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Over the past 5 years, RIM has lost over 80% of its value. And yet, the company has been consistently profitable, ]]> Thu, 31 May 2012 15:19:52 -0400 Helix Investment Management <strong>By <a href='http://seekingalpha.com/author/helix-investment-management'>Helix Investment Management</a>:</strong><p>It is rare to find a sector where each and every company that competes in it is able to succeed over the long-term. Usually, a few companies emerge as the victors while the rest are marginalized. The smartphone sector seems to be no different. Apple (<a href='http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/aapl' title='Apple Inc.'>AAPL</a>) has emerged as the sector's leader, at least in terms of profitability, and RIM (<a href='http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/rimm' title='Research In Motion Limited'>RIMM</a>) has been marginalized. Over the past 5 years, since the iPhone has been released, RIM's BlackBerry business has suffered greatly, as has its stock price. The purpose of this article is to examine the company's balance sheet, to determine if there is a bottom in the stock.</p><p> <em> <em>(click to enlarge)</em> </em> </p><p>Over the past 5 years, RIM has lost over 80% of its value. And yet, the company has been consistently profitable, <a</p><br/><a href='http://seekingalpha.com/article/629431-is-there-a-floor-in-rim-s-stock-an-examination-of-the-company-s-balance-sheet?source=feed'>Complete Story &raquo;</a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/seekingalpha?a=8y-H_lFcr2U:rcb-LgWwp9A:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/seekingalpha?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/seekingalpha?a=8y-H_lFcr2U:rcb-LgWwp9A:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/seekingalpha?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/seekingalpha?a=8y-H_lFcr2U:rcb-LgWwp9A:aKCwKftKxY0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/seekingalpha?i=8y-H_lFcr2U:rcb-LgWwp9A:aKCwKftKxY0" border="0"></img></a> </div> AAPL BHP NXPI POT RIMM Helix Investment Management RIMMAAPL http://seekingalpha.com/article/629421-facebook-second-highest-returning-protected-covered-call?source=feed 629421 A protected covered call or collar search performed using PowerOptions tools, seeking to find the highest returning position for profitable companies with a maximum potential loss of 8%, produced social networking company Facebook (FB) as the second highest as shown below:

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Just ahead of Facebook was digital video record company TiVo (TIVO) discussed here. Following close behind Facebook were online professional networking company LinkedIn (LNKD) discussed in this article, organic light emitting diode company Universal Display Corporation (PANL), and athletic apparel company lululemon (LULU) discussed here. The highest returning protected covered call is typically covered in these articles, but since we recently discussed TiVo and since Facebook's options were made available yesterday, the second-highest position is discussed.

A protected covered call may be entered by selling a call option against a purchased or existing stock with some of the proceeds from selling the call option used to

Return on Assets [ROA] illustrates how much a company is generating in earnings from its assets alone. This metric gives investors a picture of how profitable the company is relative to the assets in current possession. As well, it lets investors see how efficient and effective management is at generating earnings from the company's assets. While most management teams can probably make money by throwing money at an issue very few can make very large profits with little investment.

The Net Margin is a profitability metric that illustrates, by percentage, how much of every dollar earned gets turned into a bottom line profit. This is just one of many profitability metrics used by investors and analysts to

The Options Play

• Buy a July 2012 put with a 200 strike (priced at $5.10)
• Sell a July 2012 put with a 195 strike (prices at $3.50)
• Net Debit to Start: $1.60
• Maximum Profit: $3.40

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I made mention of macro-economic signs in the world that I thought supported the pullback I was looking for. Here is what I originally wrote:

"… it seems the world economy might be slowing again; Europe is struggling again with both Great Britain and Spain in recessions; China has showed signs of slowing its economic growth and unemployment statistics are not the best. These signs

Oxen Group Contributor

Just like most commodities gold and silver continue to very weak in the month of May, partly due to an extreme drop in the Euro and heavy increase in the dollar. We were curious to see how arguably the two hottest commodities have historically fared in June compared to end of May. We wanted to know if there is seasonality strength or weakness in these two precious metals. To do this, we investigated historical analysis on gold and silver companies as well as ETFs to determine this.

In our research, we looked at average gain of gold and silver companies/ETFs as well as their max drawdowns. Our research shows that June is a fairly weak month for gold/silver companies and ETFs, historically. The companies we investigated are Pan American Silver (PAAS), Silver Wheaton (SLW), Barrick Gold (ABX), AngloGold Ashanti (AU), Newmont Mining (NEM), Market

The forward P/E is a price multiple valuation metric, which is similar to the current P/E ratio, except that it uses the forecasted earnings instead. While this number might not be as accurate because it uses "forecasted" numbers, it does offer the benefit of illustrating analysts' expectations of a firm. If the market believes that earnings will grow moving forward, then the forward P/E should be lower than the current P/E. Financial Leverage, also known as the Equity Multiplier, illustrates how a firm is financing its assets. The lower the number the more a firm is financing its assets internally through stockholder equity. The higher this metric is the more the firm is relying on debt to finance its assets.

The PEG ratio (price/earnings to growth

If memory serves me right, the sales pitch was actually the basis for one of the early generation infomercials, but there was none of the yelling that became popular as the genre evolved.

When I first started investing I thought that was a great idea. Just have the company plow those dividends into say 0.29156 shares every four months, without incurring any fees.

I thought it was great until I got to the point that I wanted to close out positions that held such fractional shares.

Certainly, the pure math of re-investing dividends has to be favorable, if you are a

Equipment and machinery maker Deere & Co (DE)

As my readers know I am long ExxonMobil (XOM) and believe it is bargain priced. We have the stock in our "Team Alpha" portfolio, and we have done well with it.

Currently, the shares are about $79.60 and still dipping. We should be thinking about adding at these levels and now we can make some folding money by selling naked puts on a short leash.

Take a look at the June 16th $75.00 strike price put options. The premium is about $350/contract less commissions.

For any investor who owns XOM and is seeking to add to the position, but thinks the price might dip further, here is a chance to pocket some cash and if the order

These days, retail stores are either experiencing some of the best fiscal years in history or are operating much like they are still feeling the pangs of the recession. For a lucky few, like Rue21 (RUE) and dELiA*s (DLIA), sales have increased in the first quarter with hopeful analysts seeing continued triumphs on the horizon. However, for The Wet Seal (WTSLA) low same store sales in the month of May could be the kiss of tougher times ahead.

WTSLA revealed May earnings this morning, with sales of $33.8 million down 7% from last year. While this certainly signifies a rocky month, it's the same store sales decline of 8.8%, (worse than analyst estimates of 7.8%), that has research firms certain that a turnaround is not in the cards for the company any time soon.

According to CEO Susan McGalla, the fashions at WTSLA were likely to blame

According to trade publication Ux Consulting, the term price rose to US$61.50 a pound this week, up 2.5% from US$60.00. Ux's long-term price covers material that will be delivered more than two years in the future.

While there have been some minor upticks in the spot price since Fukushima, this is the first time that the term price went up since January of 2011, when the outlook for uranium was much stronger than it is today. Active buyers are ignoring the spot market right now and are focusing on deliveries into the future, industry publication TradeTech said.

This is significant, as it suggests the uranium market may finally be ready to rebound from the Fukushima sell-off. That Japan, home of the Fukushima event, is set to re-start two of its reactors

He also recently summarized a few of these observations on his twitter account (@jackschwager).

A few of his takeaways from interviewing top money managers:

• It is not about predicting what will happen -- but rather recognizing what is happening
• Many go wrong by failing to adjust exposures to changing market volatility

This all conveniently ties into using Relative Strength to help recognize what is happening. This is foremost. But on the second point, we let's think about how to adjust exposures to changing Market Volatility and take a look at one example.

April-Jun Option Expiration Date Returns

May-Jul Option Expiration Date Returns

As we can see, both periods have averaged gains, and max drawdowns have been lower than max gains. With that said, July max drawdown is a 17% decline, which is about 100 points lower. A move to around 490 would be pretty drastic, but if we hit a bad spell here in June and July, it's possible. The stock increased 25% in 2005, but as we see since 2005 in both charts, the stock has not moved more than 14%. For that reason, we like a very unaggressive position in the company with an iron condor with July options.

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Suggested Trade: Jul21, Iron Condor, 500/495 Bull Put Spread and 670/675 Bear Call Spread

Current Positions:

GLL - Gold has yet to break below its recent lows as long as it holds we remain

On the other hand, the boom in shale gas is presenting an equal opportunity, both for the retail as well as the institutional investors.

Catalysts for the Shale Gas Boom:

Few years back the conventional wisdom was that the U.S. is running short of natural gas supplies. Today, the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies have changed the dynamics of the U.S. energy sector.

Catalysts for ZNGA:

• The latest lockup period ended Tuesday. Given the stock's 15% plunge this week, I would reckon that most insiders that wanted to sell have done so. The stock should now stabilize.
• Robert W Baird just upgraded the stock to "Outperform" based on valuation.
• Zynga could be major beneficiary if Congress allows real money gaming.
• In a sign of possible things to come, Zynga recently signed into a partnership with American Express (AXP).

4 reasons ZNGA is worth a flyer at $6 a share:

• Thanks to an IPO that

By: John Critchley

The Facebook (FB) IPO has been a disaster and there is much blame to go around. Facebook shares are currently trading at $27.05, more than 40% below the intra-day high hit during the IPO debut. The most hyped IPO in history actually turned out to be one of the worst for the investors. The main culprits have been Morgan Stanley (MS), NASDAQ (NDAQ) and overzealous retail investors.

1) Morgan Stanley : The lead underwriters must bear some culpability for the IPO mispricing. Less than a week before the IPO, the size and price of the IPO increased. Incredibly, Facebook's revenue forecasts were lowered during the road-show and Morgan appears to have failed to properly disclose these negative revisions. Reports are circulating that only large clients received this material information.

2) NASDAQ : The technical glitches on the first day of

Wells Fargo, like other payday lenders, may find itself to be scrutinized more as consumer advocacy groups have called for stiffer regulations for the industry, and the government has obliged. The most recent effort came last week when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule that would set up procedures to supervise these lenders. This may be good for consumers, but what about investors.

Wells Fargo has come under fire for being a part of this industry, and has been accused of loaning out money at interest rates that can reportedly top 200%. Compared to others, like Cash America

It was not long ago that baseball in the US experienced blemish after blemish. Between the player issues of performance enhancing use, and the player union strikes as well as the ownership lockouts, all of which impacted not only the perception of the fans, but also at the gate.

For a period of time, teams had more empty seats and aside from the big market teams many began hurting financially. Soon, there were teams that were sold, or re-located and baseball was faced with a dilemma; winning the fans back.

A similar scenario has plagued the US auto industry for too many years. With the financial crisis came bailouts and begging.

But, there does come a time when blue chips are no longer at the top of the food chain. Ways for companies to stay at the top are to innovate or acquire their way to success. However, with that said, any acquisition must be a wise decision; unlike the recent OMGPOP purchase by Zynga (ZNGA), which appears to be stalling. In order to decipher which blue chip technology stocks are worth your time, I will discuss nine of them.

Before moving on to the exciting

HINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 31, 2012-- The Talbots, Inc. ("Talbots" or the "Company") and Sycamore Partners today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which an affiliate of Sycamore Partners will acquire all the outstanding common stock of the company for $2.75 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $369 million, including net debt. The transaction is currently expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

This announcement sent the stock soaring again. This morning it

"... after the spike, Morgan Stanley said it remains cautious on Amazon.com shares because revenue/unit volume is beginning to decelerate as operating margin sits at the lowest level since Amazon.com first turned a sustained profit way back in 2001."

A lot for me with Amazon rests on its marketing venue. Selling the Kindle as a major corridor for consumers to buy products online is very smart but at the same time, if Apple (AAPL) is able to sell the iPad as an all-purpose tool and it replaces the Kindle as a reading device also, Amazon may be in trouble. With the Apple competition and tight margins, I chose to play the pullback.

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As of March 31, 2011, EVT had gross assets of $479,935,000 and does not use leverage. A major portion of its portfolio is concentrated on just three companies, all Canadian. The balance of its portfolio is invested globally and managed by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC, a highly respected investment manager based in New York.

EVT's three major investments, as of March 31, 2012, were as follows:

The rest of the portfolio is well-diversified and globally invested. These investments are in the following geographic areas:

EVT has small short

Why does nickel continue to be in great demand? The simple answer is that nickel has better corrosion resistance, better toughness and better strength at high and low temperatures than other metals, as well as a range of special magnetic and electronic properties. It is also unsurpassed in its ability to have the best of these invaluable traits passed on in the formation of new, incredibly light and durable materials. According to the Nickel Institute, most nickel is combined with other metals to form different alloys that are used in over 300,000 products for consumer, industrial, military, transport, aerospace, marine and architectural applications. Today steel alloys are the main source of nickel consumption; about two-third of all new nickel sold each year goes into stainless steel.

Figure 1. The primary end-uses for nickel 2011

Source: