Weekly Summary

In spite of today's losses, it's been a great week for my penny stock portfolio:


The gamble I took on Freddie Mac seems to be paying off nicely - while the firm is still on shaky ground, the doom-and-gloom predictions have been considered and rejected by the market and the price has made a substantial recovery throughout the week. Meanwhile, my other positions have made moderate progress, and even the most flea bitten of my dogs are showing signs of recovery.

GDP Surpasses Expetations

The market in general jumped today on the latest news from the Department of Commerce:

Gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 3.3 percent ... beyond the government's initial estimate of 1.9 percent as well as economists' forecast of 2.7 percent .... [this growth] marked the economy's best performance since the third quarter of last year, when GDP rose at a 4.8 percent pace.

Economists who have been sermonizing doom and gloom about the state of the economy were quick to dismiss these results as a fluke or a "head fake," suggesting that the economy was still sluggish and would continue to be so for quite some time.

"This is just sort of data that trickles out that can be very positive one day and negative the next," one was quoted as saying. "We don't yet think it signals a trend." - but given the (false) claims of recession we've been hearing all year, one wonders exactly what data, if anything, the weathermen of our economy have been considering - if any at all.

Weekly Summary

In general, it's been a good week for me - transfer of additional funds into my portfolio to take a risk on Freddie Mac has diluted my return ratio, but it's still looking pretty good.



My sickest dog (MIVA) has pulled back from the edge of a stop-loss sell order, and a handful of them are doing well - especially Krispy Kreme. I'm at a loss to explain that, in the absense of any market news - but I don't feel the need to worry about a ray of sun in an otherwise stormy market.

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FRE)

Company:	Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
Web Site:	http://www.freddiemac.com
Purchase Price:	$3.05
Current Price:	Click Here

I've moved about $1,000 into my Penny stock account to take a gamble on Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, affectionately known as "Freddie Mac" - in hopes that it's a daring move that will pay off nicely ...

The mortgage giant is beleaguered by write-offs, and industry pundits seem to expect that the company will soon need a federal bailout that will devastate, perhaps completely eradicate, shareholder equity, and the price has plummeted from a 52-week high of $65.88 to a mere $3.05 a share ... making it a "penny stock" by the "less than $5 per share" definition.

The doomsayer's predictions are possible - and many would say that they are likely - but there remains a good chance that the company will pull out of its crisis, or that a government-engineered plan to save it (and keep the mortgage markets fluid) may not be as damaging to the current investors.

Though the disclaimer at the top of my blog discourages readers from following my (risky) investments in this portfolio, it's worth repeating for this one specifically: this is a big risk, and I strongly discourage anyone from tailgating me on this gamble.

Weekly Summary

It's been an up-and-down week ... and in the end, my bottom line hasn't changed much:


In my main portfolio, stocks are recovering as the price of oil falls back to a sane level, and if that trend continues, I may move over additional funds to the penny-stock portfolio and take a few positions in some of my watchlist companies that are beginning to show some promise.

Weekly Summary

While there's been some turbulence in the larger markets, things have been going well in my penny stock portfolio - with only three positions in the red (and only one of those by more than ten percent), things are looking great:


There are a few other companies that look promising right now, but I'm short of funds in this portfolio. I've been debating whether to cash out some of my profits to expand my holdings, or perhaps moving over additional funds from my main investment portfolio ... but more likely, I'll sit back and let things go a while longer before making any greater commitment to the market.

GOGB Dropped

I've finally dropped GoIP Global (GOGB, previously GOIG) from my portfolio - since the value was worth less than the commission to sell the shares, it wasn't worth hanging onto, and I doubt any charity would have accepted the shares. And so, I called my broekr and asked them to drop it from my portfolio.

Since I sold half of the shares earlier and doubled my money, the total loss on the remaining half means a break-even, less commissions, on the investment. Considering how hard it was to dump the shares, I consider myself lucky to have gotten out without having lost significantly more.

Blockbuster Adds DVD Vending Kiosks

Blockbuster Video has entered into a partnership agreement with NCR to deploy DVD rental kiosks:

The DVD-rental only kiosks will start to appear in the third quarter, with full deployment by the end of 2008...down the line, these kiosks will add DVD buy and downloads as well, the companies said. "Looking beyond this initial deployment, our mutual goal is to have 10,000 kiosks installed within 18 months," said Bill Nuti, NCR CEO

These video kiosks will be similar to the Redbox kiosks. According to the same press release, Redbox (a joint venture of Macdonalds and Coinstar) has deployed 9600 such kiosks thus far and has been very profitable.

Since Redbox locations are limited (to Macdonalds restaurants), the company does not have significant coverage, and should not pose much of a threat to Blockbuster's own rollout.

Weekly Summary

My portfolio's been looking better in recent weeks - between the ups and the downs, I'm back on top by an appreciable margin:


Of all my positions, I've got two that are serious losers: GOIG has fallen to a small fraction of its former value. Rather than waiting for it to fall off the books, I'm going to donate my shares to charity and write off the purchase price as a deduction - and MIVA has been teetering on the brink, and has finally fallen beyond the point of no return: unless it takes a leap upward after the bell on Monday morning, I'm going to cut my losses on that one as well.