A RIM Do Over?
The shares of Research in Motion (TSX: RIM, Friday’s close $8.22) have moved higher in the last few days with the biggest spike in price occurring last Wednesday. You may recall my post on June 30th where I talked about a RIM death spiral and to my mind I see no change in the fundamentals of the company that would alter my...
A Preferred Share Alternative
Despite the lack of guarantees normally associated with fixed income securities, individual investors generally consider preferred shares a reasonable alternative to bonds. Probably the result of the favorable tax treatment that the Canadian government accrues to dividends. To that latter point, the after tax return on...
Playing a European Renaissance
Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank (ECB), pledged to do whatever is necessary to save the euro and the eurozone. Promising to deliver “enough” as long as it falls within the ECB’s mandate. Like any well oiled propaganda machine the most influential European politicians lined up behind Draghi and stoked the...
Is the Bear Calling?
One can make the case that global markets have turned over and are now entrenched in a bear market phase. Global growth is slowing – particularly in China – and the eurozone collapsing under the weight of recession and political apathy. And while the US markets may be the best house in a bad neighborhood I see nothing that...
Seeking Alpha With Long Straddles
I’ve been doing some research on the prospects of buying close-to-the-money straddles. Actually I dusted off studies I had done a number of years ago and surprisingly – or perhaps not – the results today were very similar to previous iterations. More to the point, the results seem to be the same in virtually all...
Hedging Canadian Content against a Global Break Down
First the backdrop… We rarely hear much out of the fringe countries in the eurozone but last week, Finland’s Financial Minister Jutta Urpilainen shared an incisive point of view. She intimated in the Finnish financial daily Kauppalehti, that her country will not be a part of an “integration model in which countries are...
The RIM Death Spiral!
Last week we bore witness to the final death spiral for what was once an innovative Canadian icon. It was not the fact Research in Motion (TSX: RIM, Friday’s close $7.54) reported its first quarterly loss. That was telegraphed to the market well ahead of time. What was not telegraphed was the size of the loss which was three...
Trading Open Interest
Open interest is the number of open option contracts in a specific series that must be closed out by the expiration date. A “series” being defined as options with the same underlying stock, type (either a call or a put) same strike and expiration. Open positions can be closed prior to expiration when one executes a closing...
Grease!
Greece held their national elections on Sunday and the electorate threw their support behind the pro-bailout New Democracy party. Taking 130 of the 300 seats the next step is to put together a “pro-Euro” coalition government. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras believes that with this vote, Greece has secured its place in...
Dealing with the Summer Heat
President Obama held a press conference on Friday and spoke about the state of the US economy. Although in reality it looked a lot like a political soap box for Obama to illustrate how the approach taken by his administration differs from the Republican line of attack. Of course with any political showboating there are some...
Richard Croft
President, CIO & Portfolio Manager
Croft Financial Group
191 posts
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