Sleep…Checking in on an Old Trend

I have struggled with sleep lately. Nothing new. I have chronicled sleep on my blog forever and Wallstripped the leaders . There is always lots of buzz about sleep .

That made me pull up the sleep stocks and sure enough, Respironics (RESP) is at another all-time high. Resmed (RMD) is coming back from a spring swoon and even Sanofi-Aventis is near all-time highs despite Ambien going off patents (I now use the knockoffs).

I have owned them all at some point and still own some RESP in my fund, which has been sold down over the last few years, but likely to remain in my portfolio for many years. I am tempted to add more. What an amazing stock that few have ever heard of.

Here’s Lindsay in the old days of Wallstrip..in her PJ’s. The ending always cracks my kid’s up:

I love the Respironics show. I can’t believe this product actually sells:

Disclosure- Long Respironics

Posted on December 20th, 2007 | Category: Ambien, Sleep, Sleep Disorders, WallStrip.com, Wallstrip, Wallstripped | Comments

Respironics (RESP) on Wallstrip…Can Sleep Apnea be Beaten?

Lot’s of reasons that Wallstrip checks in on Respironics (RESP) today.

I am fascinated with the ’sleep’ industry. For investors, it has been money for the last 7 years. For me, everything I have made investing in the category has been blown on sleep apnea tests, sleep machines and Ambien.

When I started my blog in December 2005, sleep was a regular topic and I have owned most of the stocks in the space. It remains a favorite topic of mine .

It will remain a money maker for investors as America ages. The sleep stocks are not without risk and as the stocks have grown, so has the volatility. There is less room for error. Yesterday, Resmed (RMD), a Respironics competitior, announced a sleep machine recall and the stock was down 15 percent. That can easily happen at Respironics as well. For many, weakness is the time to bounce. I am considering Resmed on the current weakness. The long-term trend remains well intact.

Respironics is the only sleep stock I own at the present time. My friends at Buzztracker have created a ’sleep’ category . I will check it often. By using a category tracker, I can check in on all the industry leaders in one page and just today see that Ambien, my favorite drug, has a generic competitor. Cool for me, not Sanofi-Aventis (SNY), Ambien’s manufacturer and Wallstrip covered Company (no position).

PS – I love today’s show and am having a blast goofing on the streets of New York. Only in New York can you walk around in a sleep machine and fit in :) .

PSS – If you struggle with sleep, check out my friend Cindy’s collection of ‘Bedtime Beats’ . It’s a simple addition to the bedtime routine. Download the songs at the site or on iTunes (search bedtime beats)

Posted on April 24th, 2007 | Category: All-Time Highs, Ambien, General, Sleep, Sleep Disorders, Trends, WallStrip.com, Wallstrip, Wallstripped | Comments

A huge day for Apple and another Red Eye

Lets review the day…

I missed my first MacWorld in 5 years for Wallstrip and the real shit happens.

Thanks goodness for my pal Eddie who had his camera and gave me the juice. I trust his young gun dude opinion and he is blown away. My 16-year old niece wants it more than a car (if offered a car-she can’t be serious).

The only real survivor and thriver in this post iPhone era is RIMM. The rest are dead and wont admit it and cheap pretenders. I missed the show because I am on the redeye to New York. The toughest part will be taking the right dosage of Ambien to fall asleep yet not kill me. I have a freaking middle seat.

Long night ahead….

Posted on January 10th, 2007 | Category: Ambien, Apple, General | Comments

You say Apollo, I say Adobe

Mike from TechCrunch is talking about Adobe’s Apollo launch.

I say the stock market has been digesting this news for a while and likes what it has to swallow.

I will take his nerdy word for it and his 37 minute podcast with fellow geeks and nerds and the links and comments to the post.

I am going to listen to the podcast tonight and see if that can help cure my sleeping problem. It is cheaper than an ambien.

All the talk of Adobe and Apollo can’t replace my favorite Wallstrip character – “FLASH” :) .

Disclosure – Long Adobe

Posted on December 16th, 2006 | Category: Adobe, Ambien, General, WallStrip.com | Comments

Wallstrip Perfume and Cologne ?

I think e-mail should have it’s own scent, especially if it is coming from a lady.

I floated the idea to Lindsay at a Wallstrip meeting today. She of course is sick of me after just one meeting. I think that means things are going well :) .

I know Trader X is buying whatever she is selling :) . The margins in cologne and perfume is much higer than t-shirts. Take a look at what Unilever is doing with “Axe” and Proctor and Gamble with “Tag”.

I would like to call Wallstrip’s scent – “All-Time High” or maybe just “DOW 12,000″

If you don’t laugh at this, you will find these comments hilarious from my Ambien post:

First Tom on sleep alternatives – I read that the next version of Ambien will be called www.howardlindzon.com. It’s some blog that puts readers to sleep.

And Eddie had this gem to sleep medicine alternatives:

POT – It’s not traded on a regular exchange though.

Believe me, I have tried (try) both :) . Never inhaled though.

Posted on October 25th, 2006 | Category: Ambien, General, WallStrip.com | Comments

Sleep is Good…

I wanted my “Sleep is Good” speech to be as powerful as Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is Good” speech in Wall Street.

Go watch today’s Wallstrip show and you decide :) .

I can’t believe they left the cameras rolling on me all night and that is all they heard by the way :) . By the way, where was Ellen? Filming!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I take sleep and the lack thereof, very seriously. I would not wish sleeping problems on but two people in my life. They probably sleep like babies – and smoke and diet on carbs!

Ambien, from drug maker Sanofi, has been a wonder drug for me – so far – and my family. It has helped me get the sleep I need. It is not the largest drug in Sanofi’s engine, but an important part of their successful history.

Pfizer is working hard on a competitive drug and Sepracor has recently launched Lunesta. The market is “gynormousmungous” TM.

Based on the release of Ambien CR, which did not work for me, I am pretty sure that the patent rights of Ambien are coming to an end for the regular ambien.

I still own the stock, have so since June when it moved to an all-time high. I am down nearly 10 percent on the position since purchase. It is a small position and one of many. As always, I will let the stock do what it does until my stop has been breached (close) or it continues back on it’s winning ways.

No matter what happens to Sanofi and Ambien, you can rest assured that the Sleep Industry is a GIANT and your financial attention should be partially focused in this space. Other sleep related stocks include Respironics (RESP), Resmed (RMD), Sepracor (SEPR), and Pfizer (PFE).

Please share with me and the other bloggers any sleep stocks that I might have missed.

Posted on October 25th, 2006 | Category: Ambien, General, Sleep Disorders, Stocks, Trends, Video, Video Blogs, WallStrip.com | Comments

Googlemania

It’s happening. Watch the Wallstrip Google video again. The “man on the street” does not believe. The “man on the street” does not own Google. They own Yahoo and Microsoft. They own 500 shares, 100 shares, 10 shares of that crap.

Don’t worry – Google paper will be crap as well – just not yet.

It is the same f@#cking game played over and over by Wall Street. IT IS CALLED DISTRIBUTION. It takes time. When Wall Street gets hold of a beauty like Google, they take their sweet time distributing it one share at a time to every last believer in the story. See – Intel, Microsoft, Dell and Yahoo. Could take 15 years or three. The Google stock distribution game has just begun.

It is the normal complaints I am hearing again – stock is too high, market cap is ridiculous, shares are too expensive, too many acquisitions, I should have bought at $162, should have bought on the pullback to $320…

In the meantime, everyone owns Yahoo and Microsoft – stock is too low, market cap and PE are reasonable, it’s cheap relative to Google, I can always double down cheaper because it’s already so low. OY!

That poor sap at the end of the Wallstrip Google video thinks he is actually smart for owning Yahoo as a proxy for Google. He is waiting for Yahoo to “follow Google’s tracks” . That happiness is called “COMFORT”. It just feels right because the idiot next to you owns it.

Yahoo and Microsoft are in a hole and digging themselves deeper. James Cramer is doing a daily show about who Yahoo should buy. That is absurd. There are no public companies they should have bought save YouTube. But Cramer is crazy “like a fox” and a rating’s hound so it makes for good CNBC fodder.

YouTube was a smart and cheap acquisition. The YouTube haters were wrong. I wrote a lot on the subject predicting a buyout – most recently here . They paid $1.6 billion in stock but have gained $20 odd billion in market cap since the announcement. At the very least it was smart to keep it out of enemy hands.

Whether they integrate properly remains to be seen, but the market has spoken for now. Google just announced great numbers and the stock would have to drop 15 percent to get to pre YouTube market valuation.

The “man on the street” says it’s a joke. “The man” will have changed his/her mind before the Google phenomenon is over.

All that said, I do not own the stock. If it takes out it’s all-time high – it is close – I would own it based on my strategy. I have owned it before and been stopped out of the trend in the summer swoon.

People call those that have bought and held this stock – absurd. I guess it’s normal that Cramer has had about 100 buy and sells of GOOGLE in the past 12 months. His latest is a buy – I think – with a $560 price target.

I think price targets are a sham and are the one true remaining sign of absurdity from the last bubble. They should be banned, BUT that’s another show! We are working on the footage.

PS – Congrats to my friend and contributor Briann Shannon for his positive mention in Barron’s.

PSS – My condolences to Steve Ballmer for looking like a complete putz. What a shitty job to have (other than the pay and perks :) )

Posted on October 22nd, 2006 | Category: Ambien, Google, Microsoft, New-Highs, Stocks, Trends, WallStrip.com, Wisdom of Crowds, Yahoo, YouTube | Comments

There are SIX companies left for Google to acquire – Apple, Adobe, Akamai, Zillow, Ebay and RIMM

No joking.

If I was a competitor to Google, I would stop freaking out over YouTube (mini tsunami), because you may miss the REAL TSUNAMI.

I don’t know the order of acquisition, but if I was in charge of Google, I would be going for the FREAKING JUGULAR of TECH and the Consumer.

1. To keep people scratching their heads I would do a quick swallow of Zillow – JAB, JAB, CROSS! Zillow gives Google an entry into the biggest consumer market and YouTube gives Zillowers a chance to quicly put a tour up with all the facts. Throw in some personal touches and get the buyer out to see your home, with directions from Google and all the facts from Zillow.

2.3. and 4. 5. and 6. can all be announced on the same day. Apple, RIMM, Ebay, Akamai and Adobe.

Take a big picture of all the CEO’s flipping off AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, News Corp, Diller and the Justice Department on the front lawn of GoogleCity USA :) .

Apple would likely have been hostile a few months back, but with Schmidt on Apple’s board, the SEED is in place. The rest get their huge payday and go away if they don’t want to play.

To ensure the deals go through – BUY TASER and arm the employees and LOCKHEED MARTIN to protect the Googleplex or Googleville.

What the hell – after taking a few weeks off, BUY PHILLIP MORRIS and shut it the fuck down so that people live long enough to enjoy all the toys! BUT – make sure you push through legalized marijuana. Let’s face it. How much more fun would surfing the web and YouTube be. Shit, you may not even have to buy Akamai, because the web will seem fast enough.

PS – I would than buy Chipotle’s because you need to feed eveybody :) !

PPS or PSS – Owning Sanofi – maker of Ambien – may be a little tuck in so that we could control everyone’s sleep habits. BUT THAT’S IT!

PPSS or PSSP or whatever – The new guys will be chirping about buying an airline. NEVER buy an airline. It would kill everything :) .

Posted on October 10th, 2006 | Category: Adobe, Akamai, Ambien, Apple, Blackberry, Ebay, General, Google, Zillow | Comments

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