Susan Walsh/AP With Powerball jackpots hitting $500 million-plus payout levels more frequently these days, you might be wondering whether it's time to start spending a few bucks everyday playing the lottery. But you'd be mistaken to take this as a serious path to wealth. After all, the odds of winning the Powerball are tiny -- just 1 in 175 million. In fact, you're more likely to win an Academy award (1 in 11,500), die from a shark attack (1 in 60,453), or even date a supermodel (1 in 88,000) than you are to strike it rich playing the lottery. And, as I'm sure you can gather, those are events you'll probably never experience. And Yet People Still Play! Even with such remote odds, people continue to play. In fact, it was one of the few purchases that didn't slow down during the recession. In 2012 alone, Americans spent $78 billion on lottery tickets. And over the past 12 months alone, 57 percent of Americans bought a lottery ticket, according to Gallup. But why? Most obvious is the "get rich quick" element. But it's more than just that. One explanation is that people are blind to exactly how unlikely these odds are. (See examples above as a reminder.) In Adam Piore's recent article "Why We Keep Playing the Lottery," he quotes Canadian professor of health sciences Robert Williams, who studies lotteries: "[W]e have nothing in our evolutionary history that prepares us or primes us ... to try and grasp the remoteness of those odds." Another way to look at it, as Piore himself puts it, is that it's an understandable way for those in dire financial circumstances -- with no obvious way out -- to feel like they're "buying hope." Whatever the reason, it's not a serious way to accumulate wealth. And although some may write it off as "just a few dollars here and there," let's take a look at how a similar amount could look over decades of playing. $5-a-Day Habit I've heard a few acquaintances talk about spending $5 a day on lottery tickets. Some spend more, some less -- but I'll use $5 a day for this example. Over the course of a year, that habit adds up to $1,825. A fair sum. But not life-changing. But here's what happens to that money if you set it aside over decades instead of playing this game of chance:
Top 5 Paper Stocks For 2015: Crown Castle International Corporation (CCI)
Crown Castle International Corp., through its subsidiaries, owns, operates, and leases towers and other wireless infrastructure primarily in the United States and Australia. Its infrastructure includes distributed antenna system (DAS) networks, as well as rooftop installations. The company involves in the rental of antenna space of its towers to wireless communications companies. It also provides network services relating to its towers, which primarily include antenna installations and subsequent augmentations, as well as additional services, such as site acquisition, architectural and engineering, zoning and permitting, other construction, and other services related network development. As of December 31, 2010, it owned, leased, or managed approximately 23,900 towers, including 43 completed DAS networks. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Anders Bylund]
Moreover, American Tower faces two massive rivals in Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI ) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ: SBAC ) , which operate 40,000 and 20,000 American radio towers, respectively. American Tower falls right between them, with more than 21,000 company-owned towers on American soil, and another 7,200 leased tower sites. This is a tight three-horse race, with several smaller competitors trailing far behind.
Top 5 Canadian Stocks For 2014: Imperial Oil Limited(IMO)
Imperial Oil Limited engages in the exploration, production, and sale of crude oil and natural gas in Canada. The company operates through three segments: Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical. The Upstream segment engages in the exploration and production of conventional crude oil, natural gas, synthetic oil, and bitumen primarily in the Western Provinces, the Canada Lands, and the Atlantic Offshore. Its primary conventional oil producing asset includes the Norman Wells oil field in the Northwest Territories. The Downstream segment engages in the transportation and refining of crude oil, as well as blending, distribution, and marketing of refined products. It owns and operates crude oil, and natural gas liquids and products pipelines in Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. The Chemical segment engages in the manufacture and marketing of various petrochemicals, including ethylene, benzene, aromatic and aliphatic solvents, plasticizer intermediates, and polyethylene resin. As of De cember 31, 2010, Imperial Oil Limited had 1,204 million oil-equivalent barrels of proved undeveloped reserves; maintained a nation-wide distribution system, including 24 primary terminals, to handle bulk and packaged petroleum products moving from refineries to market by pipeline, tanker, rail, and road transport; and sold petroleum products through 1,850 Esso retail service stations, of which approximately 510 were company owned or leased. The company was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Imperial Oil Limited operates as a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Arjun Sreekumar]
Cost overruns and abandoned projects
As a result of these factors, cost overruns have become quite common in Alberta. For instance, Imperial Oil (NYSEMKT: IMO ) said it exceeded its cost estimates for the first phase of its Kearl bitumen mining facility by about C$2 billion.�And some companies have even decided to abandon expensive projects altogether.
Top 5 Canadian Stocks For 2014: CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF)
CF Industries Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, CF Industries, Inc., manufactures and distributes nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer products, serving agricultural and industrial customers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Nitrogen and Phosphate. The Nitrogen segment principally offers ammonia, granular urea, urea ammonium nitrate solution, urea liquor, diesel exhaust fluid, and aqua ammonia. The Phosphate segment primarily offers diammonium phosphate and monoammonium phosphate. The company also owns 50% interests in the GrowHow UK Limited, a nitrogen products producer in the United Kingdom; Point Lisas Nitrogen Limited, an ammonia producer; and KEYTRADE AG, a global fertilizer trading company. CF Industries Holdings� customers include cooperatives and independent fertilizer distributors primarily in the midwestern United States. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Taylor Muckerman]
For most farmers, one nutrient just isn't enough. A nutrient that has paired well in the fields with potash is nitrogen. Companies producing nitrogen-based fertilizers have been experiencing excellent margins over the last year thanks to cheap feedstocks provided by North American natural gas. With more than 80% of its revenue stemming from nitrogen fertilizers, CF Industries (NYSE: CF ) turned in a return of 32% in 2012, well above the 11.7% of the S&P 500. Unfortunately, natural gas prices have risen and likely pressured the stock a bit lower. Year to date, shares have underperformed a hot market by 18.6%. One thing investors should look for here is higher-than-expected demand because nitrogen's supply and demand balance is much tighter than that of potash. If this takes place, prices and, in turn, nitrogen fertilizer producers' stock will likely rise.
- [By Victor Selva]
As outlined in this article, we think Saphris should be a good fit in Forest麓s central nervous system (CNS) franchise. Additionally, Forest麓s acquisition of Aptalis looks attractive, especially taking into account that Namenda will be facing generic competition from 2015. The deal will give Forest the opportunity to build its presence in Europe and strengthen its position in the gastrointestinal (GI) market in the U.S. and Canada and the cystic fibrosis (CF) market in Europe.
- [By Tim Melvin]
Even with poor results and dim prospects, the stock isn’t�exactly cheap at 20 times earnings and 1.75 times book value. Again with no growth, it seems unreasonable to pay a premium valuation for the company.
Stocks to Sell: CF Industries (CF)Investors who were clever enough to buy shares of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer products CF Industries (CF) back in 2009 have seen their initial stake increase nearly fivefold. The near-term outlook for the fertilizer business isn’t terrible�…�but at best, that will mean�high single-digit earnings growth for the next several years.
Top 5 Canadian Stocks For 2014: Mobile TeleSystems (MBT)
Mobile TeleSystems OJSC, together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services primarily in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, and Belarus. The company provides a range of mobile and fixed line voice and data telecommunications services, including transmission, broadband, pay-TV, and various value-added services; and sells equipment and accessories. It also offers network access services, including mobile cellular voice and data communication services; automatic roaming services; GPRS and Internet access services; and 3G technology. In addition, the company�s services include the design, construction, and installation of local voice and data networks capable of interconnecting with fixed line operators; installation and maintenance of cellular payphones; lease of digital communication channels; and provision of access to open computer databases and data networks, including the Internet, as well as video conferencing, and fixed, local, and long-distance telecommunications services. Its value-added services comprise call divert/forwarding, caller ID and anti-caller ID display, conference calling, WiFi, GPRS, intelligent call assistant, APN remote access point, fixed mobile convergence, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution, call barring, SMS, mobile office, voicemail, mobile banking, wireless application protocol, MTS-Connect, SIM-browser, point-to-point transfer, unstructured supplementary services data, downlink packet access, mobile TV, call waiting, MMS, ring tones, missed call alert, itemization of monthly bills, information and directory, international access, WEB and WAP portal, customer care system, ring back tone, collect call, and location-based services. As of December 31, 2011, the company had a mobile subscriber base of approximately 101.14 million. It has a strategic partnership with Vodafone. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Moscow, the Russian Federation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By MONEYMORNING.COM]
With that in mind, the four main Russian tech leaders investors should know about are:
VimpelCom Ltd. (ADR) (Nasdaq: VIP), a broad telecom play. The company provides both fixed and wireless web access, as well as mobile communications and services. The company has a number of subsidiaries that, taken together, have something like 215 million subscribers. Mobile Telesystems OJSC (ADR) (NYSE: MBT), a straight-up mobile play that operates in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Armenia. Plus, it has a strategic relationship with one of Europe's major players, Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (Nasdaq: VOD). Qiwi PLC (Nasdaq: QIWI), a leader in electronic payments through kiosks, the web, and mobile platforms. It's Russia's version of PayPal - so we better not tell Carl Icahn... he might start a campaign to break up that company, too. And Yandex NV (Nasdaq: YNDX), which is the "Google of Russia." Yandex operates the world's fourth-ranked search engine and enjoys a 60% market share in its home country. Google, with about a quarter of the market, is a very distant second there.That's a great rundown on Russia's tech leaders. Are there any worth buying at this level? And why?
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