CurtFletcher.com
"If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it." – Lucy LarcomTrip to Tunica
I recently took a fun little trip to Tunica, Mississippi in mid-January. The flight was about 3 hours direct from Portland. Tunica is about 20 minutes away from Memphis (which I did not get to see, maybe next time.) I stayed at Harrah’s which was very nice. There is a main casino/hotel and two other hotels where you have to take a shuttle that runs 24/7 to get to the casino. This never bothered me because I prefer to be away from the casino when not gambling.
I found the southern hospitality to be incredible. Never once did any casino or hotel employee ever show me disrespect, even for a second. The reason I bring this up is that it isn’t unusual in Atlantic City or Las Vegas to get an attitude from an overworked and tired employee. Not in Tunica, it was 100% southern charm. This is very big to me. The only negatives I can think of when compared to the larger gambling destinations would be a lack of shows in comparison. Again, this isn’t anything I really focus on that much so that didn’t bother me.
Here are a few photos of my trip. I can’t wait to make it down there again, maybe when the weather gets warmer. I want to try the Mississippi River Cruise.
You will notice a number of photos of Paula Deen. She is everywhere in Tunica! She has a buffet at Harrah’s that is loaded with authentic southern dishes – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was so good! My favorites were the fried green tomato eggs Benedict, hoecakes, grits, and cheese biscuits.
One thing I found very interesting is that Harrah’s owns a place called Willows Sporting Clays & Hunting Center, a place where you can practice target shooting. Maybe they don’t own it and just have a relationship with them. Either way I find it great that Harrah’s promotes this. Can you imagine them doing this in Atlantic City?
CurtFletcher.com’s Top 5 stock picks for 2010
Happy 2010! Here is the much awaited unveiling of my top 5 stock picks for 2010. Remember, nothing is a certainty and there are some pretty big risks in these stocks, and thus some big potential for huge percentage returns. The only two rules are to put an equal amount of money in each and they must be held for a year no matter what is going on with them or the market. One year ago if you would have done this you would have made 82.9% in a year.
It will be very difficult to beat 2009’s “best of the planet” 82.9% gain but I will try. There is one returning stock from my 2009 list and the other four are new.
1. Empire Resorts (NASDAQ:NYNY) 2.11
I have followed Empire for at least ten years, maybe more. This stock has been a total soap opera over this period of time. They are a gaming company with a struggling racino in New York. What has moved this stock from time to time is the excitement over the possibility of a casino in the Catskills. The last 12 months have been very positive for their efforts as they sold half of the company to a firm out of Singapore called Genting, the largest gaming company in Asia. I believe this gives them a floor and removes the risk of default going forward. The next 12 months will bring this company to the promised land or it will be done. I am betting on it finally happening. With jobs needed desperately in that area of New York and an Obama administration that is more friendly to gaming this seems to be a nice risk/reward.
2. Metabolix (NASDAQ:MBLX) 11.05
Metabolix was one of my 2009 stock picks and I have decided to give it another year in 2010. To me they are in the perfect area, the development of biodegradable plastics. There is a growing global movement that demands that plastics not fill up landfills but break down naturally in the environment. Metabolix’ main product, Mirel, is a joint venture with ADM that should finally see some real results this year. Mirel is gaining acceptance as one of the best plastic formulas in this space. There are so many opportunities here, cell phones, computers, electronics, gift cards, plastic shopping bags, and the list goes on and on.
3. Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:NABI) 4.90
Nabi Biopharmaceuticals web site
One of Nabi’s products that hopefully will lift this stock over the next year is a vaccine to quit smoking called NicVAX. GlaxoSmithKline is their partner on this one and has been ponying up payments along the way. Now in Phase III this drug could be transformational for Nabi. They have other products in the pipeline as well but NicVAX is the one Wall Street will be focused on in 2010.
4. Celsius Holdings (OTCBB: CSUHD.OB) 5.06
Celsius is a beverage company with a proprietary formula called MetaPlus. MetaPlus raises the body’s metabolism and allows for calories to be burned, about 100 calories per can. I have followed this company for a few years and really like how they are expanding in the marketplace. I have taken note that their shelf space is expanding as well in grocery stores. The product is all natural. They have some aggressive marketing planned for 2010 and I am betting that this is the year they really reach the masses. The stock just had a 1 for 20 reverse split at the end of the year which brought the price from .25 to around 5. The reverse split was good as it decreased the amount of shares that they had, something that they had to do. There is a D at the end of the symbol right now CSUHD.OB that will disappear in another week or two. The symbol will then return to CSUH.OB.
5. Force Protection (NASDAQ:FRPT) 5.21
This is another company that has paid its dues over the past few years and I believe is finally destined to bear fruit with stock price appreciation. The company makes military blast-protected vehicles and a variety of other blast protection devices. Their competition are huge defense companies. This is good and bad, the good being that they are way more nimble than the lumbering giants. A company like this could easily be gobbled up at a big premium at some point.
The Dow starts the year at 10, 428.05, NASDAQ at 2,269.15, and S&P 500 at 1,115.10.
You may notice that all of my picks are low priced, $12 or lower. I do this on purpose because the name of the game is percentage return. I believe that these five stocks all have great possibilities for 50-100% returns or more over the next 12 months.
Curt’s Top 5 Stock Picks for 2009 finish up a whopping 82.9%, talk about tough act to follow!
At the start of 2009 I said the best defense is a good offense and to buy, buy, buy. Boy that was certainly solid advice looking back. Sure it was scary back then but as I predicted it represented once in a generation entry points in many household names and quality companies. Even more incredible is that I called a bottom in the market and missed the 10 year low by one day!
How do I outdo myself? I will unveil that before Monday. This post is just about wrapping up 2009 and showing the power of what one correct stock pick can do for a portfolio. That stock is BIO-key (BKYI.OB). The stock rallied from .0475 to .237 during 2009 for a gain of almost 400%. When you take a straight average that does wonders for a portfolio of 5 stocks, the other four could be unchanged and it would represent an 80% average return per stock. This is basically what happened. BIO-key signed a game-changing deal with the FBI to provide fingerprint biometric services. While the stock won’t be on my 2010 list if you are lucky enough to own it at a nickel you should stay with it. ICx Technologies doubled just during the last week of this year as it was in the right place at the right time. Airport security stocks flew away as a terrorist tried to blow up a plane in Detroit. While he didn’t accomplish his goal he did blow up a lot of stocks right at the 2009 finish line.
Keep a look out for my 2010 Top 5 stock picks. They will be out before the opening bell on Monday. I am going to reach deep into my bag of tricks to try to do better for 2010. Remember the only rules are an equal dollar amount in each stock and they must be held for a year no matter what happens.
2009 Total Return
BKYI +398.9%
ICXT +20.4%
MTW +15.1%
UYG -6.6%
MBLX -13.1%
Curt’s stock picks total return +82.9%
DJIA +18.8%
S&P 500 +23.5%
NASDAQ +43.9%
Visit to America’s Playground
I went on a trip last week to Atlantic City and had a great time. I stayed at Harrah’s for 4 days and split my time between Harrah’s and the Borgata. Flying from Portland, Maine the total flying time is only an hour. This is far more desirable than an all day journey to Vegas or a 4 hour drive to the casinos in Connecticut. (Hopefully Maine will have a real casino at some point that I can drive to!)
Here are a few photos of the trip and a video of the outside of Harrah’s at night.
Here is a video of what Harrah’s does at night to the hotel to create a great light show. I saw this when leaving on a plane, it was spectacular!
So what’s the deal with HBO and Ted Danson?
I am a big fan of the Sunday night HBO shows, I always have been. From The Sopranos to Six Feet Under, from Sex In The City to Deadwood, HBO has always been a part of my Sunday evening. With True Blood and Entourage just wrapping up another season HBO now has new episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm followed by a quirky little comedy/drama called Bored To Death.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is on at 9pm, followed by Bored To Death at 9:30pm. For those that don’t know Curb is kind of done in a reality show format and are preplanned stories by Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld. It is one of my favorite shows and in its seventh season. Bored to Death is a new show that focuses around a character who is going through some life changes and decides to try to become a private eye. Curb takes place in California while Bored To Death is in New York City.
The strange thing about watching these two shows is that Ted Danson is on both of them. On Curb he plays himself and is friends with Larry David. On Bored To Death he plays a womanizing, pot smoking, and partying editor of a magazine. I don’t think I ever remember on any network or cable channel an actor or actress that has done this. To me it is like when Seinfeld was on and Jerry was on his own show as himself. If he then acted on another show playing a character directly after it on the same network, wouldn’t this seem strange? Out of all of the actors in Hollywood why would someone cast an actor that is on the show immediately preceding it?
Ted discusses sandwiches on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Ted tries to take care of a problem on Bored to Death.
