| How
Jon Najarian Uses eSignal and QuoTrek on a Typical Day
Each business morning I get up at 4:00 a.m. Central
Time, do a couple quick push-ups and crunches and head to
my office in downtown Chicago by 4:30 a.m. The reason for
the extreme hour isn't my trading, but the other side of my
life, broadcasting. I host "Taking Care of Business with
Doctor J" on CBS radio each day at 5:00 a.m., a financial
wake-up call that booms out to 38 states on the 50,000-watt
WSCR.
When I arrive at the office, which also serves
as my studio, my business partner and co-host, Tom Haugh,
and I pour through the business news of the past 12 hours
and prepare for our program. We're looking for both the top
stories of the day, as well as the overlooked stories. For
instance, Donald Trump may be entering voluntary bankruptcy
and that's the big story, but how the Donald has structured
his purchase of 25% of the "new" stock absent $600
million in debt is the overlooked story.
After we have plucked all the pertinent news
stories from our myriad Internet resources, we check for breaking
news and pre-market movers and shakers on eSignal. Once we
have all the data together, we're ready to roll, and another
day of news, commentary and phone-in Q&A is on. At the
end of the program, I post my top four stories of the day,
along with a stock to watch, to my subscription website, www.insideoptions.com.
Here's a copy of what that looked like on a typical day (August
10, 2004):
|
Another New Record for Oil - U.S.
oil prices stayed within a whisker of $45 a barrel,
but European and Asian stocks still posted modest gains
as the market awaited an expected interest rate hike
from the Federal Reserve. U.S. oil prices jumped to
$44.99, the highest since futures were launched on the
New York Mercantile Exchange in 1983 as violence in
Iraq disrupted output and exports from the country,
adding to fears about supply.
Trump Fires Himself! Trump Hotels
& Casino Resorts Inc. says key bond holders have
agreed to take the company into voluntary bankruptcy
and restructure its $1.8 billion in debt to get a $400
million capital infusion. The Donald will take his company
into voluntary bankruptcy and restructure its $1.8 billion
in debt to get a $400 million capital infusion. A significant
amount of casino bond holders had agreed to swap $1.8
billion in debt for $1.25 billion in new 10-year publicly
traded debt and a mix of cash and stock in the new company.
The annual interest rate will fall to 7.875 percent
from an average of approximately 12 percent, and the
company said it would be able to secure up to $500 million
in new financing.
Cisco & Disney Earnings - Cisco
Systems reports its fiscal fourth quarter after the
closing bell, with most investors focused on revenue
growth and inventories, two areas of broad concern that
have hit tech stocks in the past month. Most analysts
expect the world's largest networking gearmaker to report
sales around $5.9 billion, a 25% gain from the same
quarter last year and a sequential increase of 5.1 percent.
Disney is due to report earnings per share of 27 cents,
a 40 percent hike from the same period last year, on
comparable revenue growth of 16 percent, to $7.1 billion.
Remember folks, back on Feb. 11, Comcast Corporation,
the country's largest cable operator, launched a hostile
bid for The Walt Disney Company that valued shares at
$30. They sit at $22 right now!
Delta Burns Through $700 Million -
Delta Air Lines, racing to slash costs to avoid bankruptcy,
said lower yields and higher fuel prices have eaten
into 2004 cash flow, prompting it to turn to cash reserves
to pay certain expenses. The Atlanta-based carrier had
$2.0 billion in cash at the end of the second quarter,
down from $2.7 billion at the end of 2003. The nation's
third-largest airline, which said it may be forced to
file for bankruptcy soon if it cannot reduce costs substantially,
has not outlined which expenses will be paid out of
its cash reserves, a Delta spokeswoman said. Analysts
have said the company could face a liquidity crunch
as soon as this fall or winter.
Fed Meets, Rates Up? I am going on
record saying the Fed will stick to its plan to raise
rates. I think this will be the last increase prior
to the election. I expect Mr. Greenspan to again say
that this soft spot in the economy is temporary. Changes
in his verbiage will undoubtedly move the markets, so
stay tuned. Expect the release about 1:15 pm CT today.
Stock to watch:
AmeriCredit (ACF) Why?
Because the auto financing biz has been going great
guns and ACF has posted some very impressive quarterly
numbers. How impressive? How about net income of $82.7
million, or 51 cents a share, in its fiscal fourth quarter
versus consensus estimates down at $.34!! Last year
ACF reported a loss of $17.1 million, or 11 cents a
share, for the comparable period. Sales jumped to $332.8
million from $197.3 million last year. The company said
automobile loan purchases increased to $1.1 billion
from $686.9 million last year. AmeriCredit also raised
its 2005 net income forecast to a range of $230 million
to $250 million, or $1.44 to $1.56 a share, vs. $180
million to $200 million, or $1.09 to $1.21 a share.
Shares closed at $17.53 and should
test the 52-week high up at $20.74. However, let's not
be pigs. If we take a buck or two out, let's hit the
exits! I will keep a rolling stop loss $.50 under my
entry.
|
As I head off to FOX television to do my daily
business shows, I check my QuoTrek service (a wireless market
quote service I added to my eSignal subscription) on my Treo
phone to see how my stock to watch is doing. We have a little
more than 500 subscribers who count on this information, and
they'll only remain customers if we make money on our picks,
so the pressure is on! As I follow ACF in the pre-market,
and, once the regular session begins, I check QuoTrek again
to see if the stock is stalling, falling or moving as I've
predicted. On the day that is the subject of this article,
ACF opened at $19.80 and ran to close at the high of the day.
As it hit my target, we exited the trade. (And, we hope our
subscribers did too.)
The up-to-the-second, live QuoTrek is a godsend;
I can't depend on luck or a delayed quote because I'm in there
fighting for a buck or two and only willing to take $.50 of
pain if I'm wrong. Today's market gives us very few of the
old buy-and-hold opportunities, so immediate and accurate
information is vital. If I tried to convince myself that I
could meet my commitments to our subscribers and my own trading
account without the edge eSignal and QuoTrek give me, I'd
be kidding myself.
|
