This'n'That; November 4th[Local Elections]

I Voted-Did You? I left the house at 5:30 this morning. The "missus" works early, so we went to be some of the first in line. We were numbers 10 and 11 in the line. It kinda went downhill from there.... See the "e-mail" below that I sent to the Commissioner of Elections, Monroe County, Rochester, N.Y. Peter M. Quinn Thomas F. Ferrarese Monroe County [N.Y.] Commissioner[s] of Elections Sirs: In what may well become one of the most important elections of the Twenty-First Century, I witnessed unconscionable performance by members of your staff. Initially, our polling place had changed so over the weekend, my wife and I attempted to go to the address listed to ensure we'd find it on Election Day with no trouble. NOT SO !!! We cruised up and down Goodman Street checking building numbers. We saw nearly all the numbers EXCEPT 836 North Goodman. After 4 or 5 attempts we gave up and went home to "Google" the address. Guess what popped up ? A boarded-up house and the back of a strip mall !!! On Monday, my wife called the Election Offices to get more specific directions. Think ANYONE in the office could tell her anything ? You're right-not a soul had a clue as to the location !!! Your office is to be commended for hiding our polling place so well. We discovered it though, tucked well out o sight in the "Goodman Plaza." The real clincher here, sirs, is that we arrved at the polling place at 5:50AM, a full ten minutes before the scheduled opening time. Care to hazard a guess as to when the doors FINALLY OPENED ? You're wrong this time.............. The first person walked into the building at 6:43AM !!! The "unconscionable" portion of this scenario is that the on-site staff was completely unprepared !!! We watched while the staff stood around chatting an presumabily discussing what should be done. Apparently they arrived at a concensus. They scurried around the room hanging th reqired signs and maps; set up and arranged tables and chairs and then waited for the arrival of SOMEONE WHO HAD KEYS TO THE VOTING MACHINE !!! [Does the concept "pre-planning" jog any thoughts here ?] I watched four folks leave the line, having to go to work. Their "window of opportunity" had closed to vote eary in the day, thus avoiding the usual afternoon crush of voters. Gentlemen, is there some future election at which the voting public can expect at least MINIMUM PERFORMANCE from your office? ME Rochester, N.Y. Til Nex'time............

This'n'That, November 3rd[Stocks;Mutual Funds]

Well, Tomorrow Is The Big Day As they say in Chicago [and adopted by ACORN]: "Vote early-Vote OFTEN!!! Retirement Funds As with almost everyone else, my IRA is down, WAY DOWN!! Since the first of the year, mine has dropped 47%!! Dropped so far that I'm considering changing fund families. The account is currently in a family that I've dealt with for probably twenty years. I'm considering changing to another family that I've previously dealt with, although not for as long nor with as much money. The Stock Market And Stocks My active [non-retirement] stock account is down about 65%. I don't expect a very quick recovery so I'm planning on selling the bulk of the losers prior to December 31st. The sale[s] will generate a deduction from my taxable earnings. I have some that the proceeds of a sale WILL NOT cover the cost of the transaction!! These I'll hold, only because it would be a net expense to sell them. At my on-line trading site, I've established several "watch lists." Each list is separated by objective, like dividend paying, penny stocks, depressed blue chips. Anyone who knows me very well has heard about my greatest investing coup; that of buying Siris Satellite Radio [SIRI] @ $0.60 and selling @ $7.75, a nearly 1,300% gain!! Well, SIRI has caught my eye once again. Last Friday it closed at $0.338. Siris Satellite Radio recently merged with XM Satellite Radio, making the new company [SIRI] THE ONLY PROVIDER of satellite radio informtion and entertainment. One can set a vehicle satellite radio to a particular channel and drive from "beach-to-beach" and "border-to-border" and NEVER LOSE THE SIGNAL!! I guess the best definition of my investing philosophy is that I'm a "purchase-price driven investor." As a long-haul trucker, I always had XM Radio in my trucks, but invested in Siris due to the stock's price. At the time of my sixty-cent purchase, XM stock was in the 12-dollar range. In the "Blue Chip" sector, one I'm watching is General Motors [GM]. Last Friday GM closed at $5.79. Just about a year ago [11/01/07] the stock closed at $38.80. Given recent activities involving Chrysler, it's hard to tell how long GM will take to return to a positive financial path. Nevertheless, GM is still considered a blue chip stock and as such, should be considered a sound investment. Another automotive stock to consider is Ford Motor Co [F]. Last Friday F closed at $2.19. A year before [11/05/07] it closed at $8.99. Five years ago, Ford was in the $15.50 range. Ford seems to have a lot of room for advancement once the general economy sorts itself out. As a sometime NASCAR fan, I'm continually searching for racetrack and race team stocks. NASCAR itself, is what's called a "closely-held" corporation. The France family and possibly a few close friends own all the stock in the organization. I suspect that there's one of those "sell it to me, first" agreements amongst the current stockholders. NEVER do shares of NASCAR come available to "commoners" like you and me. Sofar, I've been able to find the following three racetrack stocks. Dover Motorsports, Inc [DVD] has racing venues in Dover, Del., Memphis, Tn., Nashville, Tn., and St Louis, Mo. Last Friday DVD closed at $2.14. Earlier this year [01/29/08], DVD closed at $7.68. DVD pays a quarterly dividend [annual rate: 2.8%]. Speedway Motorsports, Inc [TRK], closed last Friday at $15.95. A year ago [11/06/07], it closed at $38.77. TRK pays an annual dividend at the rate of 2.13%. International Speedway Corp [ISCA] closed last Friday at $31.39; a year ago [11/13/07] at $45.31. ISCA pays an annual dividend at the [dismal] rate of 0.38%. Remember: Due Diligence!! Ji cuz I like a stock certainly don't make it a good investment!! One has to do his/her due diligence, researcing all the "nooks and crannies" to find any and all information concerning an interesting stock. Some metrics the investor should know and search out during the research process are: ***Net Profit Margin [net pretax profit divided by revenue]: The bottom line-the amount the company has left over after every other expense is taken out. ***Gross Profit Margin [gross profit divided by revenue]: It's the company's revenue minus what it costs to make the product/produce the service. ***EBITDA Margin [EBITA divided by revenue]: This is used by companies as a shorthand measure of cash flow. EBITDA is Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization. ***Return on Equity [net income divided by total equity]: The return investors [shareholders] are realizing on their investment. ***Return On Assets [net income divided by total assets]: The net income generated for each dollar of assets. Especially relevent for capital-intensive industries, like manufacturing. ***Interest Coverate Ratio [EBITDA divided by interest expense]: This rougly shows how easily a company can repay it's debts. ***Debt To Equity Ratio [total liabilities divided by total equity]: What the company owes compared with what it owns. ***Inventory Days [inventory divided by cost of goods sold, multiplied by 365]: The amount of time it takes to convert inventory into sales. ***Accounts Payable Days [accouts payable divided by the cost of goods sold, multiplied by 365]: The average number of days a company takes to pay it's bills. ***Accounts Receivable Days [accouts receivable divided by sales, multiplied by 365]: The aerage number of days a company's customers take to pay them. ***Current Ratio [total current assets divided by total current liabilities]: The amount of cash [or assets easily converted to cash] on hand. ***Quick Ratio [cash+accounts receivable divided by total current liabilities]: Similar to the "current ratio," this is a good measure of a company's short-term cash position. The Jeep Compass Has anyone driven one of these? We got rear-ended in our 2007 Honda Accord a coupla weeks ago. The car "was admitted" into the repair shop this morning. The other guy's insurance provided for a rental car. We were unlucky enough to get a 2009 Jeep Compass. Man, I DO NOT LIKE this vehicle!! It has an automatic transmission [naturally!!] and the way it shifts is kinda funky. Ya hafta push the floor-mounted shift lever sideways to advance "up" the drive range; like from D-1 through D-6. G-O-O-F-Y!!!! If I was given one of these today, I'd sell/trade it "before the sun went down!!!" Til Nex-time........