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Stocks

How To Find the Best Online Broker for You

Internet stock trading has soared in popularity recently – but most investors still are not well versed in how to find the best online broker for their needs.

Finding an online broker may seem easy. Nowadays, all the resources you need are at your fingertips, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are many reputable sites that have become household names.

While you may recognize the E*Trade (Nasdaq: ETFC) from the catchy commercials it runs during the Superbowl, you might find you fall short of actually knowing if E*Trade is a good broker for you.

When it comes down to it, selecting an online broker requires some serious thought. Several factors must be weighed, and what is good for your neighbor, brother, or co-worker might not be the best option for you.

These brokers provide a service, but a personal one; it is more akin to choosing a doctor than choosing a restaurant or drycleaner.

Here is a three-step breakdown of what to consider when picking the best online broker for you:

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FLIR Systems (Nasdaq: FLIR): Grow Your Portfolio With The "Eye in the Sky"

Smile…. you're on the 21st century's version of Candid Camera.

Whether you're an Islamic troublemaker in North Waziristan, a rowdy football fan, or a hopeful immigrant trying to slip across the border, the eye in the sky sees everything.

In the halls of power, there's a term for this. It's called the surveillance society. And it is one of the biggest trends inside and outside the military industrial complex.

Also known as ISR – intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance-it's an outgrowth of more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a place where everyone has heard of unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs.

But while UAVs are an amazing technology in themselves, they aren't very effective unless they can report on what they see -that's the ISR piece of the puzzle.

And that's precisely where a company like FLIR Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: FLIR) comes in. FLIR provides the optics and equipment to make it all happen both in the air and on the ground.

What Analysts are Missing About FLIR Systems

Founded in 1978, FLIR has developed a reputation for building world-class equipment.

And now that these systems have proven themselves in some of the harshest conditions on Earth, the company is expanding to a broad number of other applications in market sectors outside the military.

However, looking at FLIR's chart, it's an understatement to say that this specialty defense imaging stock has been hit hard by the budget cuts and the winding down of our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Facebook Stock is Worth $7.50 a Share at Best

Duh on you if you bought the Facebook IPO.

Double duh if you're thinking of buying Facebook stock now that it's fallen to $32 a share and lost $17.16 billion off its initial $104 billion valuation.

The company is only worth about $7.50 a share. And, no. That's not a typo. There is no missing zero or a placeholder.

That's reality. What is ludicrous is that Morgan Stanley and Facebook executives thought the company merited a $104 billion valuation at 100 times earnings.

As my good friend Barry Ritholtz pointed out recently, both Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) debuted at about 15 times earnings. Today they trade at 13.6 and 18.2 times earnings and 3.75 and 4.9 times sales respectively.

As I type, Facebook's market cap is $86.84 billion and its price to sales is ridiculously high at 21.01. I think that's way out of line.

So what should the numbers be?

Try this on for size. If we use Google's price to sales ratio of 4.9 (and I am being generous here for discussion purposes), that equals a total market cap of $20.24 billion or 76.68% lower than where it's trading today.

With 2.74 billion shares outstanding, that's equal to only $7.39-$7.50 per share.

No doubt I'll get the evil eye from the Facebook faithful and Morgan Stanley for saying this, but think about it.

Revenue is already slowing and the company does not and cannot possibly dominate the mobile markets that are becoming the preferred channel for millions of people.

Worse, startups are already cannibalizing Facebook's user base as concerns over privacy and who likes who mount.

Companies like General Motors (NYSE: GM) are deciding not to renew their advertising. This is going to hit Facebook to the tune of $10 million a year for the loss of GM alone.

More will undoubtedly head out the door for the same reason, since Facebook friends don't necessarily translate into revenue.

Corporate buyers are beginning to figure out that advertising on Facebook is simply not cost effective versus other media alternatives – gasp – including good old fashioned television and radio advertising, billboards and tradeshows.

Facebook Stock: At the Mercy of the Merely Curious

Many people think this isn't a big deal. They couldn't be more wrong.

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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Patent War with Samsung A Fight No One Wins

Like two mighty monsters in a 1950s sci-fi B-movie, Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. (PINK: SSNLF) have locked horns for over a year in an epic patent war neither can win.

Over the past year, the two tech titans have filed dozens of patent infringement lawsuits against each other in 10 countries. Most seek to block the sale of one or more of the other's smartphone and tablet products.

The biggest case, filed in San Jose, CA, is scheduled for a July trial, which U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh is desperate to avoid. (She called the case "cruel and unusual punishment" for the jury.)

Earlier this week Koh ordered the CEOs of both Apple and Samsung to meet in mediation sessions, but nothing came of the meetings.

The mutual stubbornness makes sense when you realize what's at stake.

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Good News for Gold Prices: Commodities are Wounded, But Far From Dead

Greece is frozen in a political stalemate. Youth unemployment is running at over 50%. And there has been a $1 billion run on Greek banks.

From near and afar, there appears to be no easy way out, especially now that the Eurozone is heading back into a recession.

It's times like these when investors pour into the U.S. dollar for its "perceived safety."

With commodities priced in U.S. dollars, this spike in the greenback has sent commodities-including gold prices-into a tailspin since early March.

That has many doubters asking: "Has the commodities super-cycle ended?"

It's a reasonable question considering the Continuous Commodity Index (CCI) is back down to levels it last saw in September 2010.

What's more, gold prices have backed off to near $1,500/oz., and oil prices have fallen from $110 to $90/barrel.

But as you'll see, the commodities coin does have another side.

The Other Side of the Commodities Story

In fact, a recent article by Frank Holmes, CEO and chief investment officer at U.S. Global Investors, pointed out how China and other emerging nations are in better fiscal shape than much of the West.

Even if China is slowing somewhat, it is still growing at an enviable 8% per year, with only 42% debt to GDP ratio. So rather than go for more outright stimulus, it's expected that China will target new loan growth and its M2-money supply growth to around 14%.

Meanwhile, India and Australia have just lowered interest rates while other central banks are basically refusing to raise rates.

It means the world will keep turning, people will keep consuming and annual demand of raw materials is likely to remain elevated.

As for gold prices, let's cut right to the chase.

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Is Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) a Replay of the AOL/Time Warner Deal?

I hope you didn't buy shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB). The valuation was always too aggressive.

And increasing both the price and amount of Facebook stock at the last moment ensured that both underwriters and retail investors ended up with far more shares than they bargained for.

In fact, the Facebook fiasco reminds me of another deal that marked the peak of the dot-com boom.

No, not the ineffable and rather sweet Pets.com- their IPO was far too small a deal to have genuine market significance.

Instead I'm talking about the AOL and Time Warner merger announced on January 10, 2000.

Like Facebook, the deal was sold as a big success. It was only later that it quickly became clear that AOL had sold itself at the absolute peak of the market.

From there on out it was all downhill as the storied merger practically top-ticked the market.

Before Facebook There Was AOL

AOL had built up a nice business from "dial-up" Internet access, but it was already obvious by January 2000 that the arrival of broadband Internet would make for a difficult transition.

As such, AOL's market capitalization of around $200 billion was purely the result of the frothy market of 1999.

Nevertheless, that rich valuation enabled AOL to become the senior partner in an acquisition of the Time Warner media conglomerate, getting 55% of the merged company in a deal valued at $350 billion. It was the largest merger in U.S. history.

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Facebook Stock Price Drama Heats up with Lawsuit (Nasdaq: FB)

Investors are not taking lightly the lackluster performance of the Facebook stock price (Nasdaq: FB).

On Tuesday the finger pointing blame game began, followed today (Wednesday) by lawsuits.

Investors who claim they were misled in the purchase of the social network firm's stock filed a lawsuit against underwriters Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) and the other underwriters, some 33 in total.

According to a complaint filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the investors, who are members of a proposed class action lawsuit, claim they have lost more than $2.5 billion since Facebook's debut last week.

Morgan Stanley has been accused of mismanaging the offering by either signing off on a price that was too high, or agreeing to sell too many shares.

Facebook went public May 18 amid much hype and fanfare at $38 a share, the high end of the increased price range.

Several investors are frustrated that they got more shares than they were expecting in the IPO. They in turn dumped those shares when Facebook began trading Friday, pressuring the stock's price down and taxing the Nasdaq's overburdened platform. This resulted in a myriad of problems including late execution reports, communication problems, and delayed quotes.

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Why is Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) Stock Falling?

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) investors have cringed as the stock slipped about 16% from its peak over the last two months.

But given the absence of any catastrophic bad news, why is AAPL stock tumbling? And where will it stop?

It's important to note off the bat that Apple's fundamentals are just as strong as they were last fall when the stock began its huge run-up from just under $400 to $636.23 on April 9 (it hit an intraday high of $644 on April 10).

In short: Apple still expects to make a mountain of profit this year. Apple still has over $100 billion in cash with no debt. The company's price/earnings ratio is about 13.50 for the trailing 12 months and its forward P/E just 10.

So something else must be driving down Apple stock. Some of it is logical, some of it emotional – but none of it permanent.

Let's take a closer look:

  • A Parabolic Rise: First and foremost, AAPL simply rose too far too quickly. Rapid gains beg profit-taking.

"It was clear to me that this kind of reversal was coming – and sooner rather than later," said Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald when the selloff started in April. "The shares had soared 75% in just five months – one analyst actually described the performance as "euphoric.'"

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Facebook Stock Price: Time to Play the Blame Game

It's the third trading day for Facebook stock, and the finger pointing over what went wrong has begun. Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), its underwriters, and the Nasdaq are all red-faced after the lackluster debut of the largest-ever tech offering. The hyped-up Facebook IPO was finally priced at $38 last Thursday, raising $16 billion. Shares opened Friday […]

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