no sanctions against using petticoat mirror concepts in business management and stock investing. Indeed, using markers to detect business issues that executives like to hide, is the crux of top stock investing strategy.

The current economic imbroglio could have been avoided if figurative petticoat mirrors had been used. It would have been apparent that auditors had become parties to valuing assets fictitiously. Similarly, hectic derivative activity could have been reviewed to realize that purchased debts were worthless. I have written about excessive leverage in an earlier post, and even a novice stock investor can uncover this fundamental financial tort.

Use debate time to improve your skills at making profitable stock picks. Learn to sniff out points of discomfiture, and realize that an Achilles heel may lie beneath that part of the surface. A particular candidate may try and dodge debate time altogether, while a more pushy one may prefer to smile and bluster a way through every weak spot. It is the same with quarterly events at which executives and Boards meet with stock owners.

Fortunately, the last lap of 2008 debate time and a reporting season will coincide. Use the confluence to your advantage, or write to drsbanerji@gmail.com if you need a financial concierge to get stock skeletons out of your retirement portfolio.

What If You Were Responsible for JP Morgan Chase Business and Stocks?

The JP Morgan Chase & Co stock seems to be a rare gem of a Financial Sector stock. The September 25 2008 stock price crossed $43. The price was well under $30 not so long ago. The Price to Earnings Ratio remains comfortably below 15. The Forward Price to Earnings Ratio is slated to fall below 11. What distinguishes this stock, and are investors right in their support of the iconic Money Center Bank?

Purchase of a peer in distress seems to have triggered contrary stock price movement. Is the JP Morgan Chase & Co management right in its appraisal of the Washington Mutual business? I do not think so.

JP Morgan Chase & Co has earned less than 1% on Average Assets during the last one year. Who can be sure how much the assets may be worth in reality? What if the Fed selectively bails out competitors who take more profitable risks? The Payout Ratio of JP Morgan Chase & Co is more than twice the norm for its industry. This raises questions about the long-term commitment of the management.

I can point you to stocks with better sensitivity profiles to their Forward Price to Earnings Ratios. Do not follow the stock market herd. Write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com to know more.

Business Management and Stock Investment in a Bush Economy

The Laws of a Jungle serve the mighty. Might is Right and Cash is King. The Ruler has control over shared resources, and can even conjure virtual ones. The Bush bailout is selective, and by all accounts, deliberately so. Click to another page if you are a part of Wall Street. Stay on this page if you have no connections with the Fed.

Small, independent, and ignored eco-systems are part of any jungle. Large carnivores are most prominent in their naked lust, but there are many small critters that carry on business as usual. The Regional Banks industry is a top example of this phenomenon. Many unsung heroes of the blighted Financial Sector in the United States. Allies of this once-great nation may hang on to every word that Washington utters, but the real action is at Ground Zero in the hinterland.

We have similar situations in many industries and countries as well. A macro part of the economy languishes in mis-management, while individual stocks continue to perform on par. The reverse may also be true. It appears that Freakanomics works for the stock market just as it does to understand sumo wrestling and the profits from growing opium in Afghanistan.

The good news is that you can continue to rake in the moolah even as politicians, bureaucrats, and their ilk continue to struggle with the monster of unbridled and corrupt capitalism. It is simply a matter of diligent Business Management. Get back to the basics of evaluating the worth of an enterprise. Craft strategies based on facts not dromology.

Write to me for effective ways to shore up your business in trying times, or to build a valuable stock portfolio. You can also post below.

 

The Nicolas Sarkozy Way of Business Management

I must confess to confusion over the following link:

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1222182157.67

Does Nicolas Sarkozy wish to suggest that business is not regulated? Every financial institution, including the ones on Wall Street, are audited at least once a year. Each corporation has a governing Board. All management teams report to their stock owners once a quarter.

The Basel norms for prudent banking and investment have been around for years. The United States stands out for refusing to comply with professional safeguards for banks.

What will a new world summit achieve? I think it is better to merely ask regulators to do their jobs. This is important for stock markets, because each exchange has its own regulatory mechanism. NASDAQ stands out for being ruthless in de-listing corporations that do not meet regulatory norms. It is different from the NYSE in this respect.

A first step that all of us can take is to switch our investments to stock exchanges that are professionally managed. The stock market is an adequate model of the 'regulated capitalism' that Nicolas Sarkozy would like to reinvent.

You can build a resilient portfolio of valuable stocks regardless of what happens in Washington and Wall Street. You can enjoy dividends that beat the bank rate, liquidity when you need it, and overall, financial security. Business Management has all the prescriptions you need. Write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com or post below if you would like my help in building a portfolio of top stocks. 

Take a Cue from Amazon.com to Avoid the Stock Market Crisis Backlash

Who does not want the stock market nightmare to end? Well, contrary investors may not delight at widespread misery of other stock market players, but it is certainly time for them to make judicious purchases of the best stocks. Forward Price to Earnings Ratios are not widely known, but professional business analyses will show that the best stocks are now available as nearly incredible bargains.

Business modeling holds the key. As Presidential hopefuls love to say, it is 'time for change'. Business organizations that have spent the best part of a decade hobnobbing with the powers-that-be in Washington, are on their way out with the present incumbent of the White House-Thank God! New kids-on-the block are about to take over the center-stages of all stock exchanges. It is time for a new financial order, which favors customer value and most productive uses of all resources.

Write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com or post below for a detailed exposition on why the pioneer in online business is such a helpful clue. Amazon.com is a gold standard for all corporations that wish to sail in to the waters of the new Millennium with their pennants flying. Amazon.com is just one example. There are plenty of other top stock picks out there.

You just need to know where to look, but hurry before everyone gets wise.

Contain the Truth to Build a Valuable Stock and Investment Portfolio

'Dog eat dog' works best in stock investment and retirement financial planning. It is wrong to pour blame on Dick Cheney alone for his Halliburton shenanigans. Most of Washington and Wall Street do the same things when it comes to personal financial worth over the interests of the rest of us.

Private enterprise in the financial world is mostly about how to contain the truth. Both buyer and seller of stock or any security cannot be right: one party to every stock market transaction, with notable exceptions of exchanges, analysts, and brokers, has got the numbers wrong. It is either time to buy or to sell, it cannot be both.

'Join 'em if you cannot beat 'em' is not just a hackneyed adage. Either work the system to your benefit, or lie back and get victimized. This is the essential difference between Lehmann and AIG.

I envy those who are close to the administration. They can take all the risks they like, and use public funds and unlimited budgetary deficits for bail-outs. The rest of us have to work diligently and daily to built financial portfolios to see dependants through lives in retirement.

Do your financial advisers and the sources of information on which you depend 'contain the truth'. Post below of write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com if you have reliable ways to play the stock market, or if you want leads, free of hidden agendas and motives, to top stocks on which you can bank for financial security and freedom.

Business Relevance for Top Stock Picks

Customers are not responsibilities of sales personnel alone. Everyone from the Chief Executive down to the bottom of the organization must be focused on meeting customer needs.

Customers are internal as well. Staff functions should view their line colleagues as people they must serve. Modern organizations also see higher levels of managers as responsible for meeting performance needs of their subordinates.

Not all customers are consumers. Sellers and regulators are important categories  of customers. Sustained business performance demands that their needs are understood and met. How can stock investors discern the customer-orientation of a corporation?

One answer may lie in business relevance. How vital are the products and services of a company? Pharmaceutical companies with their life-saving drugs are top examples of enterprises that deliver steady stock investment returns through undeniable social relevance. It is easy to criticize these companies for their rapacious pricing, but the truth is that we cannot do without them.

It is in this light that I would like to recommend Neogen Corporation (NASDAQ: NEOG) for your stock portfolio. What can be more important than keeping our food supplies free of pathogens? The company is debt-free. Its Gross Margin has topped 50% over the last five years. Sales have grown steadily by more than 16% during this period. There is virtually unlimited scope for the company to expand globally.

Post below or write to drsbanerji@gmail.com for more stock picks to embellish your investment portfolio.

Which Nanotechnology Stock is Best for You?

Words can be misleading. Nanotechnology is a typical example that plagues stock investors most particularly. Most people in the stock exchange ring hear this term but are ashamed to admit that they do not understand its full meaning. However, no one can argue that it will shape industry in the years to come. Every portfolio needs nanotechnology stocks. Corporations that do not embrace nanotechnology will decline, and hence investors need to be wary on this front as well.

Nanotechnology originates from different streams. This recognition holds the key to profitable stock investment in the sector. Blue-sky research is typical of academic institutions. This is all very well for knowledge, but can it make money? Investment in unproven technologies is a major barrier to success in picking top nanotechnology stocks.

Alphabet rounds are variations of putting money in to risky nanotechnologies. Some researchers are also canny entrepreneurs. Others lack business management skills. That is why leading lights of the academic world do not always succeed when they step in to a business ring. Angel investing sounds nice but it can put your savings to severe risks.

Nanotechnology in the Research and Development functions of established and professionally-run organizations is your best route to stock investment. This genre of corporation has a global vision, and the muscles bring cutting-edge technologies to market. The Delphi technique is a useful adjunct to stock investment in nanotechnology.

Post below or write to drsbanerji@gmail.com if you would like leads to some of the best stocks in nanotechnology. Add weight and value to your portfolio through nanotechnology.

A Stock to Treasure for Generations

Some of the best stock investments transcend generations. History is replete with such instances. You buy something nearly worthless today, but it becomes a precious heirloom over time. Most families that have inherited dream portfolios may not even know how little the assets were worth when they were first acquired.

Trans-generational wealth creation can happen by chance, but it can also be planned. It is a matter of using your domain expertise to find exponential growth opportunities. Here is an example of a penny stock that I believe will be worth fortunes tomorrow:

Cord Blood America Incorporated (OTC: CBAI)

Post below or write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com for more leads of this genre. I do not hold CBAI stocks or have any association with the corporation. 

Why the AIG Bailout is Misplaced

Ordinary citizens need protection before highly-paid executives and wealthy owners of blocks of stocks. 

The priority in the AIG debacle is to rescue folk who have insured their families with this corporation. Washington should lose no time in issuing unequivocal assurances in this regard.

People who have invested in AIG stocks should review their portfolios. It is best to switch over to bonds if financial appraisal is not your cup of tea.

Finding new corporate owners for AIG is not government business. Strangely, this is all the Fed seems to be able to do.

AIG is not the last corporation to approach utter business failure. That is why we must assert our rights, and set priorities between various entities that have provided the inept AIG management with precious resources.

I invite your comments. Please post below. 

How to Survive the AIG Crisis

Risk management is like faith in God. We resort to it readily when in trouble, but tend to look askance when the going is good.

AIG could have used professional business management methods to steer clear of trouble. This may have resulted in some pedestrian quarters, but it would have left stock holders on high ground today.

The AIG story can happen to any of us. It is a consequence of disregarding serious risks because they are improbable. Here is a link to a quantitative approach:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=multifractals-explain-wall-street&sc=DD_20080916

An AIG-type crisis can also result from negligence. Fortunately, cash-strapped corporations are easy to pull out of trouble, provided that their assets are sound. Diligent regulation also helps.

AIG is a sound stock. The corporation is in trouble because of bad management. It is a rare opportunity for honest and capable executives to prove their skills.

Post below or write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com if you would like to know more about why the AIG stock remains valuable, what can be done to bail it out, and how you can avoid falling in to a cesspool of excess leverage.

Leverage Lehman Lessons for Your Stock Portolio

Exaggeration plagues the stock market world. Business channels on television are the worst culprits. They vacillate between uncalled-for praise of stocks on the up, and present pictures of doomsday at the slightest hiccup.

The investment bank crisis in the United States is neither a business management nor an investment matter in reality. Major sections of the world economy are stable and growing. There are scores of regional banks and savings & loan operations that remain unaffected by the whole sub-prime drama.

A corporation can perform satisfactorily in the midst of an economic crisis. Another may flounder even in a general upswing. Stock investment has never been a matter of following any herd. Rational analysis and objective review of facts are watchwords.

Risk management makes the difference between anticipation and hindsight in the stock exchange arena. Investment banking as a profession has adequate procedures to prevent bankruptcies. The Basel norms, prepared by professional bankers, are designed for this very purpose. The famous Wall Street names that hog headlines of shame today are the ones that have obstinately refused to follow the Basel norms. 

You can use risk management methods to build a resilient stock portfolio. Keep those dividend checks coming in even as the rest of the world weeps. Stay liquid and prepared to meet every adverse event. Financial utopia cannot be reached in a day, but it is never too late to start.

Post below or write to me at drsbanerji@gmail.com if you would like to take this further.

Stock Quotes and the Stock Market Crash

It is natural to want a doctor more when you feel unwell than when it is time for a routine medical examination.

Strangely, you do not find many reassurances from economists, regulators, and business management schools on the stock market crash. Is this not when we all want to escape the Lehmann debris?

My advice for today is to buy bargain stocks, Forget about the crash because it is not controllable in your individual hands. Do not fret about where the bottom is. No one can know for sure. Focus on dividend records. Pick stocks that have histories of steady dividends, and buy the ones with the best Forward P/E Ratios.

You might lose notionally in the short-term with such an approach, but the chances of handsome gains in the long-term are bright.

Post below or write to drsbanerji@gmail.com if you would like recommendations on individual stocks. I specialize in North American stock markets.