Which stonks are you buying if any?

[Umfriend]

Well, my horrible adventure with Fugro (Dutch smallcap) has turned for the better. From a 6.84 EOY close to 11.06 right now. My historic (9.91 at YE, 10.01 current) cost is now below the market value and then I have some cash resulting from the option premia I've accumulated over time.

So like probably everyone else, I'm in the black with all my single stock exposures and I have diversified a bit more so I am now at 6 companies in my toy-around-portfolio (which BTYW, is part of my retirement plans so it is not *that* toy-around-ish).

[Dr Mordrid]

At Tesla's upcoming shareholders meeting a vote will be taken on another stock split.

[dZeus]

And in the middle of this the US Department of Justice is taking a look at short selling. Seizing records, etc. Note that it's not the Securities and Exchange Commission doing ths but DoJ prosecutors.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeik...h=41a3adc478fc

I don't think this particular flaw in securities trading that I alluded to is going to get fixed anytime soon: https://prospect.org/power/gamestop-...-selling-scam/

[Dr Mordrid]

And in the middle of this the US Department of Justice is taking a look at short selling. Seizing records, etc. Note that it's not the Securities and Exchange Commission doing ths but DoJ prosecutors.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/16/doj-investigates-short-sellers-for-potential-trading-abuses-including-spoofing-and-scalping/?sh=41a3adc478fc

[dZeus]

The article states that trading was suspended in which case you can not sell either. It is not part of Market Makers' business model to build up positions.

I'm talking from personal experience: in the 24 hours or so before trading in these securities was halted, you could only sell them.
Even to this day, my broker allows me to sell these securities.
So who knows who was/is on the other side of these trades, but if you simply look at the current 'valuations', then this party is going to make a fortune if a lot of people liquidated their sell-only holdings.

Also note that this is not the first time this type of action happened, as it happened with GME shares before during the Robinhood fiasco. Back then, it was Citadel pulling their strings to bail out Melvin capital who found themselves in a huge short position that they couldn't cover.
If you ask me, there's something rotten with how the security trading system works, when some market participants can deny access to others and scoop up shares at rediculously undervalued prices in absence of proper price discovery.

My gut feeling is that someone(s) have a huge short position on London-traded securities of Russian companies that they're being 'helped' to cover.

[Umfriend]

The article states that trading was suspended in which case you can not sell either. It is not part of Market Makers' business model to build up positions.

[dZeus]

It could be Russian companies can be sanctioned or their abroad property nationalized. Here in Slovenia Sberbank has been closed by authorities although they were in process of being sold to local bank.

Putin may be out but his momentum of building strong Russia that can stand up for their interests won't be gone that soon after him.

Doesn't matter any more, the London shares cannot be bought any more (sell only) and thus no price discovery. I guess whoever is on the other side of these sell trades (market makers?) will make a killing if they can wait a couple of years until relations normalize again.

Reminds me of the GME saga on RobinHood...

[UtwigMU]

It could be Russian companies can be sanctioned or their abroad property nationalized. Here in Slovenia Sberbank has been closed by authorities although they were in process of being sold to local bank.

Putin may be out but his momentum of building strong Russia that can stand up for their interests won't be gone that soon after him.

[dZeus]

I understand Canada is going to ban the import of Russian oil.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60564781

We'll see what Biden comes up with during the State of the Union address, but I'm not very hopeful.

We should be rapidly expanding nuclear power in this country, and even further accelerating electric vehicles. This would reduce our need for foreign oil to the point where we could actually cut off Russian purchases. If we make it painful enough for them the military and the kleptocrats will take care of Putin.

Any meaningful transition away from oil will take at least another 10 years.
I don't think Putin is going to last another 5 years, so there's a good chance that these companies will revert to normal-ish valuations in the longer term.
Imo the market is very emotionally driven right now, and loads of companies are releasing PR to appear 'on the good side of history'. I really doubt that BP is looking to offload their stake in Rosneft at current valuations...

[Dr Mordrid]

Lukoil even more so

I understand Canada is going to ban the import of Russian oil.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60564781

We'll see what Biden comes up with during the State of the Union address, but I'm not very hopeful.

We should be rapidly expanding nuclear power in this country, and even further accelerating electric vehicles. This would reduce our need for foreign oil to the point where we could actually cut off Russian purchases. If we make it painful enough for them the military and the kleptocrats will take care of Putin.

[dZeus]

Rosneft looks pretty cheap right now...

Lukoil even more so

[dZeus]

Rosneft looks pretty cheap right now...

[UtwigMU]

I think with Skype and Nokia they just used cash they had parked in EU that they would have to pay taxes on. They were not that well managed
Github and Linkedin are OK.
Don't know about Bungie and Obsidian.

[Umfriend]

Now I am really ignorant but I wonder: How many of MSFTs' acquisitions turned out well and how many were duds?

[UtwigMU]

MSFT buying Activision Blizzard ATVI, it has market cap of ~60bn