BUSINESS – Page 2 – STOCKjAW.COM

BUSINESS, CULTURE, Editor's Choice, EDITOR'S DESK, MEDIA, MONEY, THE AMERICAN DREAM, THINKING NOW

Peyton’s ProFlowers? Are We Havin’ Fun Yet?

FEBRUARY 10, 2019. Peyton Manning is a–well, everybody knows who Peyton is. But did you catch his TV spot? So there we were watching the play-offs or whatever and bam–flowers. Peyton had gone pro–again. With what team?
Peyton went pro a second time with ProFlowers. Huh?
ProFloweers is an e-commerce flower retailer operating out of San Diego. Created back in 1998 by a guy named Jerod Polis, it was later rebranded as Provide Commerce(Nasdaq:PRVD), which in turn became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media. After that and every couple of years beginning in ’08 PRVD rolled up other gifting companies. They send our gourmet foods, fruit baskets, flowers, and the like.
Then in ”14 PRVD was itself purchased by FTD, the company most simply know as another flower delivery service.
Sport lovers love star power. What’s better? Flowers? No. Becoming a hero. You can. We did. How? Easily, and it was smart as–. We ordered–in minutes. Here’s what happened, as seen through our post-delivery email to the company. We’re hoping not to get sued for the screenshots. But then, why would they? We loved the whole experience. Well, except for that one filthy little surprise. Ordering up “Peyton’s Proflowers. Are We Havin’ Fun Yet?”

BUSINESS, CULTURE, EDITOR'S DESK, EDITORIAL, FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS, TECHNICALS

Standing Tough. SJ Portfolio Now

FEBRUARY 3, 2019. Change often comes in a flash. Ask the man who brings pizza to our office. He sports shorts everyday. He came from southern California where snow is unknown and assures us “its’ all good.” That’s when we pay him 50% above pie price and discuss stock picks.
He’s one of the few and only the few who wear shorts year round. Shorts in the snow may be an individual thing, but for sure only the rare individuals own individual stocks when things get tough. That’s like shorts-wearing while strolling the snow around the building ledge. And only the few out of the last group make it pay.
STOCKjAW works around the clock to make it pay. We’re lucky that way and share it all with you joyously. It’s not a secret to sell, as far as we’re concerned. It’s spreading the joy. Stand tough now and you’ll get 50% above pie price. Our picks now.

BUSINESS, CULTURE, EDITOR'S DESK, MONEY, THE AMERICAN DREAM, THINKING NOW

Money E-Motion. It’s Your Money Monster Screaming.

JANUARY 31, 2019. Emotion surges in a tender kiss and a long ill spike. Energy. Never fade that. This jet age is our collective way. That’s floodlight energy flung into furious motion. Some say airports are twice-baked hell. We love them like life on a shot-clock with few timeouts. Movement is energy and life. Airports are pulsing hubs of pressing ferocity, with spikes pouring everywhere. Airports are transitions to the future. The “hub and spoke” is a market place emblematic of our money lives, with us at the traffic axle.

Atlanta-Hartsfield is big and bristling. Market players gate pile to be sucked canister vacuum-style up the ramp and shot skyward. That’s out the window. The wheel turns. Your money wheel turns too, with you directing. Where do you send your energy? Money’s simply energy stored. What do you have to show for yesterday’s traffic? Every dollar is an individual you only own once. We have dollars older than Starbucks. Their energy is still working for us–around the clock. Money E-Motion.

BUSINESS, CULTURE, Editor's Choice, EDITOR'S DESK, FUNDAMENTALS, MONEY, Reader's Choice, THE AMERICAN DREAM, THINKING NOW

Greedy Creep. Truth.

JANUARY 28, 2019. Money is a means to an end, not a measure of personal success or value. When others measure by net worth or car driven, they’re on their own bent meaningless ride. Neither was money ever “the root of all evil.” Money is a tool just like electricity. It’s a tool that exists within a cultural context of confusion.
Like electricity, proper respect is required if you hope to benefit. Time matters and doing nothing abut your money will leave you and those you love in serious trouble.
Money is precisely about being able to take care of those you love. That’s love in action. Is there anything more important?

BUSINESS, CREDIT CARDS, EDITOR'S DESK, MONEY, Reader's Choice, Specials, THINKING NOW

Equifax Man. Steal It. Sell It.

JANUARY 26, 2019. What’s not to love? Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, all high-jacked your data, regularly flog it to whomever they please, refuse you a slice, make you beg or pay for access, and then in Equifax’s case lose it. Where does that leave you? STOCKJAW takes a look.
Identity thieves, drug cartels, and the mob all behave in the above manner. After creating the problem, the credit cartels now want to sell you the “solution.” Sound familiar? Speaking solely for ourselves, we want some pay-back. But how? Can we make them work for us? They deal in your sensitive data, but can’t promise to keep it safe, even from their own bungling. Perhaps they can provide some safety from other thieves. In varying ways they’ve provided a process. Here’s precisely how.

BUSINESS, CULTURE, EDITOR'S DESK, INVESTING, MONEY, STOCKS, TECHNICALS, THINKING NOW

The Better Than Bond. Payment In Dollars Not Pennies.

JANUARY 21, 2019. Night-dreaming your way through fixed-income brings results similar to automobile crumple zones. Yet mashed returns are common to market tourism particularly for bond fund buyers. Even Batman can’t make bond funds fly. So why try? Alternatives exist.
Popular culture historians will tell you that bond funds were birthed ugly deep below Gotham City. Who knew? Commissioner Gordon flatly refuses to hold bonds–in any form. When we cornered him one night at a Wayne Manor blast he claimed disgustedly to have actually “seen how they were made.” Well, maybe.
Either way, bond funds are in reality stock market vehicles riding on a comfy cushion of fees, and semi-mysterious low-paying paper promises. “Complexity” you say? Well–yes. Complexity leads to confusion and confusion often results in wreckage, except for the Fund Family. They live right next door to Bruce’s place.
Fund business was the foul reality that sent us out, along with the postal service, into the gloom of the Gotham night in search of an alternative. STOCKJAW shows you the goods–bond and bond fund alternatives. All pay more–much more. And with equal safety. See what we uncovered.

BUSINESS, EDITORIAL, GREEDY CREEP, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, MEDIA, THINKING NOW

No Speed Limit To Silly. Chopsticks Please.

JANUARY 8, 2019. Wanna go for a joy ride? Snap on CNBC. A lot of fast air exists there. Some say Becky Quick can get Warren Buffet to talk truth. Becky is a stone professional fully capable of getting most any man to say nearly anything. On the other hand Joe Kernen just says, anything.
But really, the parade of financial advisors tromping through are the unreal deal. CNBC’S Chief Market analyst Bob Pisani is terrific. The man adroitly sums up market action in mere moments. Some say Americans are both lazy and violent–thus the drive-by. And that troop of “guests?” Is that some sort of lazy drive-by “advising?”
Kernen’s ceaseless shuck-and-jive in the morning gives way every afternoon to those investing advisor cartoons. Even when water-boarded they spit forth the same spam. What’da ya expect for free?
Bring chopsticks if you intend to consume.

BUSINESS, CULTURE, EDITORIAL, GREEDY CREEP, MEDIA, THINKING NOW

Chinese Charm. American Assets.

DECEMBER 31, 2018. On the cusp of a sparkling new year, who can deny it? China is thrilling, and amazing. As Anthony Bourdain noted, it’s far too large, diverse, and old, to know. Nonetheless the world clamors and struggle’s to be let in. Even Alphabet has switched course. From without, China is yet more a paradox than not. And on it goes.
Globalism daily corrals more of our thinking. Advocates prattle about that big pie of unity. The so-called synergies of an efficiently interconnected world system are said to be worth it, and nations without barriers the path. Can we have a “nation’ without barriers? Having cake and eating too.
History is not a blank state–oops, slate. History indeed is routinely “written by the victor.” Yet not all history is bunk. Thanks Aldous Huxley for the joke. What in fact does history tell us about China’s ability to become a trusted and open free-trader? Is their true goal simply economic? U.S. history has never been simply that. STOCKjAW takes a closer look.

BUSINESS, CULTURE, EDITOR'S DESK, MEDIA

Eat Salesmen. Cows Don’t Shill.

DECEMBER 21, 2018. “We like the banks here.” Really? A thousand times. That’s the number of times in 2018 we’ve witnessed that cow pie observation.
Is that a recommendation, or shills posing as advisers? Banks have done precisely nothing all year. But one should never allow facts to interfere with sales. Television guests are supposedly providing insight. No. They’re selling their brand. It’s call conflict of interest. But then everybody knows that. More dodging and weaving happens on financial TV then in boxing. The foul tricks of the dodge and weave.

BUSINESS, EDITOR'S DESK, FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS, TECHNICALS

Starwood Trust. 9% Harbor or Comedic Goof?

DECEMBER 20, 2018. Gravity isn’t consistent–ask Albert. When the suck’s on, the market warps–like now. Who can escape market gravity? Amazon? No. Mr. Softie? No. Real estate trusts–Starwood Property Trust?
When growth dies dividends fly. How about 8.94%? Fries with that?
Powell’s back to his earlier antics, reading the economy from space. Life is very different on the ground. Jerome hiked yesterday and has two more in his big black Christmas bag.
The clatter you hear from above isn’t Santa. It’s your new fed head bringing coal. Is there a safe harbor anywhere, one with an outrageous dividend just for you? STOCKjAW unwraps Starwood Property Trust. Tis the season to be skeptical. But then, you may just wish for some. And then there’s CEO Berry Sternlicht. That’s passion, all caps.
(Cover photo:) Miami. Last year Starwood Property Trust entered the residential real estate market. The move comprises only a 2% slice of the company’s current loan book. That investment currently holds 15,000 low-income housing units in Florida.