Welcome to F Wall Street
If Wall Street taught you how to invest intelligently, they'd be out of business. Learn how to invest comfortably and confidently for your future by focusing on value investing and ignoring the silly daily swings of the stock markets.
Buffett May Not Have Sold JNJ
2/18/2009 | Joe Ponzio | 22 Comments | about: JNJ
In its recent end-of-quarter filing, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 54%. As is often the case, the media automatically assumed that Buffett turned sour on Johnson & Johnson and was dumping the stock. Before you run off and sell 50% of your JNJ stake because Buffett is allegedly dumping his year-and-a-half old investment in the company, let’s look at the sale logically.
Wells Fargo and Wachovia, by Quarter
2/11/2009 | Joe Ponzio | 42 Comments | about: WFC
This is a continuation of Wells Fargo and Wachovia Together
It’s the first quarter of 2008 and the proverbial you-know-what is hitting the fan. The credit crisis has begun; the recession has started; Bear Stearns will be a distant memory by the end of the quarter. Wellsovia sets aside $4.86 billion for credit losses this quarter, more than half of what it had set aside in the entire year 2007 if it were a combined entity.
Wells Fargo and Wachovia Together
2/11/2009 | Joe Ponzio | 2 Comments | about: WFC
So, I bought a bank. I know…I know. I said I wouldn’t. Then again, that was a year or two ago, when I couldn’t understand what the hell these guys were doing to make money. CDOs. Sub-prime mortgages. I would try to read the annual reports, and they would make my head spin.
Fortunately, the days of “creative” investing is over…for now. I have full faith that Wall Street will ensnare the markets in another mess in the next ten or twenty years. Still, banks will eventually return to “normal” for at least a while. (That is, of course, once they get through this “panic” mode.)
In a “normal” environment, banks aren’t all that difficult to understand. The lend money; the sell investments and financial products; they make money on interest rate spreads. With blood pouring through the streets in the banking sector, much of it for good reason, we’ll look at Wells Fargo and Wachovia, separate and together.
Grab a cup of coffee. This is a long one, broken down into two parts, each one being ridiculously long. Then again, we’re expanding our sphere which ain’t light reading.
Now Available for Preorder
2/2/2009 | Joe Ponzio | 27 Comments
Folks-F Wall Street, the book, is now available for preorder online at Amazon.com and Borders.com. (Barnes & Noble isn’t listing it just yet.)
Needless to say, I’m excited!
Amazon.com is listing it at $10.85, a discount to the full price when the final release comes out on June 9, 2009. In the spirit of buying assets on the cheap, now might be a good time to preorder your copy!
