The Motley Fool's CAPS investing service is one of the newest additions to the investing community at Fool.com, and it's another great way for investors to work together to beat the market. One of the features in CAPS allows users to set up a blog to talk about their picks, investing strategy, market views, or their favorite baseball team (if they so desire).
I've scoured through the CAPS blog universe to bring you a generous helping of the top blog posts of the past week.
Time to short Coke?
Motley Fool Inside Value
selection Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) has been an investment favorite for a long time, and it's no wonder. The beverage is a staple item around the world, and the stock became a 66-bagger between 1980 and its peak in 1998. In recent years, the stock has had its ups and downs, but it has been showing some life since the beginning of 2006.
In a recent blog post, CAPS player MG80 talks about the accusations that drinking Coke, or sodas in general, can lead to increased risk of metabolic syndrome. He considers what effect, if any, these findings could have on Coca-Cola's stock.
Indices and your currency
Investing in the S&P 500 index with U.S. dollars will give you exactly the advertised return. But what if you're a German investing in the S&P? Or an American investing in the Nikkei? Bringing a fluctuating currency into the picture can change things substantially.
This week, camistocks has put together a really interesting analysis (complete with charts!) looking at index returns for investors from various countries. Want to know where a U.S. investor could have made 1,000% between the year 2000 and today? Well, you'll just have to read the post!
Doing the math on Transocean
Recently, two of the major offshore oil and gas drillers, Transocean (NYSE: RIG) and GlobalSantaFe (NYSE: GSF), announced plans to merge. Current shareholders now face the decision of sticking with the combined, and now much larger, "newco" or cashing out their chips and finding greener pastures. One of CAPS' top players, rd80, has taken a stab at analyzing the deal from an investor's perspective and has come to his own conclusions.
Don't hate the player ...
In any competitive situation, especially when there are a lot of players involved, some patches of ill will toward those at the top are bound to show up. CAPS is no exception. With 60,000 players competing for the top spot on CAPS, it may seem inevitable that those in the top 10 might catch some flack here and there.
luvb2b, who holds the coveted Top Fool crown as of this writing, took the time to address some of the critics' concerns -- as well as pointing out some areas that have made luv reign supreme. luv concludes: "And if you must be a hater ... Don't hate the player... hate the game!" (For the record, I personally think everything's a bit more fun when you're not a hater at all.)
Fresh Air
Countrywide Financial's (NYSE: CFC) earnings report on Tuesday gave plenty of reason for investors to fret about not only that company, but pretty much any company tangentially related to the U.S. housing sector. CAPS player tmd6966 thinks it may be profitable to go left when the rest of the market is taking a hard right. In addition to Countrywide, he's also looking at shares of other housing-related stocks such as DR Horton (NYSE: DHI) and IndyMac (NYSE: IMB).
Subprime fallout
For the flipside of the Countrywide report, CAPS All-Star StockSpreadsheet shared an article on his blog quoting Countrywide's CEO as saying the housing market isn't likely to turn until at least 2009. Sure, a year and a half isn't all that long in a true value investor's timeline, but that's still a good deal more ugliness if he's right.
Foolish Proverb #7
Capping things off (so to say), TMFHollywoodDan delivers some wise words that at the very least hit home for this Fool. But it'd be no fun if I just put them up here -- follow the link to his blog!
So now it's your turn -- get off the sidelines, join CAPS, and start up your own CAPS blog to share your knowledge and insights with the rest of the CAPS universe.
More CAPS Foolishness:
Coca-Cola is a Motley Fool Inside Value newsletter recommendation. You can find out why with a 30-day free trial of the newsletter.
Fool contributor Matt Koppenheffer shares some thoughts of his own on his CAPS blog. He owns does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned. The Fool's disclosure policy does not have its own CAPS blog, but if it did, it would blow your mind.
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