New Lows Coming?

Recent movements in the financial markets suggest that we might possibly test the November lows if several important trendlines and support levels are broken. Again, I would like to reiterate that I do not incorporate any news or fundamental analysis in my analysis; it is strictly technical. However, I do not disregard them completely because news does tend to move markets (in an irrational and unpredictable fashion).

This week is the start of the (lack of) earnings season, options expiration Friday, January 16th and President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration next Tuesday, January 20th. Expect an increase in volatility until then as the markets try and find support or completely breakdown.

I have several charts which show important trendlines and support levels which each indice must hold onto in order to prevent the same breadth of selling we saw in November.

A break below 8350-8400 will send the Dow Jones to at least the 8000-8100 level. If that 8000 level is broken, look out below! Relative strength turned bearish as it crossed the 50 level and stochastics show that this current weakness is not yet over. The Dow Jones [Big Cap/Blue Chips]  is the weakest index compared to the NASDAQ [Tech], S&P 500 [Mid Caps], and the Russell 2000 [Small Caps].

The Russell 2000 is one of the stronger indexes (mainly because of the January Effect). A bearish flag was confirmed as the uptrend line was broken and the 440-460 levels are the next short-term targets. MACD crossed over bearishly and will cross the 0 line while stochastics also show there is more room to the downside.

The reason why I (and many others)  look at the R2K is because of the TNA and TZA 3x leveraged ETFs. While risky, these exchange-traded funds can create or destroy wealth in almost a blink of an eye.

Oil’s longer-term trends are obviously down, but the recent conflict in Gaza has sent Oil up a good amount in the short-term (nearly 50%) but it has nearly given up all of those gains. Oil seems to be building a bottom for now. A break above $40.00 on the USO will put Oil into a short/intermediate uptrend while a break below $27.73 will confirm another leg down for Oil. Keep in mind that if oil goes down, it tends to drag XOM (Exxon-Mobil) and CVX (Chevron) down which will also drag down the Dow (points-wise). I definitely wouldn’t mind $1.75/gal premium for gasoline though!

The financials (and REITs) are the weakest sectors and has been crippling the markets. The XLF crossed below its important $11.50 support level within the first 10 minutes of trading and saw relentless selling until the end of the day. I participated by buying the FAZ (3x inverse financials ETF) which gained 17% (3x financials ETF) today while the FAS lost 17% today. C (Citigroup) and BAC (Bank of America) sold off extremely hard and on massive volume as it broke support and is almost flirting with its November lows.

Odds do not favor the bullish case at this moment as there is nothing I see other than “hoping” that the markets turn around. The path of least resistance is lower as price-action indicates and the news coming out do not support the bulls. The “Santa Claus” rally is quickly losing all of its gains, but keep in mind that on election-years, the markets have historically risen until the new president-elect’s inauguration day.

If one were to go long however (for a counter-trend/contrarian trade), I would suggest placing a stop order at or a little below the support levels I drew if your trade moves against you to limit your losses.

Market Clarity

The markets have been extremely volatile these last few sessions. Up and down, down and up. This almost reminds me of the Goliath roller coaster ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain and if you’ve been on that ride then you’ll know what I mean.

I put together a crude (MS paint) chart to give you guys a visual of exactly what I’m talking about. For the record, I am not, in anyway, your financial advisor or your big-shot fund manager and I know nothing about where the market is heading. I try to analyze the markets using technical analysis, which I have been using for the past 4 years to analyze and rationalize my trades.

These are some tools I use in order to RATIONALIZE my trades. I put emphasis on the word RATIONALIZE because in today’s environment, feelings and emotions can clouds one’s judgment and forces us to do crazy things which one will regret later on: panic selling, throwing in the towel, or buying low thinking it’s cheap to see it go even lower, etc.

The prevailing (longer-term) trend is lower and that’s quite apparent by the chart. The short, intermediate, and long-term moving averages ALL point lower and we will see some resistance around that 10,000 level, which is not only a psychological barrier but where the 13SMA (simple moving average) stands. The hardest game on Wall Street is picking bottoms and no one knows if this is the bottom we have all been looking for or just a short-term bottom, but my instinct tells me this is just a short-term relief rally we saw today.

The Dow Jones lost 2400 points last week and regained 900 points today, roughly 38%. For all of you Elliot Wave fanatics, this looks like an ABC down (Down, then up a little, then back down even lower) and I think we will see something of that nature within the next couple of weeks. Today’s impressive 11-12% gains across the major indices confirms that we were deeply oversold. For this “biggest point gain ever” day I would expect to see people rushing in buying all they can on massive volume, but instead we get a little over average volume, which shows that the buyers are buying, but they’re cautious about doing so. I do not see any conviction in today’s move. However, I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to the bulls as we see a “spinning top” on high volume, which usually represents a turning-point in trends as people are indecisive on where to go and the bullish engulfing today confirms that, for the moment and at the least, the very short-term trend is higher.

A likely scenario playing in my head is that I’m expecting the markets to open tomorrow higher and for the week, we’ll consolidate around those levels as we await for more (possibly bad) news to come. All the suckers (for lack of a better word) who believe that we have hit the bottom of this financial crisis will get sucked back in to the markets, only to see them get washed out later on. Today was just the market patching the wounds up and I see someone ripping off the bandage in the near future.

Then again, I could be all wrong.

Proceed with caution, brothers. Nothing is safe, not even your mattress. Cash is king and remember, there are always other opportunities to pursue!

Commentary: Bank of America & Merrill Lynch

When I first heard the story of Bank of America acquiring Merrill Lynch for $50 billion dollars, I was flabbergasted and shocked. “Merrill Lynch, the 5th largest investment bank, acquired by a consumer bank overnight?!” I thought. I was disgusted, to say the least. But after letting my emotions run wild for a night and going back to work the next morning, it hit me: the move was pure genius.

I was talking with Mr. Justin Shaw, who also interned at Merrill Lynch, before the weekend and he said that Merrill was going to be next dead fish in the sea and he hit the nail head on. I told him that Merrill already sold off a lot of its risk, which comes from the extremely risky CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) for pennies on the dollar to private equity, unloaded some of its asset/mortgage-backed holdings, and reduced its balance sheet to reduce the risk of depreciating assets. Merrill Lynch, who told its clients that it was still strong in this volatile environment, ended up selling itself as a last-ditch effort to save the clients, the company, the name, and the legacy, unlike its belly-up rival Lehman Brothers.

The move was pure genius, I must admit. I read over an internal presentation called “Creating the Premier Financial Services Company in the World” by Merrill Lynch Chairman John Thain and Bank of America Chairman Ken Lewis and the deal makes absolute sense. Although Mr. John Thain originally went to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley first, I believe that the synergy with Bank of America is unmatched by any other company since there is little overlap. The deal makes sense financially because of Merrill Lynch’s large writedowns which are beneficial to Bank of America. After acquiring Countrywide Financial, Bank of America was able to take Countrywide’s writedowns and have it be tax-deductible (writedowns and some losses are tax deductible) meaning Bank of America saves billions of dollars a year from just Countrywide alone. Adding Merrill Lynch’s writedowns will allow Bank of America to keep more money to itself instead of paying it out to the taxpayers. Let’s just hope they increase their dividend because of this.

The acquisition, I believe, is beneficial to everyone: shareholders, clients, and employees. Shareholders receive a about a 70% premium to Friday’s close, clients get to keep their assets with Merrill Lynch and have more financial products available to them via Bank of America, and employees will get to keep their job, but most importantly, their stock options and compensation. Lehman Brothers employees who had stock options, were left with nearly nothing as Lehman croaked. Imagine if you were an investment banker working 70+ hours a week with hundreds of thousands or even millions in Lehman stock options and compensation, all of which you were unable to exercise.

You have Bank of America as one of the largest US consumer banks who deals with deposits and credit & debit cards, combined with their financing and lending power by recent acquisition of Countrywide Financial, the largest mortgage lender in the United States, and now Merrill Lynch, an investment bank and global wealth management firm, with 20,000 financial advisors and $2.5 trillion in client assets. This gives you a global bank that will have a tremendous amount of power and financial diversification.

Two of Wall Street’s Investment Banks Vanish Overnight – Who’s Next?

The financial markets kick off another week of volatile trading as two of Wall Street’s most storied firms vanish overnight. Lehman Brothers, an investment bank founded in 1850, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after meetings at the New York Fed failed to find a suitor for the Wall Street firm. Officials from the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the New York Fed were present as well as top executives from Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch. British bank Barclays PLC has walked away from a possible deal and Bank of America, another candidate to acquire distressed Lehman Brothers, decided that Merrill Lynch would be a better acquisition instead of Lehman, who holds nearly $60 billion in depreciating real estate holdings. Potential buyers were frightened to pursue a deal after the US Treasury refused to provide any guaranteed aid as it had done in the past with Bear Sterns and when it seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Merrill Lynch, an investment bank and brokerage firm, ends a legacy that started out in 1914. They have agreed to be acquired for $29 dollars a share, or $50 billion dollars, which is a 70% premium to Friday’s closing price.

Now that the weak are being consumed by the stronger, more financially stable companies, who is next on the chopping block? The US Treasury and Fed are becoming more reluctant to bail out firms, credit and financing becomes increasingly harder to obtain, and as the decline of home prices continue to freefall, no institution is out of the water just yet. According to an AP story, former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, said during an interview recently:

“Let’s recognize that this is a once-in- a-half-century, probably once-in-a-century type of event” — the worst “by far” in his career, Greenspan said. “There’s no question that this is in the process of outstripping anything I’ve seen, and it still is not resolved and it still has a way to go. And indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stabilizes. That will induce a series of events around the globe which will stabilize the system,” he added.

As stock prices drop, it becomes harder for troubled companies to raise the capital needed to stay afloat. This leaves companies such as: Washington Mutual, the nation’s biggest savings bank, American International Group, the world’s largest insurer, Wachovia, and Citigroup in a pickle as it will try to raise capital and sell off its assets and/or mortgage-backed exposures in a last ditch effort to stay afloat or ultimately be liquidated like Lehman Brothers or be acquired like Merrill Lynch. Lehman Brothers was the 4th largest investment bank and is the largest failure of an investment bank in 18 years.

Brief Intro to Real Estate

Getting started in Real Estate

Hope all is having a great end of summer. I’ve had a lot of request from brothers who want more information about getting their real estate license in the state of California. I’m not a big shot real estate investor/developer yet but I do want to share some real estate basics with you all.

In order to receive a commission for the sale of real estate in California, you will need an active real estate license. There are two types of licenses:

• a salesperson license
• a broker license

The salesperson license allows you to sell real estate and process transactions but only under another broker’s license. Brokers are responsible for everyone that is working under their license. When the contracts are signed, they are not signed under the sales agent’s name but rather the broker’s name thus the broker is liable for everything. The commission is paid to the broker and the broker then pays the sales agent.

In a typical transaction there are 6 different people involved, the buyer, the seller, the buying agent, the selling agent, the buying broker, the selling broker.

The listing agent a.k.a. selling agent helps someone who wanted to sell their house by marketing it in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and other venues. The seller usually pays 5% commission to the listing agent (but remember that it is paid out to the selling broker).

What happens usually is that the broker and the selling agent have a 60/40 contract where the selling agent gets 40% of the 5% and the broker gets 60% of the 5% paid by the seller. Depending on which office you work for and how much experience the ratio may vary.

So selling agents usually end up getting 1.0-2.5% of the sales price if they find the buyer on their own. If they work with a buying agent they usually only get half of that in the end getting .50-1.25%.

What is a buying agent? Say I wanted to buy a home, I would get a buying agent to help me find a house. The buying agent would find some houses that fit my requirements (most likely through the MLS) and would call the selling agent to set up an appointment to see the home. The buying agents and selling agents work out a commission agreement

That’s the ideal way that the business is run but things are a little different in the real world. The commissions are negotiable and they fluctuate depending on the circumstances surrounding the deal.

Here’s more information about buying a home either to live in or invest in:

http://www.hud.gov/buying/index.cfm

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/lesson8/

http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/

http://www.remax.com/residential/real_estate_101/buying_a_home/index.aspx

To become a broker you will need at least 2 years of working experience in real estate. You can track how long someone has had their license for, which brokers they’ve work for, how many times they’ve been disciplined by the Department of Real Estate.

You need 3 basic courses to qualify to sit on the sales person exam and 8 course for the brokers’. All the education requirements and requirements to take the exam are listed here:

http://dre.ca.gov/exm_home.html

One of the first things you need to do is find out the purpose of getting your license? Do you want it so that you can save money when you buy a new home? Do you want it so that you can start a career in real estate? Or do you just want it to be cool?

These are all legitimate reason to pursue a CA real estate license. Personally, I started off with the last reason but ended up working in real estate for all the reasons. I didn’t do it to be cool but to distinguish myself from the competition. Having a real estate license doesn’t put you a mile ahead of the game or anything but it does give you somewhat of an advantage. It’s actually a great networking tool that I use when I speak with older executives.

After you’ve decided that you want a real estate license, the next step is to get your education requirements and take the exam. After you’ve passed you exam you will get you salesperson license a few weeks later. When you do so, find a broker or brokerage firm you would like to work for. Firms are always hungry to look for more sales agents because it helps the company grow in size and revenue. Make sure you don’t settle for the first firm that hires you and negotiate the commissions.

In addition to the commission be sure to discuss who will be paying for the insurance. You need errors and omission insurance incase you get sued as a real estate agent. Prices are generally $500-$800 dollars a year depending on which insurance company you work with. There is also general liability insurance but usually the firm pays for that unless you are a broker running your own firm.

That’s the basic for a residential. Commercial is a whole different field.

I work at a commercial firm in Newport/Costa Mesa and we specialize in buying/selling dental/medical offices.

There are other firms that specialize in selling entire buildings or leasing them such as CBRE (where Ms. Jacqueline Pak works) and Cushman and Wakefield. They make even more bank.

I typed this during my lunch break so I have to get back to work. Again this is just a brief summary of how things are suppose to work. If you guys have anymore question please don’t hesitate to send me an email at scott@nguyenscott.com and I will address them in as much details as possible.

Whole Foods Recalls Beef

With the US economy very possibly facing a recession, the market for luxury items has taken a beating. Whole Foods Inc. (WFMI), a high-end foods grocer specializing in organic and “natural” foods, has been no exception as its stock plummeted from over $70 in January 2007 to under $20 today. Making matters worse is a recent recall of E. coli contaminated beef that caused customers in several states to get sick. According to a New York Times Article, this was caused by an unnoticed change made by one of Whole Foods’ suppliers:

Scrambling to contain the fallout from a recall that threatens the chain’s reputation for quality, Whole Foods acknowledged that it had failed to catch an important change made by one of its suppliers of ground beef, Coleman Natural Beef.

After coming under new ownership, Coleman Natural began using a slaughterhouse in Omaha that had received multiple citations and had fought a long-running battle with the Agriculture Department. The government has said the plant was the source of ground beef that has sickened scores of people around the country.

The oversight was due to a lack of procedure. Although Coleman Natural Beef indicated the change in slaughterhouse through stamps on the packaged meat, Whole Foods had no procedures to interpret these stamps… a problem that the chain is addressing right away:

Whole Foods will immediately institute new procedures to detect such a change in the future, the chain said. A spokeswoman, Libba Letton, said the company would also undertake a broad review of procedures for approving suppliers and scrutinizing the quality of products.

On top of these new procedures, Whole Foods will also implement mandatory E. coli testing for its meat products that go beyond government regulatory requirements… a necessary precaution for a company that builds its business on providing the highest quality goods. In these trying economic times, this bad PR can be potentially disastrous for Whole Foods unless the matter is handled properly.

Post College Life

Hey guys. This is Brian Cho. I wrote this email recently in response to a bro that was graduating this year and felt uneasy about leaving college. This was just my take on life after college and my personal advice to a friend so take it for what it’s worth. Thought might as well share it with you guys since most of you guys will be graduating within the next 1-3 years.

Hey XXXX,

Hope you’ve been doing well and I can relate to what you are currently going through. I was at the exact same stage one year ago and especially had that sinking feeling in my stomach every time I thought about leaving UCI and finally becoming an adult for the first time. Leaving college behind to me felt like breaking up with the girl of my dreams after dating her for 4 years (okay maybe not as dramatic but you get the idea).

I feel that majority of the people straight out of college go through this quarter life crisis. I’ll be straight forward here and tell you that working life after college is nothing even comparable to college. More importantly, it was nothing like I thought it’d be. People always told me that that college is supposedly the best time of your life and I certainly can relate to that statement now. As a student, the only immediate things you really worry about are finals and how much you can live it up and party before your college life ticks away. You constantly meet new people, always seem to have free time, and you can practically do whatever you want really. I kissed that life good bye with my corporate entry level 8-5 life. In retrospect, college was almost too good to be true.

I learned after graduation though that life wasn’t what I thought it would be. I remember I thought I’d be the happiest person after I bought my dream car, got a desirable job and accomplished whatever I wanted to accomplish professionally. I remember during my first week at work, staring out on the top suite of a skyscraper hotel in downtown Chicago looking out the window at 2 AM feeling empty as sh*t (lost in translation style). I thought that this was everything I ever wanted as a college student but I felt really unhappy for some reason! I think over the course of 9 months I was at Deloitte or the corporate world in general, it really changed my perspective on life.

I don’t know if this applies to just Gen Ys or young adults in general but I felt like I was raised to have a more purpose driven life rather than just make a boat load of money and not be happy. So yeah, that’s why I left Deloitte to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. I gave up something that I worked towards for 4 years and decided to jump ship. Looking back, moving to SF and pursuing my dreams has probably been the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I am ALOT happier than I was at Consulting and I actually love my job!

I have a strong conviction now that you should always pursue your dreams and passion. If you want to get into the XXXXX industry to become a XXXXX, why don’t you pursue something in the lines of that? I mean my ultimate dream job (if money / prestige / skill didn’t matter) was either become a NBA player, a teacher, fantasy basketball analyst, or movie / videogame producer. I know it sounds very idealistic and silly but I think that’s why most people complain that their dreams don’t come true after college and they’re stuck in a career they hate. I took a chance by leaving Deloitte against a lot of people’s advices and fortunately it was the right play. I knew that as a videogame producer I was more close to my “dream” than I would have ever been if I was in investment banking or something silly like that. So at least in my case, I don’t ever regret making that jump to follow my dreams.

You only live once and you practically spend more than half your living life working. Once you invest 3-4 years of experience into a certain career it’s also very hard to switch out unless you want to start all over again. Once you have family to support, mortgages to pay, you really won’t have the luxury of switching careers. You might as well try to find something that you love so you never have to work another day in your life right? I guess happiness is all perspective and that’s why I personally feel like it’s more so important to genuinely love what you do. I think if you passionately go after your dreams / passion in life and do whatever it takes to get there, you’ll realize that life after college isn’t so bad after all and there is a new happiness waiting for you around the corner. You start to appreciate free time, your friends, and also life in general a lot more. So maybe there’s nothing really to be afraid of?

Enjoy your last few weeks of college and look forward to a brighter future. You’re still only 22.

Michael Dell’s Comeback

Micheal Dell created the company that bears his name from his college dorm at age 19. He served as the company’s CEO for 20 years before distancing himself from his company and becoming chairman of the board. Three years later (early last year), Dell decided to step back in as CEO. Why? According to a recent interview with The Economist:

“When you start a company, it’s a very personal thing,” answers Dell, who is now 43. “I will care about what happens to the company even after I’m dead. I just can’t let it go.”

It seems as though Michael Dell’s passion, drive, and management brilliance is getting things done, as the firm is regaining market share that was lost under previous management. For years, Dell had been the leader in PC sales worldwide, but recent changes in the global economy resulted in the company being knocked down from its throne by Hewlett-Packard. The biggest factor was that PC sales by volume have been shifting from rich countries to developing nations, and consumers in developing nations are a lot less prone to shop on the online marketplace (where a majority of Dell’s computer sales take place). While Dell still dominates sales in the corporate sector, previous management did not pick up on this new developing world trend:

How does Mr Dell explain his firm’s sudden loss of poise? Its growth, from revenues of $6 billion to nearly $61 billion over the past ten years, was based on a “very monolithic model”, which no longer works as well, he says. But the management was too focused on the short term to see this: “We were only doing things that optimised the business we had.” Back in the driver’s seat, he is now doing precisely the opposite: trying out new approaches and diversifying Dell’s business model both geographically and commercially.

Michael Dell plans on breaking away from this “monolithic model” by implementing strategies that are very unconventional for a company known for selling its conservative black/gray box PCs. These strategies include selling stylish PCs, and emulating its rival HP by providing IT services for corporate clients. Most importantly, Micheal Dell plans on infiltrating the developing markets (think China and India) by creating laptops and personal computers that are cheap enough to be purchased by the masses. It seems as though the brains are back in the building, and we can expect great things from Dell (the company), as long as Dell (the person) is behind the wheel.

Rant, rave, and advice on Oil

Okay, before I start blogging about Oil and Gas, I’d like to share a humorous and embarrassing story that happend at work today. My financial advisor’s team had just finished a meeting with a a group of trustees for a foundation, and there were left over sandwiches and cookies from the meeting. She insisted that I take some food to bring home, which I did (I am not a man to decline free food). I packed 4 chocolate chip cookies, a vegetarian, roast beef, and turkey sandwich on a paper plate which i covered with another paper plate. I brought it back to my cube and did not think about it for the rest of the day. As work finished, I decided to drop off a package for my FA on my way out. So here I am, trying to hold a package the size of a econ 100A book while holding two paper plates with my other hand (I don’t want to get grease on the package). I drop it off in the mail room and take the elevator down and decide to take a cookie from my loot. LO AND BEHOLD, there are TWO sandwiches (turkey sandwich missing!) on my plate! So theres probably a bun, turkey, tomato, onion, and who else knows what scattered somewhere on the Merrill Lynch floor. Someone’s got to clean that up! And I am extremely sorry for the person who has to. Okay, now that I feel loads better getting this off my chest, I’d like to talk about oil.

So, whats your biggest expense besides rent? Most of you guys will answer gas (or food). This answer is valid, because with the weakening dollar (you are now able to buy a lot less with the same $ you had two years ago!), oil fights in some oil exporting countries, and the crappy diplomacy our President exudes! It is really a scary thought, especially when the number one investment bank, Goldman Sachs, predicts that the price per barrel of oil will reach over $200. To give you guys a general idea, the price of crude oil was around $63 when it was around $2.00, so it’ll probably go up to >$8/gal when it hits $200… makes sense? Crude oil prices are reflected in retail gas prices. Yes, the price of crude oil did drop to $113 for two days a few days ago, but I guarantee you will not see a drop in prices at the pump. They will ignore those two days and continue charging the same price. This is an exact example of how greedy oil companies reap in profit. However, I have been reading other internet articles and using my own ingenuity to come up with strategies on how you can save on gas.

#1 – Carpool! Carpool to meetings, to events, to everything. It’s good that most of us actives in VDC are doing it, because it saves a lot of money in the long run. Also, carpooling reduces the demand for gas, which will ‘equilibrize’ with supply, causing P to fall, as we all learned in basic economics.

#2 – Keep it under 3k RPMs. This is for you crazy aggressive drivers, V-TEC lovers, and lazy people who don’t like to shift in manual. I read somewhere that going above 6K RPMs is like “gas flowing out of a garden hose.”

#3 – Invest in oil to offset the price you pay at the pump. I guess this is only for rich people… but I have invested $100,000 of (unfortunately) fake money in the Virtual Stock Exchange in oil ETFs, such as OIL and USO. My result? Over $10,000 in gain (more than 10% returns). As the stock price goes up, you get money to pay for gas. Sounds pretty neat, huh?

#4 – FILL UP TODAY! Regardless if your gas tank is empty or not. Cos its going to go up by next week. I’m not predicting it will, I KNOW it will because the price of crude oil keeps increasing. Consider it an investment on your part.

#5 – I think this one is my favorite, which is why I saved it for last. Two words: Fountain Valley/Westminster. If you ever drive north to go back home, or commute from north, drop by BROOKHURST NORTH off the I-405. Go down Brookhurst into the Chevron. Now, I worked out the numbers for this one. Gas is $4.16 for premium at the Chevron on Culver, its freakin $4.06 on Brookhurst! Okay, thats 10 cents in savings… but if you fill up a 10 gallon tank, thats already a dollar in savings. Now do that four times…. thats an extra gallon, an extra ~25 MPG. Keep doing that and you’ll generate a positive feedback loop. What i’m saying here is, if your gas tank is ever near empty, hey, call up some bros and make an Alertos/BCDs/Pho run!

Notice May 6th when I went to Fountain Valley, compared to when I fill up at USA gas. Heck, i’m even getting better gas with Chevron at a cheaper price.

Thanks for reading this post, any comments and disagreement are welcome.

It’s all about makin that GTA

According to NewYorkTimes.com…

Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest iteration of the hit video game franchise, racked up first-week sales of $500 million, Take-Two Interactive, the game’s publisher, plans to announce on Wednesday. The report exceeded the sales expectations of analysts.

The significance of the sales extends beyond buoying Take-Two, a company that has had its share of legal, financial and management struggles in the last few years. The company is the subject of a $2 billion hostile takeover effort by Electronic Arts, which is offering Take Two shareholders $25.74 a share for control of the company. If Take-Two can exceed sales expectations on Grand Theft Auto IV, it has the potential to drive up the share price and force Electronic Arts to raise its offer.

EA has been planning on taking over Take-Two Interactions (NBA 2K8, GTA IV) for quite some time now. they have already offered $2 Billion dollars, but Take-Two decided to wait until the release of GTA IV before making any comments. Shares of Take-Two have slowly increased following the release of GTA IV, but EA is still persistent in buying out the company. Take Two’s management team would like to inform investors

“that the success of Grand Theft Auto IV is awakening shareholders to the long-term value of the company’s stock and that if investors can be patient it can command a higher price in the long term.”

It’s really no surprise that the latest installment of the Grand Theft Auto franchise made so much money. I remember my roommate and I went to Gamestop at Midnight to pick up a copy and there was a line of *no joke* 50+ people. I even saw my big bro, Jason Mao Mao waiting in that line to get some of that sweet, sweet action.

And I’m not gonna lie, Grand Theft Auto IV is worth every penny. The game has gotten flawless reviews throughout the gaming industry with a 10/10 on gamespot.com. Only 5 games in the history of video game reviews has gotten a perfect score. I’ve personally played it and I’ve spent countless hours just messing around the city when I should be studying for Management 5.

I think it’s safe to say that with the release of this game and upcoming games like NBA 2K9, Take Two Interactions could be a wise investment in the long run. The shares are also considerably affordable (26.26, if you buy now) and this company DOES have the potential to grow. I mean it made $500 million in a week right?