Thursday, 3 February 2005 - 6:57 PM CST

You deserve it. Great Blog. Did you notice the action today on the stock ASKJ. This one you profiled at the end of December. I was wonder what you thought?

Thanks
Tom

Thursday, 3 February 2005 - 8:20 PM CST

Tom,

Thanks for the strokes! I can always use them. I was in and out of Ask Jeeves...lasted about 7 days....then hit my 8% loss. I haven't followed it since. When I look at that Point & Figure chart, the whole picture looks a little weak to me. I thought the fundamentals were looking brighter, but there really wasn't much price momentum in that issue.

Bob

Thursday, 3 February 2005 - 8:27 PM CST

Tom,

Looking closer at your question, you can see how sometimes expectations get ahead of reality. And when reality sets in there is a rude awakening. The earnings ASKJ reported today appear to be quite strong, but apparently after the big Google numbers, investors were disappointed. The stock has sold off further after-hours.

This also reminds me of the action on Starbucks (SBUX), a stock that I do own in my trading account, which announced something like 7% same store sales growth. The company all along has suggested that 5-7% growth was what they were aiming for but because of a couple of huge months previously, expectations got ahead of themselves...and the street was looking for more like 10% same store sales growth...and you know the rest of the story....SBUX dropped $4.43/share today or 8.20% decline!

However, SBUX is trading higher after-hours, while ASKJ continues to sell off.

I hope that answers your question. You probably knew all of that already! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Bob

Saturday, 5 February 2005 - 5:54 PM CST

Hi Bob,
Thanks for giving me your thoughts on ASKJ. I almost got nailed on that one but was bailed out on AH trading on the night they reported. For some odd reason it ran up to $28 a share I think and I had bought it a day before at 27.85 thinking it would go up 1%. I knew the stock was questionable but did it anyway. I almost got burned. Lesson learned.

One more question or just would like your thoughts. What I missed about this stock was the heavy insider trading that took place in Mid Januray. It wasn't just one officer selling some shares but 3 or 5 officers. Your comments?

Saturday, 5 February 2005 - 6:47 PM CST

Tom,

Glad you didn't get burnt on that ASKJ. I did lose a bit on that trade as I pointed out earlier. Quite frankly, I do not use insider trading but that would be a good thing to check as well. I am never sure about what a sale means from an insider since so many are just selling stock regardless of whether the news is good at not, just to diversify and hedge their investments. Some do sell anticipating bad news...I am sure...but it is hard to sort all of that.

I manage to pick stocks without closely looking at that part of the equation.

Hope that is helpful. I do not mean to infer that examining insider selling isn't important; just not something that I routinely do!

Bob