Community Investors Bancorp Purchase

Before I get into my new purchase, I forgot to mention yesterday that I held FFD Financial in my taxable account. The good thing about having had FFD Financial in my taxable account is that I will be able to write off the loss associated with that stock on my income taxes.

I decided to get right back into these deals, especially now that everyone is spooked. I took the proceeds from my sale of FFD Financial and quickly put in an order for another company that is about to vote on going private. This company is Community Investors Bancorp (CIBI).

I was able to purchase 100 shares at $13.75 and 199 shares at $13.85 today. I was only charged one commission since my order was a limit order for 299 shares at $13.85 without my usual all-or-none provision. I typically use an all-or-none order restriction, but since I was willing to get less than 299 shares I decided not to use my usual trading restriction. I also thought that I might get charged a commission on each of the trades, but unlike one of my old brokers, I was only charged one commission for the three trades that it took to fill my order today.

The details of the CIBI deal and other special situation opportunities are listed on Fat Pitch Financials current going private transactions page. I am working hard on a major upgrade to that page that will include daily closing prices, current price spreads from the tender offer, and even potentially the ability to sort the list on few of the data fields.

These new features are taking a lot of effort on my part to put in place. Since the advertising on my website is not really generating any income, I plan on creating a members only area for contributors that will include the upgraded going private transactions page, individual posts for every going private transaction (with the ability to comment on each post), and email notification of those updates. If you have any additional ideas, please let me know.