IGLD & NTE: DBC & USO

I have been in pain. Major pain.
My oncologist suggested that we delay my chemo injection for a week. So next Monday I will not be receiving my usual dose. My body will definately appreciate that. My cancer buddies will definately thank me too. Let me give you one of those useless interesting info. Do you know what the word "cancer" actually mean? It's root is greek and it is a combination of two words: "crab" + "ulcer". Crabs, if you ever got bitten by one ( I have) will not let go. Even if you kill it, it still hangs on you. Crabs can't even walk normally. It is one of very few living things that walk side ways. And most importantly, crabs eat just about anything.

Cancer cells, unlike normal cells in your body, do not look pretty. It is hard, uneven shape and it just looks disgusting. It grabs all the nutrients from surrounding areas (huge appetite) and grows exponentially. It is obviously very stupid because if the host (me) dies, it dies with it. Oh, by the way, in Chinese writing the word "cancer" consist of three small words: "wrong" + "three mouth" + "mountain". Which basically means " there are as many bad mouths as there are mountains" (there are many mountains in China). All these meanings in one Chinese letter. Interesting?

These days everyone is talking about the Dow hitting all time high. News reporters are focusing on whether we will hit this today or tomorrow (as if this is so important). Just so you know, not too many people own the Dow. But if you want, you can buy DIA which will give you same performance as the Dow. I, too agree that DIA is a good investment at this point. But it is not my cup of tea.

IGLD: Those of you who owned this are sitting pretty. It is in a major uptrend now. Just crossed 200 day Moving average too. It was as high as $6.22 today. Consider this: 2 months ago, this was at $4.20

NTE: Owners of Nam Tai (as of 9/27) will be receiving cash dividend of $0.38 per each shares they own (early October). A little something (worth about 3%) for you While-U-Wait. Nice..

For those of you who could not participate in OIH trades (minimum 100 shares at $130 or so) should consider XES. This will perform just like the OIH. Keep this on your radar.

You want a pure Oil trade? Buy and sell USO.

You want a commodity basket that contains: Oil + Gold + Aluminum + wheat + Corn ? Buy and sell DBC.

Yes, I am still holding my JNPR short position (in my trading account). It did not go up enough for me to double down and I am still waiting. Remember. I am looking for 7-10% in a few trading days.
Chow.

Active Trader Pro

I have a bad, real bad mouth sores.
It is so bad that I have hard time talking never mind eating anything. Swallowing my own saliva hurts. I now have those "white spots" in my throat in addition to my togue and cheeks. Such is a life of cancer fighter. The chemo therapy I am receiving may give me the sores but it is taking arm and a leg from those "bully" cancer cells (I hope). One great news: my CEA level (colon cancer marker) is now down to 4.8 (normal range is between 0-5). When I was first diagnosed with cancer last October, the CEA level was 130. This basically tells me that the drugs are working (at least for now that is).

For those who maybe interested, I use Fidelity Investments and its "Active Trader Pro" program for my trades. I pay flat $8 per trade and the services are fantastic. I strongly reccommend Fidelity. Utilizing the Active Trader Pro, I am able to see minute by minute trades (both volume and prices of individual trades). This week I will be shopping for a PDA (along with the phone service) which I can use to trade stocks through Fidelity. Imagine this, I can be sitting in my bathroom taking care of my businesses (two separate but important businesses if you know what I mean). I just love new technologies.

As per yesterday's note, my quick GDX trade yielded almost 3% gain in a few hours. I am now out of the GDX but intend to use it frequently in the future. Again, for those who are curious about my day trade activities: I am building a "Short" position in Juniper (JNPR) stock. I have shorted JNPR at $17.24 (yesterday's high) and if it goes higher I will double short again. My target is between 7-10% in a few days. Watch if you're interested.

Our invstment account is holding up well. The recent rally is concentraded among the "Super Large" stocks. You know those stocks that make up the Dow 30 or the SP500 indices. The idea is this: market thinks that the Fed is done with the rate hikes. In fact, investors now feel that the next Fed move is to lower the rates. If this were to happen, it will help Large Cap stocks much more than the Small Cap (the ones we own) stocks in general.

We will add some large cap stocks in our porfolio in the near future. But remember this, small stocks have much better chance of of a "double" than larger brothers. I expect the market to hit a new high soon (Dow is only 54 points away from the all time high). Have a great day.

NASCAR experience

As per my previous note, I was at the Dover 400 NASCAR race held in Dover, Delaware. Obviously, this was my first experience of the NASCAR race scene. Let's just say that I was amazed. Upon arrival at the stadium, I could not believe the sheer size of the place. Over 100,000 spectators were in the seats. To be precise, the Dover 400 International Speedway accomodates 140,000 people.
What? --- Yes, 140,000!

Have you ever been in a stadium with 140,000 people? I haven't. There was a quick fire works to signal the start of the engines. Oh, the engines, I mean the sound of the engines. It is very loud - but in a satisfying sort of loud, you know what I mean? The smell of the tires melting, the loud sound of the engines, people jumping up and down to cheer their respective cars, are all the ingredients of this popular sport (fastest growing spectator sport).

By now, you know that I am somewhat of a curious cat. I just had to experience for myself why so many people spend big money to watch cars go around in circles (400 circles I mind you). By the way, I am already looking for tickets for the next races. There are several races left in this year: Atlanta, N.Carolina, Virginia, Kansas and of course Talladega, FL. I will tell you which one I will be at once tickets are in my possession. Maybe you can join me?

The race lasts about 4 hours (no, it is not boring 4 hours either). One thing you should know: out of the 100,000+ people, I saw two African-Americans and no Asians. Isn't that weird? This is the whitest sport I have ever seen; more so than even the Ice Hocky. But I'll bet you that this will change fast. We, the asians love thrills and dangers. I just think that most asians are not introduced properly to this exciting sport. You bet that I will change that too.

Business: The market is trying very hard to hit the new high for the year. It will definately get there - the only question is; will it go lower first ? or are we going to go stright up from here. The Dow 30 hit the low in June 13th and the QQQQ hit the low in June 18th. I think that these will be the actual lows for the year for both indices. I seriously doubt that it will go lower than it already did (great news isn't it?). Be ready to buy on the dips.

EXPEZ: Nomal daily volume is about 12,000 shares. Today it traded almost 69,000 shares! Someone today bought 55,000 shares at $5.75 at 10:30 am. Hmmm - I smell good things to come soon.

UTK: Just buy this at current prices. It closed today at $19.90 (cheap, cheap)

Keep adding to XMSR, NTE and RICK.

For those interested, in my trading account I bought GDX: I think gold is finished taking a rest. As I have said many times, I am very bullish on both Gold and Oil in the long term. Just so you know, my goal for the trading account is a few percentage points in a few days. See ya.

Window Dressing

As per my note yesterday, the market took a little breather (for those who do not understand what breather means, simply put, the market went down). Don't worry, this was in the script ( I mean, my script). Anyone who listens to the market news, probably heard how we are so close to the record high and that we are heading there soon. Well, it is true that we will hit the high soon but it may not be next week. Next week is an important week for professional money managers. It is a window dressing week. So, what does window dressing mean?

Unlike you and me, the professional traders have to show a progress report (in writing) to the investors at least four (4) times per year. These reports are called quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports. They are produced at the end of March, June, September and December. In the report, money managers have to show exactly what they own in their portfolios. Most investors are interested in looking at the top ten holdings in the portfolios. Now, here's the thing: Let's assume that the manager owned Nam Tai (NTE: one of our holding). As you know, NTE went down a lot in 2006 (this is why we own it), which makes most people think of NTE as a looser. The money manager does not want people to think that he/she buys loosers. Thus they sell it (or do not buy it) until the report is produced. Remember, they can buy it on October 1st without anyone noticing it (it's not included in the report until December).

Bottom line: These activities (it is real) make recent winners go up even more during the window dressing week and also make recent loosers go down further (however, this is only a short term reaction). Many managers try to buy the recent winners (like AKAM) so that it can be added in the report; making them look especially smart ( because the report does not show when the manager bought them, it just show that they own it).

So, how does this information worth anything to you?
This means that stocks like our NTE, XMSR,MATK,AUTO will be especially good buys next week. The pros will be selling these hoping that they can buy it back later. Any weakness in above stocks next week will be a good entry point. Try to buy all four - they are great buys now. Just these four stocks as a group will probably outperform most of professionally managed funds a year from now. Can someone make a note of this and remind us later?

Tomorrow, I am leaving to Delaware to watch the NASCAR racing ( obviously, I have tickets to one of the best seats available). Remember, I don't go cheap on food and entertainments. Wooo, I can't wait. I wish all of you to have a safe and fun weekend.

P.S: Say "I love you" to someone this weekend.
PPS: Donate a few dollars to charities of your chioce this weekend. Go on .... try. It will make you feel so much better. Please, make a habit of giving some back to others. I will try my best to make you more than you gave. Deal?

NASCAR - Updates

Can you believe tomorrow is Friday already?
The market has been on fire lately and I feel that we need to rest a little before resuming the uptrend. As I have said many times before, we will have a new high soon. For most of you, there will be one last chance to buy some of our stocks at reasonable prices. Basically, all the stocks in our current portfolio is a "buy". Let me give you some updates:

EXPEZ: This will be the last time you can buy it in the $5's. Place this one in your portfolio now. And I am not kidding. During the 4th quarter, Expedia's business will be fantastic.

XMSR: A few days ago, Merrill Lynch upgraded XMSR in addition to the recent Credit Suisse's upgrade. Satellite Radio business is real. And XMSR is the leader. XM has relationships with both GM and Toyota. As you know, these are the two largest Auto makers.

UTK: After a long upward march since we bought it (at $14.35) UTK is taking a much needed rest. Once this resting period is over (soon) one day this will run away from you fast. 2006 will be the record year for UTK in all fronts. You must own this.

IDWD: Please take some time to investigate this one. The last news says that it is in the final stages of being tendered offered at $2.35 per share (cash) without the 995ad.com business. We already received HLS stock dividend a few months ago. This is obviously speculative but I am willing to gamble (our cost is $0.72). You decide.

This weekend I will be in Delaware to attend the NASCAR racing. Have you ever been to the actual racing scene? I can't wait. It is the fastest growing spectator sport. There's big money on the line too (for drivers). Just imagine this: many many cars going at the speed of over 200 miles per hour and the distance between the car in front of you is only inches away. And you have to go around 500 times (Indy 500) before you can finish the race. I was told that the average drivers loose about 8 pounds of weight in a race (sweat, blood and tears I suppose). I will tell you all about it when I come back on next Monday.

Deal or no deal

Yesterday (Monday) was my chemo day.
My typical chemo day goes like this: get up at 6:30am, leave home by 7:30, arrive at Memorial Sloan Center by 8:30 to register. After the routine blood work and personal consultation with my oncologist, I begin my chomo injection which lasts about 4-5 hours. Usually leaves the cancer center by 5pm and arrive home by 6pm or so. By this time, I am half dead.

All the different chemicals and fancy biotech drugs in me knocks me out - very tired. So please excuse me if you don't see my updates on my chemo Mondays. Oh, by the way I also bring home a portable chemo bottle (with the injection still in me) which lasts until Wednesday. Basically I have to eat, sleep, rest and everything else with the injection still stuck in me for three days (this was not easy in the beginning). You will be surprised to know what you can get used to if you had to. Physically I am tired during the chemo week (chemo also attacks red & white blood cells in addition to the cancer cells). The following week is a resting week. Then the whole system starts again the next week. It has been 10 months so far...

You should know that the average survival length for stage IV colon cancer patients like me is measured in months not years (9-10 months). Within the first 5 years upon diagnosis over 90% of patients are no longer with us. I desperately need to be in the top 10% - period.

I know that I am writing this - as matter of factly - but seriously, why don't you take a moment and pretend you are in my shoes for a few minutes. I need all of you to live your life fully. Right before my diagnosis last October, I was just like you - invincible. Never thought I would ever get my money back from the insurance companies.

Just try to remember this: You do not have time to be upset with someone. You should not waste your energy in anything that is not productive or pleasurable. You should not continue with a job that you don't like. You should not continue a relationship if you know that its not going to last. One thing you should not be cheap about - food. Try to add more veggies and fruits in your diet. And you must devote sometime to excercise. Spend as much time with your family as possible. All of the above is much more important than money. This is the logic: If you are rich but do not follow above ways, you are not a happy person. We all know people like that don't we? Never use "I don't have the time" excuse - do you notice that successful people always have the time for above activities? It is the low level people who always seems to have no time for this and that (and they usually make small money). You control your time - do not let others control your life.

Back to business: Nothing new to report. Keep adding to our list of stocks. Try your best to have as much of our stocks as possible. Diversification is the key. I am very optimistc with our holdings. I am researching the Oil and Gold play for future buys. These two groups will make people rich in coming years. It is not too late - this is just the begining.

Lastly, I have two request for regular readers to my blog. This will be a gentlemens agreement where you only owe me if you feel my blog has helped you. And you will be the judge (recipe for foulplay but I trust ya). So here it is: #1. Whenever you get the chance you pry for me and my family (I am going to assume that some of you can pull some strings with god). #2. Whenever we meet (NY or elsewhere) lunch or dinner is on you. I can eat almost everything except for spicy food.

Remember, I am only requesting the above to be able to keep on helping you. In order for me to be of any value to you: 1. I need to be alive 2. I need to be fed good food. Deal or no deal?

Q & A: Nam Tai (NTE)

What a week we've just had! The market acted with such strong conviction that I actually went against the market the last three days in my trading account. I am currently short QQQQ and hope that Monday will bail me out. The stocks are showing life but seems a bit streched. In any case, I am glad to see that my assumptions (see note dated 9/10) are becoming true. Trust me, some things in the market are quite predictable : )

I was going to write an update on NTE today. Lo behold, one of our reader sent me a question via comment section below these pages. The question itself is relevent so here it is:

Q: Anonymous said...
Yes, when i saw the XMSR upgrade i remembered what you wrote a few weeks ago. Good call!Anyways - i had a question about NTE dividends. The yield for NTE is currently listed as 12.60% on Yahoo finance. Is this accurate? And they do they pay it at the end of the year?If the yield is actually that much (>10%), then i see buying NTE now as a no-brainer. Very limited down-side (because of the safety net of the dividend). Or i am missing something here??

A: Great question and here is my answer:
That's exactly what I am trying to say! I don't understand how so many people miss such a no brainer! But that's good for us - we do our homework. Early birds catch worms first! Too many people are negative on NTE stock. That's why we get such a good deal. Allow me to spell it out for you.
1. NTE decided to cut its dividend by half next fiscal year (2007) to invest more into the new manufacturing facilities.
2. Most people took thisb news as negative.
3. As I have said before (see note dated 8/17) I think this is a great news. Who wants cash when I can get higher return by re-investing it in proven business.
4. NTE stock went higher last few days but as of few days ago you could have locked in over 10%+ cash dividend, even after the 50% rate cut!
5. NTE stock holders as of 9/27 will receive cash dividend of $0.38 per share.
6. Then in December another $0.38/sh cash dividend.
7. During 2007 you will also get $0.21/sh cash in March & June.
8. So if you assume you will hold this for a year, you will receive total cash payment of $1.18/share!
9. BTW, these are guaranteed cash payments. Money is already set aside for these payments. As you know, most other company dividends are not guaranteed like NTE's.
10. In conclusion: you get the cash of about 10% on your money in a year guaranteed / you get the company that is growing - thus the planned expansion / NTE is the survivor in this sector / NTE has higher margin than most other competitors / NTE has money to adapt to the next level of manufacturing that most customers will seek / and the shares are so cheap!

Just get in OK?
Risk/Reward ratio is beautiful. So why are the shares at these level? I will answer that in 12 months from now. Because if I tell you now, you wouldn't believe me. Please someone mark this note and remind me a year from now ...

P.S: I have gotten in touch with friends that I have lost contact through this blog. They somehow get into this site and find me. How do you just stumble upon my site? Do you surf the net that much? I have no clue. But I am glad that I am reaching my old friends. The last one was a fraternity brother from my college days. Just so you know, I was a Teke (TKE) and I was the president of my fraternity. My auto-license plate in college was " TKE-CEO". And guess what I watching in my frat house living room during the lunch time? Yep - CNBC market news, of course. Everyone wanted to watch the ESPN but they knew not to mess with my TV...
Ahhh... how I mis the college days....

XMSR: on the move

XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) got a "Outperform" rating from Credit Sussie today and the stock jumped 9.43%. If you read my August 22nd note on XM, I specifically said that Wall Street houses will issue "Buy" ratings in coming weeks. Let me tell you something else, another house will issue favorable rating again in coming weeks. Technically speaking, XMSR is in a fantastic shape; it just sliced a 100-day moving average on huge volume (over 28 million shares). For those of you who did not buy yet, it is not too late yet. Buy now and enjoy the fruits later.

Another piece of good news. Rick's Cabaret (RICK) moved above $7 again for the third time this year. I hope the third time is a charm. RICK is also sitting above 100-day moving average. The business great, cash flow is fantastic and as I said many times before, this will be much higher later. It is our largest holding and I hope you all own this. It's a shame if you don't own this while reading Acetrader blog. Go and get it.

Some of you are not sure about my decision to not sell Martek (MATK) when it fell 20%+ a few days ago. In fact, I told you to buy at this levels (read my note dated 9/7). Let me just tell you this: the new CEO of MATK , Mr. Steve Dubin ust bought substantial amont of stock using his own money. This increased his direct holdings by more than 40%. Who better knows the company other than the CEO himself? A year from now, those who didn't join this party will have much to regret.

The new gismo from Microsoft "Zune" seems to be a worthy competitor to the "i-pod" at $300 each. I personally own two ipods. I love'em. Apple is a great company. They are coming out with other "stuff" for us to buy more of its goods. These types of competition by 800 pound gorillas is good for us. The "Free market" system is by far the best path to prosperity.
I love America. Good nite.

P.S: Yes, I am still suffering from my mouth sores. I now have about ten white spots on my tongue, uner my tongue, side of my tongue and on my inner cheeks as well. It hurts to talk never mind eating anything. This is just one of many side-effects of Chemo therapy. Yet another reason for all of you to "thank God" for not giving you such challenges. What do I thank God for? I thank God that he did not give me "Brain cancer" or "Tongue cancer" (these are much worse than my colon cancer: it makes what I go through seem like a walk in the park). Understand?

Buy Utek: UTK

The market turned in an impressive performance today.
Is this the beginning of new bull or is this just a fake rally?
No one really knows. If you want me to guess, I would say this is likely to be a fake move. The market might fall again before finally moving up. In any case, this is not a boring time for most of us. As I have said before, this is time to accumulate shares at discount prices.

If you happened to be the person who still does not own UTK, you're in luck. Now is the chance for you to buy some. UTK is one of my core holdings. I have many comments on UTK in previous notes if you care to look. The risk/reward ratio is awesome at this point. Just know this, UTK has all the ingredients to become a major player in the technology transfer business. Buy it and hold it. This is not a trading candidate.
( Did you know that UTK owns stocks in over 50 public companies?)

The market cap on UTK is currently under $200 million.
I would not be surprised to find this to be over $1 billion a few years from now.
Do not miss your chance again ...

Commodities Down: Oil / Gold

I have bad mouth sores again. I now count about seven areas in my mouth where the the skin is white (open sore). Never mind eating, it hurts to talk. This will last at least a week or two - nice. But the truth is that this is a small price to pay in order for me to prolong my life. I basically need to buy enough time so that hopefully a miracle biotech cure for cancer is found. I truly believe that we will find many more new drugs to cure many diseases in our life time. Biotechnology sector is one of my top choice for the next ten years.

As most of you know I have a keen interest in both Oil and Gold sectors. Why? Because if you time it right, it can payoff handsomely in a short period of time. Long term, both sectors entered a bullish cycle. Short term, however, it looks negative.

I use OIH for oil sector bets. OIH is a basket of oil services companies. These companies move faster than oil producers such as Exxon or ConocoPhilips. I just love OIH, its that simple. Why then do we not own it in our Acetrader portfolio? Because I am waiting for the right price. The last time we owned it, we sold it at $165/share (refer to 5/14 note). Today it closed at $125 - wow, I did not expect it to go down this far this fast. So do I feel its a good buy now? No, not yet. OIH has broken an important trend line. Although this is a good price, it is going to be dead money for a while. Basically oil price went below $66/barrel, I now think that it can go as low as $55. The big surprise was that Iran is lowering its tail finally. This is not good for oil price. Let's wait until the dust settles. We will definately buy OIH later!

I use GDX to trade gold sector bets. This is a basket of gold/silver/copper producers. Gold price went down to $580/oz - down $22 today alone. I love to own gold mining shares but it was a little too expensive. Now, the price is coming down finally. I expect gold to go down to about $550/oz - we will also definately own GDX or BGO. Let's wait again.

Sometimes in investing game you need to do nothing.

You loose if you move too much. This is such a time. Let's be patient because I see many many good deals going on. And I think the sale will go on for a while. Just get your money ready. We will be buying and selling soon.

P.S: In order to raise funds to buy above stocks, we need to sell something in our portfolio. I would welcome your ideas on this. Which ones should we "fire"? Please vote.

The Big Picture IV

I hope we all had a good weekend. Regular readers know that I write about the "Big Picture" occationally to re-adjust our thought process and to make sure we do not stray away from our original goals. In the internet age, it is too easy for us to receive multiple information regarding one subject matter that we sometimes loose our focus. I understand that most investors have this problem and the worst part is that they don't even realize this has profound effect in portfolios.

If you wish to know where I stand on investment issues in 2006, it will help you to go back and read my previous "Big Picture" series. Assuming that you have read them, I still expect the low point of 2006 to be in the 3rd quarter. And I still expect good things to come in the 4th quarter. This is one of the reason why we are fully invested currently. Unless you have million dollar protfolio (where preservation of capital is your main investment objective) I do not believe in being too defensive in investing. Having defensive portfolios cost too much for too many people. Remember this one important statistics: Markets go up more than they go down. There are more up days than down days. In fact, up days out number down days by more than 2:1 ratio. Generally speaking, for most of you, it is not profitable for you to be out of the market.

Now, during 2006, markets go down for one main reason: fear of further rate hikes ( btw, this is just an excuse - stocks will go up & down no matter what anyway, people just need a b for various stock activities). So, will the "Rate" go up again or are we finished? Who knows - even Mr. Bernanke himself doesn't know. But I do have an idea, a gut feeling, an opinion, a prediction - call it what you want but I have it. And here are my thoughts:

1. This November 7th (less than 2 months away) is mid-term election. A third (33%) of Senate seats and all (100%) of the House seats are up for grabs. I hope you agree that this is very, very important for both Democrats and Republicans.

2. Our Fed. Chairman Mr. Bernanke, was and is very close to the Bush camps. Before this job, he was the head of Mr. Bush's economic advisors.

3. Raising rates now will hurt Republicans a lot. Do you think he will do it anyway? I personally would not bet on it.

4. The general economy is doing OK but the housing market is definately in trouable. Simply look at the housing stocks (great place to look for bargains ).

5. If rates are raised again, making the mortgages harder & more expensive to get, housing sector will fall much faster and deeper.

6. Recently ( unlike the past) many people bought houses with adjustable rate mortgages with interest only payments. As rates go up, many people will have to pay 150% of what they used to pay. Can you afford your apartment if the rent went up 150%? I think not.

7. The economy will definately be affected by the housing slowdown, and this will continue for quite a while.

8. Another words, economy has very little chance to overheat - thus no more need for further rate hikes - I hope.

Am I making any sense? Does not matter. We will be fully invested throughout 2006 for eventual gains. It is time to pick bargains for future gains. Oh, by the way, if the market realizes that Mr. Bernanke is finished with the rate hike game, market will hit new highs. This is probably how the story will end in 2006. I can not wait for the 4th quarter! Happy investing...

P.S: Due to above, HomeDepot (HD) looks very cheap. Too cheap. HD is not our usual kind of candidate but we may just add this to our portfolio. Look at it and wait for my signal.

Buy Martek (MATK)

As per my note yesterday, I thought about the Martek situation. And finally, here is my decision: Buy Martek (MATK) if you do not own it yet & If you own it then hold it for eventual gains. Selling this at this price is just plain stupid. Think about it for a moment. Here's my thoughts:

1. MATK is the leader (over 80% market share) in DHA & ARA suppliments.
2. DHA & ARA is good for your brain / eyes / heart and many more body parts
3. Most of the sale comes from infant fomular makers (milk for babies)
4. No parents will buy milk that does not contain DHA & ARA for their babies
5. Understand that sales will fluctuate due to few large customer base (4)
6. Sales will definately grow so they have to have excess capacity (cost)
7. Out of 30 million shares (float), 13 million traded today between $21.5-$22.5
8. Who do you think bought 13 million shares today? (institutions with brains)
9. About 30% of all shares are being shorted (they all have to buy MATK back)
10. Most recent quarter: Revenue $70 million vs. $40 million same time last year
11. Most recent quarter: Earnings per share $0.16 vs. $0.00 last year
12. Growth will come from international business such as Korea and China
13. More food products will utilize DHA & ARA: cereals, cookies and drinks
14. There is no known competitor except for Fish Oil (DHA is in fish)
15. Fish oil does not compare to Martek's which is from MicroAlgae
16. Acetrader will hold its shares

Due to recent down grades by the wall street (that's how they buy this on the cheap from emotionally scared retail investors) MATK might be weak in coming weeks. However, we do not invest for the next few weeks. Looking into next few quarters, there's no question that this offers value. Buy now if you still do not own this (what a present!) or hold this if have already have some. Bottom Line: I liked this at $26, now at $22 I like it even more. Fundamentally, Martek's business has not changed at all. It's future still looks bright. Buy, I say.

P.S: The market is looking weaker by the day. We may actually see the real bottom of this year. However, this does not change our original plans. Keep saving your money and keep investing your money. A few years from now, current prices will seem like a joke. On any further weakness, try to buy RICK / UTK / EXPEZ ..... well everything we own.

News: RICK,MATK,BTYH

Let me give you an update on our holdings. The market fell today because of fear of future potential rate hike by Mr. Bernanke due to rising labor costs. Who cares? The real news today is that we have found new oil reserves near Mexico deep down in the sea. How much oil did we find? The estimates stand at near 15 billion gallons! Let me put it to you this way. The amount we can produce daily from this well can cover about 50% of our current daily use! Now that's a lot. It will probably take about 5 years for us to actually get it out but the important thing is that we have it! This is major good news for U.S.A.

RICK: Keeps pumping cash and in the month of August the revenue increased over60% compared to last year same time. Stock went up 8.1% today. This will probably be the last chance for you to see RICK at near $6. This one will head higher. Now you know why I own so much of this.

MATK: Just released its 3Q. earnings. Basically it beat the revenue and earnings estimates but the management cautioned about the 4th quarter numbers. The stock is down after hours trading at near $23. This is very frustrating. Martek has a great business and great products. It owns over 80% market share of the baby formular market. I love this business long term but the stock will probably be weak in the near term. What to do? Let me sleep on this. I have to think real hard this time. This stock is too cheap to let go. Hmmmm...

BTYH: Did you notice that at one point in this afternoon BTYH was up as high as $1.08? That's up over +65% from yesterday's price! In the end, it closed at $0.77 up +18.46% for the day. It traded over half million shares. I think somebody knows something we don't know. Keep an eye on this. I smell good thing to come.

EXPEZ: Finally this touched $7/share today. My cost was $4.37 but many of you own this at lower price. Remember that on 8/1/06 EXPEZ traded at $3.88. We will soon earn 100% profit on this one, yeh!

OK. I am really tired now. Have a good night...

So what do I do?

As I type this, I have the chemo injection in me. Bi-weekly my chemo session goes from Monday through Wednesday. Sleeping with the needle in you poses some chellenges. Basically, you do not get good sleep. Oh well, such is the life of a cancer fighter. Aren't you lucky?

Yesterday, I gave you the year-to-date performance figures as well as complete list of our holdings. Some of you are confused. Especially the newer readers to this blog. If I were them, I would be asking "So what do I do now?". Thus, to help the new members as well as reviewing sake for the old timers, let me give you an overall review of our work.

Most importantly, please go back and re-read two of my previous notes: #1. "Investing 101" dated 4/9/2006 and #2. "How to get Started" dated 4/16/2006. Even if you think you've read it before, please read them again (it takes less then 5 minutes) because it will allow us to be in same wave length - so to speak.

Currently Acetrader portfolio carries twelve (12) different stocks. We will hold between 10-15 stocks at anytime but no more. Please understand that by having 12 stocks in different industries eliminates over 90% of unsystematic risk in a portfolio. If you were to invest in 100 different stocks, it will eliminate 97% of same risk. So by buying 90 more stocks you only eliminate 7% more of the risk - does not make sense to most of us. So, we will concentrate our effort on 12 players. Now, allow me to divide those players into different catagories in order for you to better pick which ones to hire first for your team.

1. Marriage material - these are long term commitments, although I gave you target prices for these we will continue to hold until something fundamentally goes wrong. Ideally, we will never sell these but we probably will some day. Consider these to be your core holdings, they are: RICK / UTK / NTE (you can buy these anytime, including now).
Example: We bought UTK (4/21/06) at $14.35 and placed a target price for $24/share. On 8/4 UTK went over the target price of $24 already. However we did not issue a sell. I believe this will go much much higher in the future. Although I changed the target price to $28 yesterday, we probably won't sell it even if it gets there. At least I won't - you can do whatever.

2. Intermediate Opportunities - these we expect to hold for 12-18 months unless the target price is reached before then. Most likely we will sell them once our objective is met. As always, I let you know when I decide to "fire" them. With these players I believe I found some value that most wall street people missed. Too many people are emotional - I generally leave the emotion outside when money is involved. Stocks in this catagory are: EXPEZ / AUTO / BYTH / IGLD / XMSR
Example: We bought PRZ (5/25 & 6/6) at average cost of $1.29 and place a target for $2.5 but by 8/8 I smelled something fishy and decided to issue a sell at $1.97 (go back and read 8/7 & 8/8 note). We got out that day at a price of $1.9736/share - earning +52% in two months. Not quite the 12-18 months. It is currently selling for $1.44/share, good move indeed.

3. Exciting Speculation - these are the potential homeruns or duds. But I do my homework and we can make some serious money on these babies. There is no time frame, we have to simply touch and go. Obviously these guys are the most risky among our holdings - so use your own discretion when buying these, they are: IDWD / MIDS
Example: We have made good money by buying and selling IDWD in several occations. The stock traded between $0.70 - $1.20 most of this year. My current 15,000 shares went from $0.72 to $1.35 as of today's close - up over +86%! It went from the bottom of the list to one of the top recently (see my note yesterday). I have several automatic sell limit orders at $1.74 to $2.75 I suggest you do the same.

4. Quick trades - once in a while, when I see an opportunity, I advise you of a quick trade generally lasting few days. We have made some money buying and selling OIH and shorting KRY and HYTM. Although I sometimes tell you about my day-trading activities utilizing the QID and QLD, those trades do not get calculated in Acetraders performance figures. Those are totally separate basket of money.

I hope above analysis helps. Please understand that it is too hard for me to write everything that goes through my mind regarding the choices I make. After a while you will get to understand my thought process and my style through this blog. I sincerely hope that you learn to become a regular saver and an informed investor. Investing is never ending endeavor - you will do this until you grow too old and can not see or hear. So do not try to hurry - learn it slowly and enjoy the process.

P.S: Buy NTE at current price. It is on a fire sale! I will do a detailed write up soon on NTE again. Buy things when everyone is selling (lesson number 27). Happy investing ...

Performance Update 2006

As most of you know, I received my chemo session today. It was especially tough this time. I am receiving few more drugs in addition to the six different chemicals in my regiment. As I type this (10:30 pm now) I am feeling very weak. Emotionally I am a little down as well (I just read that the average survival rate among patients receiving Irinotecan drug is about 10 months - you can google the word "irinotecan" if you want). There's few greater chellenges than being a final stage (stage 4) colon cancer patient.

The truth is that I am not fearful of dying. I consider myself to have had a wonderful life so far. If my life was cut short by this disease, I would miss it but I would not feel too cheated either. I was fortunate enough to have wonderful, loving parents as well as a brother and two sisters that I would give anything to. My beautiful wife and my son "Ace" is more than any man can wish for. God definately dealt me some good cards (too bad that I did not get such cards during my recent trip to the casino). I truly wish that the readers of my blog take some time to appreciate what they have now. Believe me, most of you should thank god every morning for what was dealt to you. BTW, if you do not believe in god, I suggest you pray anyway. Think of it as a Put Option on your portfolio without the premium. I've yet to hear someone being damaged by praying...

Now here is our YTD performance in 2006:

Index NAV (1/1) NAV (9/1) Performance %

SP500 1,248.29 1,311.01 +5.02 %
Nasdaq 2,205.32 2,193.16 -0.55 %
AceTrader 1,315.32 1,829.24 +39.07 %

As noted above, these numbers are as of last Friday (September 1st, 2006). We were close to being up +50% not too long ago, but some of our holdings gave back some recently. Not to worry. Even with those mishaps, our performance is in the top 1% of all professional money managers (mutual funds, hedge funds and institutions). And most importantly, this is not a hypothetical portfolio. We use real money! Our current holdings and our cost is listed below.

Stock Avg.Cost Price (9/1/06) Gain/Loss % Target
RICK $4.80 $6.41 +33.35% $10.10
EXPEZ $4.37 $6.75 +54.78% $9.60
IDWD $0.72 $1.34 +85.08% $2.75
UTK $14.35 $20.67 +44.04% $28.00
AUTO $1.09 $1.09 +0.00% $2.16
MATK $26.42 $29.76 +12.64% $38.00
BTYH $1.46 $0.70 -52.09% $2.80
MIDS $1.37 $1.60 +16.11% $2.40
IGLD $5.29 $5.31 +0.38% $9.00
NTE $14.97 $11.43 -23.65% $22.00
XMSR $11.20 $12.72 +13.57% $22.50
HLS - no value yet (special dividend from IDWD)

The stocks are listed by size of holdings. Another words, RICK is my largest holding in our portfolio.It is very important to be diversified in investing. Try your best to hold as many of these holdings as possible. So there it is.

The market is a bit extended. Do not chase the stocks yet. Wait for better entry point.

Atlantic City Vacation

Some of you are wondering where I was the last few days. I decided in a moments notice last Wednesday to just pack and leave to the Atlantic City, NJ for much needed vacation with my wife. We dined at fabulous restaurants, received massages, slept late everyday and of course some business (gambling) was taken care of.

My favorite establishment is Harrah's network of casinos which includes: Bally's / Caesars / Harrahs / Rio / Sheraton / Showboat / Paris / Horseshoe / Harveys / Grand Casinos / Flamingo. Currently, my favorite casino stock is Las Vegas Sands (LVS) but I should look into Harrahs as well. The truth is that casino stocks have been outperforming the general market for a long time. They all look expensive to me right now.

You all know that the market is closed tomorrow (Monday 9/4). I will be receiving my chemo all day. But I will be updating my blog tomorrow with YTD performance figures. Remember that next Monday is 9/11. I sure hope nothing happens.

NTE just took a hit on Friday. Over-reaction is what it was. To most of you who did not buy NTE yet, this should be a welcome gift. Buy at this price and hold on. You need to understand the value when you see one. It will probably trade higher next week. Buy.

EXPEZ is on fire! We are up big in a short time. I am not going to say I told you so. And the ride is just beginning. If you still do not own this, try to buy in the $5's if possible.

I feel that QQQQ is over-extended. It needs to rest before setting up the next trend. As per my last Saturday's (8/26) note, QQQQ had a good run last week. Too good. We should see some downward pressure soon. Please remember that the big boys will join the party next week. Volume will rise and prices will jump up and down needlessly. Great for traders.