Inclement Weather Isn’t Forever

GNC and VSI are getting smashed today, due to an earnings shortfall at GNC. Without equivocation, I believe this is a temporary set back. I am going to wait a few days for things to settle down, then buy them.

No one loses more than vitamin shoppes during periods of inclement weather. The sales, simply put, aren’t made up later. People will buy their stuff online and go about their lives, as if GNC never existed. However, there are true earnings power to these franchises and I believe numbers will look much better after the thaw.

Just my two cents.

In other news, FEYE is up like a rocket following its decline. I like BLOX here too; but would prefer to see it down about a point before I started buying.

I am sure the olde Senator Jakegint is making a small mint these days, lavishing himself with presents, and for his wife too, all thanks to his gold coins. While 2013 was an absolute bane to the precious metals geek society, it is a boon for them in 2014. Silver stocks are through the roof today and it’s only a matter of time before flyover country heads to their local pawn shop for a loan or two, where I will collect their monies (thank you very much).

There should be nothing else for you to think about, but gold, if it was up to me. I’d lock you in a cage and ask you to “kindly look over the balance sheets of several of these gold miners.”

Believe you me, at one point in my life, I was exactly like you, a non-believer, spitter at all things gold. I’d run about the neighborhood of Wall, buying up tech stocks, oil stocks, anything but gold. But then it hit me: by George, gold is going higher and I must get in.

With all of the craziness about me, the energy trapped inside of my pedestrian frame, I bought up shares of EZPW and EGO. The rest is history (true psychopathic rant here. Appreciate it).

So I ask you, “will you please step into the mine and do your duty?” I’d ask the same from my Mother, Grandmother and even my Great Grandparents, if they were alive.

We are 1% from new highs. The panic that was two weeks ago is over and it’s time to start thinking greedily again. But don’t risk your hide on earnings dice rolls. Stocks aren’t to be trusted, only pimped out and managed from a position of strength.

Let’s discuss inflation.

Here are some YTD returns for some of the more popular commodities

Coffee +27%

Natural Gas +22%

Cocoa +8%

Gold +8%

Silver +5.5%

Livestock +5.3%

Uranium +5%

Cotton +5%

Palladium +2.6%

Corn +2.1%

Oil +1.6%

For whatever reason, this is the over-arching trend of 2014. We can be stubborn and ignore it, investing in low brow real estate websites and the like. Or, we can obey.

The dollar was down another 0.4% today. I finished the day with just 5% cash, fully invested with a machine gun firing off rounds indiscriminatelty into space. Details are furnished inside of The PPT.

I’d like to offer you a loan at 15% interest, to be held against that nice watch on your wrist, or that lovely necklace around your ladies neck. What say you?

The underbelly of the US economy is booming. All they need is for the #1 source of collateral (gold) to trade higher and then these stocks (EZPW, CSH, FCFS) will head back towards all-time highs.

It’s the American way.

Top pick: EZPW

There was a time when I considered myself to be “an oil man”, “a coal man”, then finally “a gas man.” But, as fate would have it, I’ve become the very thing that I despised most “a gold man.”

Like it or not, gold is going higher. I am long gads of EGO and an enormous amount of EZPW, which is a double win for me, since they prey on the weak, disabled and vilely poor.

Go to your local pawn shop and hock your television, iPhone and watch. Take a loan and default on it. See what happens.

With gold trending up, EZPW is my single best idea.

Gold is back and I’m in the black.

I bought UNXL and EGO for a trade and initiated a core position in MA.

In light of the reemergence of the cocaine locomotive, I’ve made arrangements to reserve myself a 1st class ticket, fitted with extra straws.

I added size to EZPW and started a new position in SPLK.

Luckily I sold ANGI near $19 a few weeks ago. I sold it because of my aversion to earnings and how they tend to murder people who trust them. Looking at these numbers, I am shocked at how bad this company is being managed. They are in a sweet spot and should be killing it. I call into question their decision to spend inordinate sums of money on marketing, and poorly to boot. If you’re gonna spend $20 million per quarter on marketing, you better grow your damned business.

Frankly, there isn’t any excuse for this abysmal execution. Management should be changed, ASAP.

On the plus side, even at the lowest end of 2014 revenue projections, ANGI is trading 4x sales. It shouldn’t get much lower than 3x, or $11 per share. If ANGI gets down to $11, I will be buying with both hands.

Eventually, this works big. Once they figure out how to scale the business and stop wasting money on idiotic teevee commercials, I think ANGI will trade up to 10x sales, maybe even higher. No one trusts the stock because management has proven to be inept.

But there is value to the enterprise and the stock will not stay down for long.

Check this story out.

This sums it up:

In July 2013, Galena paid $50,000 to a subsidiary of The DreamTeam Group for 240 days of “advertising, branding, marketing, investor relations and social media services,” according to a disclaimer on The DreamTeam Group’s Web site.

I’ve been telling you Seeking Alpha was nothing more than a modern day bucket shop; and now you have proof. I don’t know if the owners of SA facilitate this or not. However, they certainly turn a blind eye to it. If any of that stuff happened here, at iBC, the blogger would be fired on spot. On Seeking Alpha, they merely take down the article, permitting the felon to commit future crimes.

Why am I paying so much attention to SA?

They are one of the biggest finance site’s in the world. I bet you didn’t know that. Their reach is huge and their reckless editorial standards have hurt me, vis a vis idiotic short raiding articles of pure trash. You can say that I have a vendetta out for them–because they deserve it. I suspect the owners and VC’s who back them are greedy upright walking pigs, the worst sort of people in the world.

I spit on the house of Seeking Alpha and their clueless staff of criminal bloggers.

I started a position in SALE, despite watching it rout short sellers for the past 15 points. I am doing the opposite of what I’d normally do, a la Costanza trade; because ultimately, SALE will trade to $100.

NOTE: My cash levels are now 45%.