3 stocks that will either make or break you

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I’ve be perfectly honest with you – stock investing these days is getting to look like a very dangerous game of juggling hand grenades. In the past if you said someone was good at spotting winners - you meant he was right 9 out of 10 calls; these days anyone who even gets 5 out of 10 is pretty good to keep his day job and 6 puts him amongs the best of the best - what I am trying to say is this:

(1) Markets these days are screwy.

(2) Trust no one.

(3) And always do your research.

Having said that markets these days are pretty nutty – that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of opportunities; anyone who tells you otherwise simply doesn’t know how to maximize opportunities in the market place, he is a fool! - if some of you followed my advise to switch from gold to uranium 3 months ago and buy into firms like URZ, you are looking at 150% profit on your principle! Of course there are opportunities; the problem as I see it is not the market or even firms; but the mentality of investors – most of them don’t like to hear bad news; and if you try to get them to put their money on a firm that is a bad news magnet, it will never fly – but I don’t believe that is a sound way of investing.

The way I see it not every firm that has been tarred and feathered with bad press deserves to be given the cold shoulder – some just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – others are just mixed up with either the wrong company or find themselves in a bad neighborhood. So for example, if you happen to be a well run bank in Greece and the country is going down the tubes – it figures that most investors will dump you; that’s part and parcel of the market – since it’s driven by perception; a little illusion goes a very long way to fashion reality.

The problem as I see it; when everything seems to be going down – it is also an opportunity to make money.

I am targetting 3 counters – they are all listed in the US.

(a) Synovus Financials (Ticker: SNV)

(b) National Bank of Greece (NBG)

(c) Allied Irish Bank (AIB)

The story goes like this: two shoe sales men at the turn of the 19th century found themselves in Africa – the first after looking around wired his London office, “no point trying to sell these savages shoes – they all go around barefooted here!- coming back home!”

The other following his tour of the African continent sent this: “Send as many shoes as you can – they all go around barefooted here! – will be staying to open a department store.”

The moral of the story – and this is very important – not only will it transform you from inside out, so if you happen to be a simple school teacher, dentist, ISD officer, part- call girl…hold on tight…..the remainder of this essay has been withdrawn from general circulation due to Measured Response)

“Don’t touch it! It’s a trap!”

“How can you be so certain Darkness?”

“Look at the color separation…it’s flawless. This isn’t just a 3 D rendition; it’s got 1.3 million permutations of color gradations. Whoever printed this virtual money is top drawer in his field - second to none, not even Pixar or Industrial Light can come out with this level of detailing…so gentlemen…who are these motherfuckers after us? Get JDAM to start the Chopper we are getting out pronto. Get Harphoon and Astroboy ready. We are walking away from this one.”

“But we just broke in Darkness!”

“You see that door gentlemen, I am walking right through it.”

The Banco Universale Mystrey – Project Entropia – this excerpt from the Book of Ages accompanies this essay.