STOCK MARKET MONSTER

A Positive Spin On Your 401K

2018-06-23T16:06:00.001-04:00

A Positive Spin On Your 401K

I had a recent conversation regarding the fact that many people aren't taking advantage of their employers 401K program. This is very shocking to me as it's one of the easiest ways to add additional money to your retirement. I decided to go back and update the original article I posted back in 2010. The numbers are updated to reflect the current investing landscape. Enjoy!

Investing in your 401K is essential. Everyone should be taking advantage of their 401K program at work. And I mean everyone! If you have a 401K program you already know that it has many great advantages.

1. Tax deferred. You don't have to pay taxes on your contributions until you retire.

2. 401K reduces your taxable income. This could potentially put you in a lower tax bracket.

3. Employer Match. Many employers offer a match to your contribution. An example would be .50 on every $1.00 you contribute up to 6% of your annual salary. (Plans may vary)

4. 401K money comes right out of your check. You never see the money and its a great way to force yourself to invest for your future.

Those 4 examples are reasons to take advantage of your 401K. I would like to add another advantage that is straight up mind blowing! (The only catch is your employer must match your contributions)

Investing in your 401K is essentially a hidden raise from your employer. Everyone wants a raise. Right? Here is a perfect opportunity for a raise and you don't even have to be a standout employee at your work. I will explain. Get ready!

Example:

-Your current salary is $48,000 and your employer matches .50 for every $1.00 up to 6% of your annual salary.

- 6% of your salary is $2,880. That means your employer will contribute up to $1,440 a year.

-Add that $1,440 to your $48,000 and you just received a 3% raise. That's the easiest 3% you will ever earn.

You may argue that you are decreasing your annual income by $2,880 since that is what you must contribute to take advantage of the match from your employer. You are correct! The raise is being deposited into your retirement account. Your technically not losing any money. You are moving your money to an account that shouldn’t be used until retirement. You are getting a raise that has delayed gratification written all over it! Now check out these numbers! The numbers below provide the evidence behind a once in a lifetime raise. A phenomenal deal by your employer that you can't refuse!

-Next we will take the $1,440 that your employer matched from your $2,880 contribution and invest it in the stock market for 30 yrs. (You could have multiple employers over the 30 yrs)

-I like to use a 9% return as this is roughly what the S&P 500 has returned historically.

-Take the $1,440 contributed for 30 yrs at a 9% rate of return and you get $213,948.31. (Total contribution of $43,200 from your employer.)

-Now take the $213,948.31 and divide by 30. You get roughly $7,131.

Your employer just gave you a $7,131 raise over 30 years. Add that to your $48,000 annual salary and your new salary is $55,131. I call this the delayed gratification raise! I'll take that raise all day long!

In the end your 3% delayed raise from your employer turned out to be a 14.85% raise

$7,131/$48,000 = .1485 or 14.85% My suggestion to all is to go into work Monday morning and give yourself a 14.85% delayed gratification raise. You deserve it!

I'm not done just yet. While your employer was contributing $1,440 you were also putting in $2,880 ($7.89 a day) a year.

That means over 30 yrs your total contributions would be $4,320 a year. Invest that number at 9% for 30 yrs. and you will have accumulated roughly $641,844.94! It's that simple.

That’s a nice chunk of change for taking advantage of an employer’s match. Along the path of 30 years I would expect you would be adding value to your employer in return for additional compensation. That would change the math and the $641,844.94 would be the low end of the range for retirement. With compound interest on your side there is great potential for higher returns.

A 9% return seems conservative compared to the recent returns in the market, but I also want everyone to have a realistic retirement. It all depends on what window of history you wish to choose to get your information. Over the past 5 years the S&P 500 has returned roughly 14.50%. If you used the same math as above, you will have accumulated $1,947,805.58. I don’t anticipate those returns to continue, but as you can see it’s a substantially different outcome. The point is to start early and invest for your future. Eventually your money will be working for you!

Happy Investing!

Clay-$$$

Questions-feel free to send an email to wheatleycsmk@gmail.com

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

The financial cost of eating out for lunch

2018-06-17T10:50:00.001-04:00

The financial cost of eating out for lunch

Today I’m going to discuss the true financial cost of eating out for lunch. You may be wondering as to where I’m going with this. Some people may say, eating out is no big deal. Everyone does it. I deserve to treat myself. Since this is a investing blog there will be a investing twist. I noticed over the years of my 20+ years of being in the workforce that eating out can get expensive. I for one enjoy going out to lunch on occasion, but predominantly I pack a lunch daily. This has always been a topic of discussion and a thought I have had for many years that eating out is very costly overtime. I never decided to truly investigate up until a couple weeks ago I bought McDonald's for my wife and I. I don’t remember the exact dollar amount, but the total was over $13.00.

The $13.00 bill caught my attention. I said you must be kidding me talking to myself and laughing as I pulled away from the McDonald's drive thru. That is when I decided to dig a little deeper and quantify the true cost of eating out. I’m going to use my favorite fast food spots and food selections to run the numbers. Now instead of spending money on eating out I wanted to see what that same money invested in the stock market based off an average 8% rate of return would look like. I based the length of time invested off 20, 25 and 30 years. The results were amazing. See for yourself!

-McDonald's-Quarter Pounder with cheese meal/$6.35

-Panera- Frontega Chicken/$8.55

-Jimmy Johns- Turkey Tom/$5.59

There is an ever-growing concern of people not having enough money saved for retirement. The primary objective behind analyzing eating out for lunch was to provide one of the many ways to uncover money that we could use for retirement. By saving as little as $5.59 a week by choosing to not eat out once a week will provide you with $52,596 invested for 30 years at an average 8% return towards retirement. You can see by the numbers that contributing more will only put every one of us in a better position financially for retirement. It’s never too late to start. Hopefully, I was able to provide a different perspective on how to save. That by choosing to save a little money over time can turn into a substantial amount of money. Compound interest is a beautiful thing and should utilized on the path towards retirement.

Below is the compound interest calculator I used to provide the numbers given in the examples. It’s a very helpful tool to use to get a quick answer on compounded returns.

http://moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm

Have a wonderful weekend!

Clay-

Questions-feel free to send an email to wheatleycsmk@gmail.com

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

The Big Picture Of Investing

2017-04-30T08:40:00.000-04:00

Good Morning,

I was reading through some old posts and this is a good one to recycle back into 2017. I may not be posting new information, but I still have the fire of investing. This was originally posted in June of 2012. Happy Reading!!!

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about investing as a whole. Why do people invest? Why don't people invest? What's the best way to invest? What's the best company to invest in? And the list goes on with all the questions that ran through my mind. I'm going to tell you what I think.

Investing in stocks is a way to leverage profits generated from great companies over many years in hopes for a nice return on your investment. Investing is a tool to reach your particular financial goal. Goals that may include saving for your children's college, supplemental income, funding for charity/programs and retirement. Of course I hear people say investing in stocks is risky! Those are usually the people that think investing in CD's and savings accounts is a good idea. Or they have no money because they own one of everything. That my friends is keeping up with the Joneses! I can address both of these issues and suggest a way to have your money working for you.

I don't mean to offend anyone that may own CD's or have a substantial amount of money in their savings account, but I believe investing in stocks is a better alternative.

I would never invest in CD's aka Certificate of Deposit. Never! Never! Never! Here's why.

Current Example: 10 yr CD Rate vs. stock that pays the same dividend yield

$10,000 investment

10 yr CD Rate 2.23% $10,000 would roughly turn into $12,467.62 That's about $246.76 a year.

Now you may say well if the rates are the same it should return the same amount of money. This is true, but stocks offer dividend reinvestment, appreciation in the stock price, and increased dividend payout. That's the game changer!

A stock that raises its dividend distribution 10% annually for 10 yrs would turn into $14,840.08 That's $2,372.46 more than the same amount of money invested. Almost double the money! Obviously doing this for 30-40 yrs would be substantial to your portfolio.

At 30 yrs $10,000 invested in a CD with a rate of 2.23% would turn into $19,379.87

30 yrs with a stock that pays a 2.23% dividend yield and raises dividend distribution 10% annually (Remember dividends are reinvested) turns into a whopping $433,637.11 Over 30 yrs annualized return with dividends reinvested equates to 13.39% return on your money.

Obviously, this is purely an example and is very realistic for a company to increase dividends at a rate of 10%. That means the CD investors are missing out on a lot of money! $400,000 of cold hard cash. Even if I'm off by a bit the return on dividend paying companies that increase their dividend payout consistently overtime will destroy a CD!!!!! The risk is well worth the reward...

CD rates will go up over the next 30 years, but you get the point!

The example above shows that $10,000 of your money has the potential to turn into something great! Using stocks as a vehicle to generate the money for you. Imagine trying to save $400,000 on your own. Let's say you made $50,000 a year and saved roughly 10% or $5000 per year. Without the help of an investment vehicle compounding over time it would take 80 years to save that kind of money. That means at my current age of 30 I would be able to save $400,000 by the time I'm 110. No thanks man!

Now as for a savings account the interest is much worse and I don't consider this an investment. A savings account is meant for emergencies and short term liquidity. Having 3-6 months of expenses in a savings account is the most anyone should have tied up in something that isn't keeping up with inflation. Once your savings is built I would put the rest of your money to work for you. Consider each dollar you save as an employee. Invest in assets not liabilities, whether it be equities, real estate, commodities etc etc.... Overtime your money will grow aka your employees and you will have a nice chunk of change generating income every year. Eventually, your money will create enough income to replace your earnings you bring in as an employee, which in turn leads to retirement! Retirement or a choice to do anything your heart desires... It's always great to have choices.

Lastly, the part of about keeping up with the Joneses is by far the biggest wealth destroyer. It's sad to see people deeply in debt because they want to impress their friends. Continually buying stuff that you can't afford over your lifetime will put you in the poor house. The only person you are making rich are the banks and credit card companies. The next time you buy something think to yourself do I really need this crap? Most of the time its a want and not a need. Buying toys overtime is good in moderation. Just think! Eventually your investments will generate enough income that you can go buy anything that you would like. Buying stuff you can't afford early on in life will dramatically slow down your opportunity to create tremendous wealth. I promise you that! I was that guy in college. I was so broke I couldn't even think straight! I have learned from my mistakes early on in my life and I'm grateful for that.

This is the reason why I'm so passionate about teaching others to invest for their future. The winning equation is to buy more assets than liabilities throughout our lives. That's it! Plain and simple.

Have a great night!

Clay

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Caterpillar Q2 2012 Earnings Breakdown!

2012-08-08T21:43:00.001-04:00

So I was able to put in a little work last weekend. I listened to CAT and Westport's conference call. Both calls were very positive. I want to focus on Caterpillar's numbers tonight. LOL! Only because I wrote down the key stats of the call. Westport will come later. Apple and Weatherford are still in the Que. I can happily say all of these stocks are up quite substantially since the last time I wrote!

I know a lot of you are looking for a Westport (WPRT) update. The progress towards natural gas infrastructure and the adoption of this phenomenal technology is gaining tremendous momentum! If that isn't enough of a sneak peak, then all I can say is there was a reason for the +12.86% pop last Friday 08/03. Westport has a great future! I can say that my largest stake in all of my brokerage accounts is in Westport Innovations. I'm putting my money where my mouth is!

Now let's move onto the Peoria Power House! Better known as Caterpillar! (CAT) Another great performance. I wouldn't expect nothing less than greatness!

Let the list begin

-Had record quarterly profits. The highest profit in it's 87 year history
-yoy $2.54 eps vs. $1.52 (earnings per share) That's a 67.10% increase vs last year!
-Sales and Revenue came in at $17.374 billion vs. $14.230 billion (a 22.0% increase vs 2011)
-Full year outlook increased from $9.50 a share to $9.60 on roughly 68-70 billion in revenue
-Inventories decreased in China, as equipment has been allocated to other areas of the world
-Backlog of equipment is still at a solid $28.2 billion (An increase of 11% vs last year)
-Gas compression business is doing quite well
-Some mining equipment have lead times into 2014
-A 31% organic growth in mining

This is a small list that I derived from the call, but this is only the start. From what I heard Caterpillar's management is confident in their earnings outlook through 2012. They did provide caution in China and slow growth in United States and other areas of the world for 2012, but did mention they see a brighter future in 2013. That being said we are investing for the future earnings! With the continued monetary easing in China and other areas of the world CAT believes this will help improve the global economy, which should spark growth in the next 12-24 months. With the current commodity prices many companies still continue to have an appetite for CAT's equipment. The backlog is impressive and should be a positive indicator as to the strength of this company.

In my personal opinion CAT has more than came through this quarter. Even with the economic headwinds this company was able to generate record profits. The management is excellent and they know how to execute to create strong results. Although caution was given the stock has been destroyed. At $87.22 a share the stock is trading at a P/E of 9.75 vs the S&P 500 P/E of 14.6. This is substantially lower. CAT should easily be trading at the same P/E level as the S&P 500. Put that into the equation and this stock would be trading at $130.00 a share. Last earnings call I mentioned Caterpillar should be trading at $130.00 a share by year end and I believe it still has a chance. If anything it should break through its 52 week high of $116.95 by year end. A 35% price appreciation in the next 5 months is definitely not out of the question.

In the end CAT is a steal at $87 a share and should be bought at these price levels. Once it blows through $92 a share the momentum will carrier this solid company past the $100 mark and onto its 52 week high! Plus the stock currently pays a dividend that provides a 2.40% yield

Currently I have a nice position in Caterpillar and plan on purchasing more in the near future. I have confidence and so should you!

Have a great night!

Clay-

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Big Earnings Week For My Favorites!

2012-07-23T22:08:00.000-04:00

Apple (AAPL) Reports tomorrow. Always a solid earnings report. If they beat earnings I expect a nice pop in after hours. Can the Monster of the stock market continue on? We will find out tomorrow after the market closes.

Weatherford International (WFT) reports tomorrow. Obviously, this stock hasn't had a very good run. The oil service giant SLB and BHI did fairly well because of international strength. The oil service companies usually trade together so I expect a good number from WFT.

Caterpillar (CAT) The Peoria Powerhouse! Cat reports on Wednesday 07/25/12. This one is a toss up. Cat hit a high of $116.95 on February 24th and is trading at a huge bargain. I still have confidence that CAT will prevail. Their earnings may disappoint with the downward pressure from the international markets, but I believe this news is already baked into the stock price. CAT is at rock bottom prices. That's all I'm going to say!

As usual I will be picking apart all three of these companies and will have a full report over the next few weeks on my take for the future of these companies.

Have a great night!

Clay-

Full Disclosure: I personally own CAT

The Big Picture Of Investing

2012-06-20T20:44:00.001-04:00

Brutal!!!

2012-05-30T21:28:00.000-04:00

The stock market has been brutal! There is no place to hide lately. All I can tell you is to ride it out. Keep current with all the news on your current stock holdings. If everything is sound with your investments pay no attention to the outside noise. Europe is the biggest drag on the market and all stocks good or bad have been taken down. The only strategy that will help you lose less money is to shift your holdings into good dividend paying stocks. I on the other hand will continue to hold my high flyers. When the smoke clears the growth stocks will snap back the quickest. Until Europe gets it's act together the pain continues....

Clay-

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Westport Innovations +12.41% today

2012-05-23T22:21:00.001-04:00

All I'm going to say is Westport Innovations (WPRT) up +30.70% in 4 days. Looks like some big money is flowing back into this growth machine. Keep a close eye on this fast mover.

Have a great night!

Clay-

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Quick post... The pitfalls of growth stocks

2012-05-10T22:25:00.001-04:00

So I made a big bet on Westport (WPRT) and thus far I have been wrong. LOL! That's the risk you take when investing. I moved in hard in the low 30's and have been punished by the short sellers. Westport's earnings call for Q1 2012 on Tuesday was actually quite good in terms of progress. I know they lost more money than they did vs. last year's quarter, but they are increasing sales quite nicely. I think this stock has been taken down beyond what is right. I know the nay sayers would argue that this company hasn't turned a profit in years, but you have to fuel the growth some how! You need cash.. And enough cash is what they have. If their wasn't progress than I would say the heck with this stock. I believe Westport will surprise everyone especially the short sellers in the coming weeks. I'm looking for a short squeeze in the near term. There needs to be a catalyst to change the aggressive downward trend. I'm confident WPRT's management will have some good news to get the big fish investors back on board. Plus a change needs to be made because I'm sick of losing money!

I'm still a big Westport Innovations fan even if I lose a little cash in the short term. I didn't expect this high growth engine to get cut in half in the past few months, but it happens to the best of them. The thing with growth stocks is as followed...

When any negative news poses a threat to the growth of a fast growing company investors do not hesitate to turn on a once loved company. The money will flow out like a huge hole in a boat and the short sellers will step in to accelerate the downturn. When this happens the momentum takes over and stocks go down until the sellers are exhausted. This is what happened to Westport. Other growth companies have gone through the same thing. Here are just a few stocks that had similar rapid downfalls.

Starbucks (SBUX)
Hansen Natural (MNST) AKA Monster Energy Drinks
NetFlix (NFLX)
Taser (TASR)

A few of the companies have rebounded nicely from when they plummeted, but rapid growth can't continue forever and neither can straight up stock prices. It hurts to see your money slip through your hands from time to time, but the excitement of catching the next big trend is always worth the risk in my eyes.

Stay positive with WPRT. Loyal shareholders will prevail.

Have a great night!

Clay-

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Caterpillar 2012 Q1 Results

2012-05-02T22:29:00.001-04:00

Caterpillar (CAT) had yet another record breaking quarter! That's right a record breaking quarter! So what gives with the stock price? I have yet to understand some of the price action of late, but the Peoria Powerhouse isn't one to shy away from. I can tell you from the conference call that business is good. Real good! The only thing that could have be taken as a negative is a slow down in China, but yet increased activity in the US should offset the current weakness.

I know that China is always seen as a growth engine for business and that investors panic when they see the slightest bit of negative news coming out of China. However, in Caterpillar's case there is no need to fret. China is a very small portion of CAT sales. Only 3% Yes maybe later down the road China will be a huge growth driver for CAT, but as of right now I wouldn't put to much thought into the slow down in China. Management has already put plans in place to reduce the glut of inventory in China to shift/export to other markets that are on allocation. The US market performed very well and the oil and gas business is on fire! On top of that CAT raised its 2012 profit outlook.

Q1 2012 vs Q1 2011

EPS was $2.37 vs. $1.84 a 28.80% increase

Sales were $15.981 billion vs. $12.949 billion Another 23.41% improvement

Profit was $1.586 billion vs. $1.225 billion

Other positives of note was an increased backlog of Caterpillar products bringing the total from $29.8 billion to $30.7 billion, global mining business is strong in China, operating margins were solid, backlog in mining equipment, and a 73% increase in the resource industry. That means mining! Mining is huge for CAT at the moment and I don't see any slowdown any time soon.

From the numbers and conservative outlook I still believe CAT will be trading north of $130 a share by the end of the year. CAT is still a solid buy in my book.

P.S. I also listened to Weatherford's (WFT) conference call over the weekend and they are still good to go. They started off to a slow start, but business should pick up during the second half of the year.

Have a great night!

Clay-

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Stock Talk In 150 Words Or Less

2012-04-24T20:44:00.000-04:00

-Apple (AAPL) has yet another blow out quarter. $39.2 Billion in revenues. 35.1 million iPhone’s were sold in the 1^st qtr of 2012. Boom!

-Weatherford International (WFT) had a solid quarter. Revenues came in at $3.6 Billion, which was 25.87% higher than the same quarter last year.

-On deck for tomorrow is Caterpillar the Peoria Powerhouse! I’m very eager to see how well CAT did in the 1^st quarter. I need some good numbers to blow past the 52 week high of $116.95. At $108.40 its 29.15% off my price target by year-end of $140. Let’s go CAT!!!

-Now after CAT is all said and done the plan is to listen to the conference calls to project the future trend of my closely followed companies

P.S. Westport… What the heck!!! All I can do is grit my teeth in disgust and wait patiently for the tide to turn.

Full Disclosure
Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT) Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

I'm Back!!!!

2012-04-17T19:39:00.001-04:00

I first would like to start out and say it’s great to be back! Do to some unforeseen circumstances I was unable to blog for the past 4 weeks. Unfortunately the past 4 weeks have been devastating to the stock market, at least for those stocks that I follow. The only stock that held up was Apple (AAPL), which has pulled back off its high of $644.00 a share. No worries as Apple can buck the trend of most markets as Apple is in a world of its own!

Earnings have started off pretty well and it appears as of today that buyers are starting to step back into the market. The headlines have been pretty negative as worry that the economy is slowing in the US, China, etc, housing issues, high oil prices, European trouble, and banking issues to name a few. If I listened to this garbage day in and day out I would never invest in stocks. As an investor you have to look past all the negative news and filter out all the junk that is being put onto the news wires. I scan each of my investments throughout the week and look for anything that could negatively impact the business. If the story hasn’t changed I continue to own that particular investment. Of course the price of the stock may go down during that period of time, but that is to be expected. The reason I’m bringing the subject of negative news is mainly focused on the recent price action in Westport Innovations (WPRT)

Westport has been recently brought back down the earth. After hitting an all time high of $50.19 on March 21^st 2012 it has plummeted roughly 33% as of yesterday’s close of $33.47 a share. Talk about being punched in the gut! Very disappointing! This downturn could force someone to quit investing in stocks all together. I’m here to tell you not to panic. This has happened before too many high flying growth companies and they have rebounded nicely after a sharp downturn. Since I started investing in Westport back in July of 2010 the stock has had extreme volatility. On 4 occasions WPRT has went from peak to trough in excess of 25%. Below is a list of date ranges to where WPRT traded crazy!

July 27^th 2010 high $21.34
Aug 25^th 2010 low $15.51

Equates to a 27.32% downturn

April 6^th 2011 high $27.90

June 8^th 2011 low $19.66

Equates to a 29.53% downturn

July 13^th 2011 high $28.05

Aug 8^th 2011 low $20.01

Equates to a 28.66% downturn

Sep 20^th 2011 high $34.23
Oct 4^th 2011 low $22.63

Equates to a 33.88% downturn

As you can see this isn’t out of the ordinary for Westport to trade from one extreme to the other. Don’t worry about the wild price movements. If negative news comes out that is detrimental to the company then I would be worried. Yeah I would like to side step downturns, but sometimes they aren’t avoidable. The story hasn’t changed for Westport. I wouldn’t put too much time into the recent news that Cheniere Energy (LNG) is building the first LNG export facility in the US. The US has an abundance of natural gas and one facility isn’t going to drive natural gas prices up over night. As of today natural gas has hit an all time low of $1.95! Some say it could hit $0.75. Westport will still benefit even if the price of natural gas goes up 50% it’s still a $1.00 cheaper than a gallon of gas. Also, remember that 150 fueling stations are being built as we speak to support the natural gas revolution. That’s right millions of dollars are being spent on natural gas taking hold as a major alternative to foreign oil. Be patient and WPRT will give back to loyal shareholders in the near future.

Clay-

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Westport Innovations (WPRT)-Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

I'm not a licensed financial advisor. All recommendations is strictly my personal opinion and the information is intended for learning purposes only. Invest at your own risk!

Westport Innovations (WPRT) Insider Buying!!!

2012-03-20T20:09:00.000-04:00

Westport Innovations is back on the radar! I just got done performing my daily research of my current holdings and I came across some information that must always be shared. That's right! Insider buying.

I'm surprised I didn't catch this over the weekend, but Kevin Douglas one of the largest shareholders purchased 500,000 shares or $22.3 million worth of stock. That is by far one of the largest insider purchases I have ever seen. The last time Kevin Douglas purchased stock was back on 07/16/2010 at much lower prices. Obviously, this guy made a ton of money since then! This recent purchase shows tremendous confidence in WPRT! $22.3 million worth of confidence. That's a lot of money to put on the line no matter who you are. Although, the stock has run up almost 10% since the buy, this purchase adds to the positive outlook for WPRT in 2012.

Money has been pouring into this company like crazy! Since the beginning of the year this stock has run up +46.54% All I can say is cha ching... $$$

Have a great night! Below is an update of my Monster Portfolio as of Friday 03/16/12

MONSTER PORTFOLIO 2011

Balance: Inception 01/07/11
$1,977.32 Stock
$13.65 Cash
Total $1,990.97

Balance: As of Friday 03/16/12

$2,988.66 Stock
$8.96 Cash
Total $2,997.62

Since Inception: 20.15%

Back out cash inflow and we have a balance of $2,392.12

Clay-

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:

Cosi Inc. (COSI)-Monster Portfolio
Caterpillar (CAT)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Westport Innovations (WPRT)
Weatherford International (WFT)-Monster Portfolio
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

No posts this week. (I'm a little under the weather)

2012-03-13T19:33:00.001-04:00

I'm a little under the weather today. I will be back in action next week.

At least the market had a great day!

Happy Trading!

Clay-

Westport (WPRT) will shine in 2012

2012-03-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone and welcome back!

First off I would to say I just bought some Westport Innovations (WPRT) in after hours today. I've been meaning to get back in and now I have some skin in the game. Very exciting!

Today I'm going to list the key points and the reasons why I believe Westport will shine in 2012. Here are the numbers of their recent earnings call.

Recent quarter results

-Record Revenue on the quarter $100.6 vs. $39.5 for the same period last year, an increase of 154.7%

-the key revenue drivers were Westport LD, CWI, and Westport HD

-Westport LD $22.6 million vs $7.8 million prior year period. An increase of 189.74% in revenues

-CWI $57.7 million vs. $31.1 million prior year period. An increase of 85.53% in revenues

-Westport HD $10.5 million vs. $0 prior year period

Full year results

-Consolidated revenues were $264.7 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011, an increase of 83.3% over the $144.4 million reported for calendar 2010.

-CWI revenue was $163.9 million, compared to $117.1 million in 2010; an increase of 40.0%.

-Westport LD revenue was $66.6 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011, up from $16.3 million in calendar 2010, an increase of 308.6%. Of this increase, $34.4 million came from the acquisition of Emer and AFV in 2011.

-Westport HD revenue was $19.9 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011, up from $7.0 million in calendar 2010, an increase of 185.4%.

-Weichai Westport Inc. (WWI) revenue reached $109.8 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011, up from $44.8 million in calendar 2010; an increase of 145.1%. Note that WWI is not consolidated and is accounted for using the equity method.

All numbers were pulled from the earnings call transcript on westport.com
http://www.westport.com/investors/financial

Key points from conference call

-2012 Revenue guidance between $400-$425 million

-Launch of Ford's F250, F350 in the 2^nd qtr. should add about $5 million in revenues for 2012

-trucking infrastructure is building faster in China than in North America, which means a large addressable market to be had in China

-Increased international growth

-interest developing in Europe due to high diesel prices

-engine in development to run engine for rail in 2013 and to be up and running in 2014

The information I have provided above is more than enough to tell you WPRT will thrive into 2012. The growth of each of their product lines is staggering. This environment is perfect for WPRT to capitalize on high oil prices. The management team did a phenomenal job in 2011 and have set this company up for success. Companies can no longer ignore the fact that natural gas is drastically cheaper than diesel. It makes complete sense for transportation to utilize a cheaper fuel. Westport already has quite a few big players on their side and it appears the automotive industry is taking notice.

When I first started investing in Westport I thought the United States government passing an energy bill would help WPRT. It's been over a year now and look where we are. Westport doesn't need the U.S. government to succeed and they proved that in 2011. They have so much going on I can't even keep track of all the companies that have shown interest in Westport's technology. The numbers don't lie. Accelerated revenue growth is all I need for this gem of a company. The cash they are using is fueling the growth of the business.

Although, WPRT reported a net loss of $60.2 million or a $1.26 a share on the year, you have to take into account the growth factor. They projected 2012 revenues to be roughly 50-60% higher vs. 2011. That's a whole lot of growth! Many companies start off losing money year after year, but as long as rapid growth is part of the formula and progress towards profitability continues there is no need to worry. What Westport is selling is a need. A need to cut fuel costs and reduce the reliability of foreign oil. It's a product that benefits both parties, but the big beneficiary will be WPRT after all the smoke clears!

What I'm trying to say is buy Westport and you should have some extra cash in your pockets for 2012. Any purchase between $37-$42 a share would be a solid price to get in on WPRT.

Have a great night!

P.S. I loaded up even more on WFT last week.

Clay-

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:

Cosi Inc. (COSI)

Caterpillar (CAT)

Procter & Gamble (PG)

Westport Innovations (WPRT)

Weatherford International (WFT)

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

WPRT-The Growth Machine

2012-03-04T09:54:00.001-05:00

I was able to sift through Westport Innovations (WPRT) recent earnings release and full year results over the weekend. I have to say that this company is growing like crazy. Although the company hasn't turned a profit, the tremendous growth keeps this stock powering higher. With crude oil prices highly elevated Westport's popularity will only increase with companies looking to save money on fuel costs. That being said I believe 2012 will be another year of strong growth for WPRT.

Come back on Tuesday as I will have the specific details on Westport. More $$$ will be made in the future.

Clay-

02/29/12

2012-02-29T19:24:00.004-05:00

Bought some more Weatherford International (WFT) last Thursday at $16.30 a share. With the action today it looks like I will be able to buy more at a cheaper price.

I'm still reading what Westport Innovations (WPRT) had to say today. The stock has come down rather quickly. It looks like they are improving, but they continue to burn a lot of cash.

More on WPRT this weekend.

Clay-

Weatherford... Destroyed Down -13.66%

2012-02-21T22:24:00.001-05:00

Today was very unexpected. What I can say from this disastrous day is diversification is your friend. Weatherford International (WFT) dropped the bomb today telling the whole world that they have had issues calculating their true tax rate. This will play a role in past financial statements from 2010 and prior. That being said the stock was destroyed!!!

Normally I would advise everyone to sell this stock, but I believe WFT is still a viable investment. A great opportunity to buy this company much lower. Now I'm not saying the stock will go up from here. Actually I think the opposite in the near future. It may waiver in the short term, but it will be much higher by the end of the year. The fact is business is booming for Weatherford and the tax issue occurred in the past and played no part on the actual growth of the company. From reading the earnings transcript business continues to strengthen for WFT and will continue into 2012. The key to the success of WFT is the continued improvements in the international business.

On a positive note WFT has admitted they had issues with calculating the effective tax rate, but has reassured investors that the tax rate will be under control in future earnings as management has had time to fully understand the tax structure of their business. I have weighed the positives vs. the negatives and I can assure you this stock will have a short term rocky road. What truly matters is the improvement in earnings through 2012 and in turn higher stock prices.

WFT is on my radar. I currently have a small position and plan on buying more in the near future. Weatherford may drop to 13 a share. Or it may not. I will buying more before this happens. I have confidence and so should you! Remember to never buy all at once. That way you will get the best price possible.

Have a great night!

Clay-

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)
Caterpillar (CAT)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Weatherford International (WFT)
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

First Monster Portfolio Purchase Of 2012

2012-02-14T16:12:00.001-05:00

Welcome back everyone! I made my first purchase of 2012 in my Monster Portfolio. And the winner is Weatherford International (WFT). I had the day off from work today and was able to buy some WFT on weakness. I have watched this stock rise and rise through the month of January and I decided to get in on the action!

Weatherford reports earnings next Tuesday 02/21/12 and I plan to utilize this day to try and make some money. 2012 will be another solid year for energy stocks and I ran the numbers on WFT and from the projected 2012 EPS this stock should be trading near $25.00 by the end of 2012. Currently WFT is trading around $17.25 a share. From the numbers I believe WFT has the potential to go much higher! A potential return in excess of 40% by year end. Obviously, this is based on projections, but if I'm half wrong this stock will be trading at $21.00 a share. I'm sure everyone wouldn't mind a 20% return on investment. That being said I bought a small position today at $17.27 a share. This stock has run up huge, but I still have plenty of money to spend if this gem heads even lower.

Also, I purchased some Caterpillar (CAT) today in another account. I mentioned last week that a good starting point to buy would be between $105-$110 a share. I'm not sure it will get there! I did a some more research and I uncovered that an insider purchased 1,000 shares of CAT stock back on 02/07 at $113.05 a share. This changed my mind! Large insider buying is added confidence that this stock will go higher. As I always say insiders buy stock to make money just like us. That being said I purchased some CAT stock at $114.06 a share. I ran the numbers and this stock should be trading north of $140.00 a share by year end. Another potential return in excess of 20% Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!

Clay-

P.S. Apple closed at $509.46 a share. (52 week high) LOL! So much for buying this stock at $435 a share.

Full Disclosure

Current Holdings:
Cosi Inc. (COSI)
Caterpillar (CAT)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Weatherford International (WFT)
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

Caterpillar-The Peoria Powerhouse

2012-02-07T20:33:00.000-05:00

Less than a week ago I gave you my take on Apple stock and now it's Caterpillar's turn! That's right! The Peoria Powerhouse. Ticker symbol CAT

What I have learned from this phenomenal company is that business is good. Business is so good that 2012 will be another year of growth for this company. Growth is the easiest indicator pointing to higher stock prices in the future. Now lets take a look at CAT's 4th qtr numbers and highlights.

-Record 2011 4th quarter revenues of $17.243 billion vs. 2010 revenues of $12.807 billion.
-Revenue for the 4th quarter was 34.63% higher vs last year. Truly amazing!
-4th quarter profit was $1.547 billion compared to $968 million this time last year
-EPS came in at $2.32, which is 57.82% higher than 2010 EPS of $1.47

Now let's take a look at the full year numbers

CAT's 2011 sales and revenues destroyed the 2010 numbers ($60.138 billion vs. $42.588 billion). That's an increase of 41.20%! On top of that profits for 2011 were 82.5% higher than 2010 coming in at $4.928 billion vs. $2.700 billion and full year EPS was $7.40 vs. $4.15 or a 78.3% increase. I could really stop right here and tell you to buy this stock on the dips, but I have more to add to this wonderful earnings report.

I promise this is the last list for the night. Here are the remaining reasons I believe CAT will have another extraordinary year.

1. Raised full year 2012 sales and revenues to $68 to $72 billion (That's double digit growth)
2. Strong global demand for its products
3. Improved quality of products
4. Increased investment in product development
5. Integrate acquisitions and adding production capacity
6. 2011 produced record sales even with slow construction market in the US and Europe
7. Commodity prices are favorable, which means greater demand for engines and turbines for petroleum applications, as well as mining equipment.
8. Full time employees increased 20,609 from 2010. 125,099 employees vs. 104,490 in 2010. Hiring is always a good sign for business!
9. Higher sales volume
10. I saved the best for last.... Order backlog of $29.8 billion at the end of 2011. That's an all time record for CAT! That means the demand for CAT products is in full force.

In closing I believe CAT has plenty of room to run higher into 2012. I would wait for a pull back say between $105-$110 before I would make an initial purchase. That's a good starting point.

Have a great night!

Clay-

APPLE-Solid/CAT-Solid

2012-02-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

Did a little research since last week in regards to Apple and Caterpillar's earnings. From listening to Apple's conference call and reading Cat's earnings transcript 2012 should be yet another great year for both of these companies. Below is the link to Apple's earnings call.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq112/

This is where I get all of my information. These calls are the key to my success in picking winning stocks. Management plays a huge part in the price of the companies stock. Great management equals higher stock prices. Investing in quality companies comes down to confidence. Confidence brings great quality investors, which is what you want when putting your hard earned money on the line.

Apple (AAPL) is a perfect example of a company that has great management. I enjoy listening to Tim Cook, Apple's CEO and Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. These are the guys that help you make a decision on Apple's future. This particular call was very upbeat.

-record sales in 3 of their 4 major products
-strong sales activity in the U.S.
-continued demand for the iPhone 4S. The channel inventory is lower than they predicted, which means they are moving them as fast as they can make them!
-Mac sales were up 26% yoy (year over year), that growth destroys the PC growth.
-Apple stores increased foot traffic in excess of 40% vs last year.
-Siri the iPhone 4S assistant has been a real hit.
-Increased convenience of purchasing Apple's products online. You can purchase most products online and pick them up just a few hours later at your nearest Apple store. (I like this feature!)
- iPhone 4S first quarter results didn't include sales in mainland China, due to release in January

Those were just a few of the things I heard on this conference call. In the end Apple will continue to outperform the market. The stock hit a 52 week high of $458.99 today, but I'm not a buyer just yet. If I were to purchase Apple it would be initiated around $435 a share. I need a little pullback...

Caterpillar (CAT) will be next up for discussion later this week. One thing I can tell you is the Peoria Powerhouse will shine in 2012.

P.S. Westport Innovations (WPRT) down -7.74% This stock is to hot to handle. It looks like I will have another shot at purchasing WPRT in the near future, before WPRT takes off again. Natural gas is the future bridge fuel for the United States. I expect a lot of activity to continue with businesses continuing to switch over to natural gas vehicles in order to save on fuel costs. Be ready! This type of stock doesn't come around very often.

I have yet to make a stock purchase in 2012! I'm waiting to pull the trigger.

Have a great night!

Clay-

Apple has done it again!

2012-01-24T20:17:00.001-05:00

Apple continues to amaze me! Here is the breakdown of their recent earnings report today.

-Record quarterly revenue of $46.33 Billion on profits of $13.06 Billion
-$46.33 Billion vs. last yrs results of $26.74 Billion equates to a 73.2% increase in revenues
-Gross margins were 44.7% vs. last yrs results of 38.5%

Sales Results by product

-37.04 million iPhone sold- 128% increase vs. last year
-15.43 million iPads sold- 111% increase vs. last year
-5.2 million Macs sold- 26% increase vs. last year
-15.4 million iPods sold- 21% decrease vs. last year

-Numbers were derived from apple.com

On the surface Apple looks extremely strong, but I still must listen to the conference call. I did hear on the way home from work that Apple may have a plan for the large amount of cash they have on hand. That current number is a solid $97.7 Billion. My vote is to pay out a dividend to all of the loyal shareholders!!! LOL!

Apple is trading at $451.20 a share in after hours. Up +7.34% Another 52 week high

It seems like the 52 week high trend continues when I'm out of my favorite stocks. I have 0 shares of Apple (AAPL) at the moment. Oh wait! And I have 0 shares of Westport Innovations (WPRT), which conveniently hit a 52 week high as well closing at $38.06 a share. Up +6.91% on huge volume. It appears the big boys are betting Westport is going to go higher. I'm guessing that with the current prices of natural gas vs. oil prices that natural gas is becoming very enticing. Enticing as a bridge fuel to replace the reliance of crude oil. It just so happens that President Obama will be addressing energy and job concerns tonight at 9:00pm. The State Of The Union Address could uncover the recent upside action in Westport today.

Congratulations to those that own Apple and Westport as of today. I know someone is making money!

P.S. Weatherford is currently on my radar.

Happy Trading!

Clay-

Sidelined For Earnings Season!

2012-01-18T19:47:00.002-05:00

So Westport (WPRT) proved me wrong as the stock was playing tricks on me closing up +5.02% today! This stock has been a firecracker since the beginning of December and yet it still pushes higher. I love this company, but I can't comprehend as to why the stock continues higher. I haven't seen any type of catalyst for Westport and I can't back this stock at the current price. I can't really back any stock at the current price levels.

I'm holding strong on the sidelines with plenty of cash to invest, but I haven't had an opportunity to get back in. I'm going absolutely crazy right now! I missed my opportunity to get back into WFT yesterday as I was going to play the oil service earnings of Schlumberger (SLB) on Friday. SLB earnings determines the direction of the oil service companies. If SLB is positive the rest of the competition goes up as well. With Weatheford up +5.96% today it would an idiotic move to chase this stock into Friday.

Another key move that I missed was Caterpillar (CAT) as the stock has moved up +13.56% from the last day I was in the market with my Monster Portfolio. 12/22/11 is the date. That's right I have been out of the market since 12/22/11.

The only thing I can do now is listen to all of the conference calls to determine my next investment opportunity. The best thing I can do is be patient. Right?

Earnings Calendar- Here is a helpful link to get the dates on the upcoming earnings releases

http://biz.yahoo.com/research/earncal/today.html pulled from Yahoo Finance

I will be listening to the conference call on the following companies

SLB Earnings 01/20/2012

AAPL Earnings 01/24/2012 52 Week High today...

CAT Earnings 01/26/2012

WFT Earnings 02/21/2012

Have a great night!

"When in doubt buy more"

Clay-

WPRT Yikes!/New Post Tomorrow

2012-01-17T20:21:00.002-05:00

All I can say is I'm glad I didn't get caught in Westport's stock today. I was upset when I saw the price was up 7.5% at one time. Needless to say the stock closed down on the day, as there was a hurricane of selling pressure in the final 2 hours of trading. It appears WPRT could be going lower after today's trading action! I will be blogging tomorrow, but I had to at least mention WPRT today... Ugh!!!

Clay-

Stay Cautious!!!

2012-01-10T21:17:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone!

The message for today is to not get to excited! The market has been performing very well since the beginning of the New Year, but I believe many stocks are in overbought status. I'm basing this solely off technical analysis. The charts are telling me that in the near future we could have a pull back to lower prices.

I can honestly say that I have been out of the market for the past few weeks and have missed a portion of the upside. There were a few stocks that I had my eye on, but I was unable to get in at a good price. If you currently have any major gains it would be a good idea to lock in some profits over the next few days. Currently I'm not a buyer of any of my favorite stocks at the moment.

Lower prices= increased activity for me. LOL!

I can disclose that I sold Apple (AAPL) and Weatherford (WFT) over the past 2 days in another account. I was able to lock in a nice +8.14% gain after fees in Apple which I bought at $388.36 a share back on 11/15/11 and sold out yesterday 01/09/12 at $424.81. In regards to WFT I was able to make a solid +14.88% return off of my money. I bought WFT on 12/19/11 at $13.48 a share and sold out today 01/10/12 at $15.87. I was trying to put more money into WFT, but I was never given an opportunity after that day.

Needless to say my accounts are filled with a majority of cash and I'm itching to buy anything that comes my way!

In the end be patient and never be overly excited when your stocks run up. Sell into strength and continue to look for the next investment opportunity! Earnings season is here and there is a lot of uncertainty of how companies are doing. Pay attention to your favorite stocks and listen to the conference calls...

I have my eye on Westport (WPRT) at the moment. The stock has been holding pretty strong. I thought it would have sold off by now. I will have to wait and see.

Happy Trading!

Also, I attached my video blog link from last week. I ran into some technical difficulties if anyone missed it!

Monster Portfolio Year End Results 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XGA8vURBL8

Clay-