Festival of Stocks – Big Short, Inflation, Bubble, Magic Formula

Welcome to the April 27, 2010 edition of the Festival of Stocks. The Festival of Stocks is a blog carnival dedicated to highlighting bloggers best posts on stock market related topics. Fat Pitch Financials is the actual birth place of this online weekly event, so it is always a special occasion when I get the chance to host this roving event.

If you aren’t already familiar with my blog, Fat Pitch Financials, it is a value investing blog with a focus on wide moat companies selling at substantial discounts and Benjamin Graham style workouts. I encourage you to subscribe for free to my blog feed to keep up with my latest postings.

You should also check my Fat Pitch Financials Contributor’s Corner while you are here. It is my premium members only community dedicated to unique arbitrage and special situation opportunities.

Now that you are familiar with Fat Pitch Financials, let’s take a look at this week’s Festival of Stock participants. Here are this week’s entries:

I present Consistent Cash Creators During the Great Recession at Fat Pitch Financials.  My custom screen that looks for a linear trend in free cash flows and high 7-year normalized EBIT/EV outperformed the S&P 500 by 29% from March 2008 to March 2010 in this backtest. Have I discovered the next “magic formula” for value investors?

LivingInVol presents Let’s play Russian Roulette! posted at Living in volatility, saying, “Russian roulette is a game only a maniac would play. But is there a price at which you would dare to play? Let’s explore the idea…”

Financial Uproar presents Lessons To Be Learned From The Big Short posted at Financial Uproar, saying, “I just got done reading The Big Short by Michael Lewis. What can that book teach someone about investing?”

Steve Alexander presents Magic Formula Stock Review: Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) posted at MagicDiligence – Optimizing Joel Greenblatts Value Stock Strategy, saying, “Endo Pharmaceuticals is a highly profitable specialty drug maker specializing in pain killers such as Lidoderm, Opana, and Percocet. While the outlook is very good for the next few years, major patent cliffs and pipeline problems could keep the valuation lower than normal.”

D4L presents Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) Dividend Stock Analysis posted at Dividends Value, saying, “Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the largest retailer in North America. The company operates retail stores in various formats worldwide. It operates through three segments: Wal-Mart Stores, Sam’s Club, and International. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.”

Consumer Boomer presents ETF’s to Buy to Hedge For Inflation posted at Consumer Boomer.

AlexG presents Joel Greenblatt: Expanding The Magic Formula | Magic Formula Pro posted at Magic Formula Pro.

Adam presents Why You Should Be Investing posted at Magical Penny, saying, “the best reason to invest is that it encourages you to think beyond today. It’s too easy to only be concerned with what’s right in front of you in life, rather than having goals on the horizon. By saving long-term you really do get a sense of empowerment that you are taking control and can reach some ambitious goals.”

Super Saver presents Bubble Time? posted at My Wealth Builder.

Hussein Sumar presents How a 401k Plan Increases your Savings Opportunities under the Economic Growth & Tax Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) posted at 401k, saying, “Many baby boomers who are nearing retirement and even young people who are interested in saving as much as they can for retirement visit their financial advisors each year to see how much they can contribute to their 401k plans for the current & upcoming tax years. Effective 2002 and thanks to Economic Growth & Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), annual limits on 401k contributions were raised for this exact purpose allowing working investors to contribute more tax-deferred contributions to their retirement plans and lower their current taxable income.”

That concludes this edition of the Festival of Stocks. Be sure an leave comments as you visit each of the blogs that participated in this week’s Festival of Stocks. They’ll appreciate knowing folks are reading their articles.

I’m looking for hosts for next week’s Festival of Stocks and for other time slots throughout the rest of 2010. If you are interested in volunteering to host a future edition of the Festival of Stocks, just contact me right away with the name of your site, blog URL, email address, and the date your prefer to host. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Festival of Stocks using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our Festival of Stocks index page for those of you interested in reviewing the archives.