Covestor - drxeno Blog

Volatility/timing

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:11:03

The Emerging markets have been going haywire lately, as all have probably noticed. They are not a means to hide from the S&P, but rather, have amplified reactions to the outrageous volatility seen in the broader market. I'm beginning to tap into this volatility, buying EEV when I sell ILF, EEM and EWZ and vice versa. I won't catch all of them, but I think that I'll catch enough to finish off with a ~25% months-long profit at the end of this volatile period. Hopefully.

Related Stocks: EEM, EWZ, ILF

A survivor

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:11:11

I'm going long into this position as I believe that MS has the strength to survive (and since buying has been doing so with reinvention) this economic downturn and financial quagmire. I didn't expect to catch it at the bottom, I just thought that it had gotten cheap enough to go in and stay in for a couple years.

Related Stocks: MS

The Humble Trio

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

What transpires when you put a premier Oregon Winemaker, a noted Philadelphia Chef, and a top sommelier in the same room and tell them to play nice? If it happens to be Josh Bergström, winemaker extraordinaire from Bergström vineyards, Daniel Stern owner of Philadelphia restaurants Gayle / RAE, and ...

Harvest Tour with Lionheart Wines @ Crushpad

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

Last Tuesday my friend and day job manager, Walter and I had the privilege of a private harvest tour of a bustling Crushpad, courtesy of Leon Glover, owner and winemaker for the upstart Lionheart Wines. Leon and I have maintained a continued correspondence since my first tour and our subsequent ...

W—B—C—!!!

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

In the final week leading up to the very first North American Wine Bloggers Conference (which I first mentioned here), I wanted to give you readers a preview of what you can expect from me over the next weekend: Wine...insanity! A vineyard tasting at Kick Ranch Vineyard right off the bat, live ...

WBC NA 2008: Live Wineblogging!

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

I am about to begin the Live Wine Blogging portion of the the very first North American Wine Bloggers Conference here in 2008 at the Hotel Flamingo! Keep in mind all of this is live and pretty much not edited!! We will have ~5 minutes with each winemaker as they rotate ...

WBC NA 2008: Blind Tasting Challenge

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

I am now about to begin the Blind Tasting Challenge (courtesy of Bagged Wine) portion of the the very first North American Wine Bloggers Conference here in 2008 at the Hotel Flamingo! Keep in mind all of this is live and (pretty much) not edited!! It's single-elimination and I'm probably out ...

WBC NA 2008: Day 2 Brief (P)reCap

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

I'm sitting in the second of the Breakout Sessions at the very first North American Wine Bloggers Conference here in 2008 at the Hotel Flamingo. I've already had yet another whirlwind of a day at the conference and would like to give you all a little taste of what I've ...

WBC NA 2008: Day 3 Brief (P)reCap

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

Waking up on Day 3, Sunday, of the WBC was definitely harder to do than the the last! Late night Oak Room tastings in the Flamingo, plus even MORE shenanigans afterward with other kids including Anthony (Twitter) from Farmstead and El Jefe (Twitter) from Twisted Oak led this blogger to ...

Post-WBC NA 2008: The Wine Spies Party

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

After finishing up at the last WBC lunch and tasting, the Luxe Sonoma lunch, I headed out with the Brix Chicks, Liza (Twitter) and Xandria to another party, this time hosted by Agent Red and Agent Green (Twitter) of The Wine Spies. The Wine Spies is a interesting and effective wine ...

Southern Comfort

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:08

I received an invite to the annual Southern Wine & Spirits Pennsylvania portfolio tasting at 5:20 Monday evening. That was the good news, the bad was it started at 6:00 and would take me an hour to get there in rush hour traffic. I arrived late, around 7:00 but went to ...

Twitter Taste Live #5

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:11:07

This is my first Twitter Taste Live!, #5 The Bloggers Take Over! TTL was started by the man behind the online wine savings outfit Bin Ends Wine, Craig Drollet (Twitter). TTL is an exceptionally innovative integration of the new social media and wine tasting, taking wine to an even greater ...

Georis Winery 5th Annual Wine Club Event, Carmel Valley

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:09:06

Ever since 2003, the middle of September brings a certain feeling of excitement to my mind. It brings to mind dusty, hot vineyards, absolutely full of virtually mature grapes. It brings thoughts of BBQ, zydeco music and twisting mountain roads. Walter and Syliva Georis welcome the middle of this month ...

Lafite is afoot

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:09:09

I belong to a wine club called the "Dead Guys," founded about ten years ago by Scot "Zippy" Ziskind , a builder/consultant of high-end wine cellars, and the owner of a wine storage facility with a "I'd have to kill you if I told you" address. The wines ...

Another Wine Luminary Passes: Didier Dagueneau

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:09:07

Known as the "wild man of the Loire," Didier Dagueneau made some of the most unusual and exceptional Sauvignon Blanc-based wines from his estate in Saint-Andelain, in the Dordogne of the Loire Valley, France. Dagueneau passed away after a microlite plane accident at the age of 52. Always ecentric and in ...

See Jason at the Wine 2.0 Event in NYC TODAY

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:09:03

If you've been paying attention, you know that tonight is the great Wine 2.0 event in New York City. If you didn't know until right now, don't fret. Get your butt into the city and join the fun. I've even heard rumors that you can drop Cornelius' name and get ...

Excited: North American Wine Bloggers Conference

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:09:07

I'm very excited to announce that I will be attending the very first North American Wine Bloggers Conference when it hits in October in Sonoma County. Many of the wine bloggers that you may follow and that are nicely listed by Catavino at WineBlogger.info will be attending. Fast-growing wine biz ...

Edit Your Comments. Condensed View on Wine Log Page.

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:09:17

We just released a couple of long-requested features. (1) You can now edit your "comments" as well as your notes. Simply click on the comment text from the wine log or wine info pages (while logged in). For more on the difference between comments and log notes, read this. (2) Clicking on ...

WineQ.com: Your New Favorite Wine Club

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:09:08

I've always had a tough time with wine clubs over the years. On the one hand, there are so few wineries whose wines are so in tune with my palate and the styles that I like, that I don't find it worthwhile to join their club and be forced into ...

Fiddlestix & The Black Lab

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:09:09

Kim and I went out with some friends for our 20th wedding anniversary (Poor Kim!) to the Black Lab Bistro, one of our favorite BYO's, in downtown Phoenixville, Pa. Originally known for its manufacturing, and the filming of the horror movie “The Blob", it has gone through quite a ...

Twitter Integration

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:09:08

We have integrated with Twitter in a couple of ways: (1) All logging, rating, and commenting done by our users is now "tweeted" over to the WineLog Twitter feed. (2) If your share your Twitter details on your WineLog account page, all of your logging, rating, and commenting will be "tweeted" over ...

ELN: Over-reaction

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:09:13

ELN first sunk about 40% on poor data from their Alzheimer's study results, which I believed was a big over-reaction to the news. There are other studies that are also looking good and much of this shouldn't have been a surprise.

I was then crushed the following day with ANOTHER 48% drop due to reports of 2 new patients with PML that are taking their Tysabri MS drug. Part of the outrage was probably because a week prior, ELN executives said that there were no new reported cases of PML in Tysabri patients, so this was a bit of a shock.

At the time there were no new deaths resulting from this usually fatal brain infection, but the PML risk was already in the label and expected, so I once again dipped in on this over-reaction. The stock has rebounded nicely and I'm almost at break-even, despite some small labeling changes that the FDA has now required for BIIB and ELN for this drug.

Related Stocks: BIIB, ELN

VLCM: Good Consumer Goods

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:09:13

VLCM is one of the few consumer goods or clothing stocks that's actually managed to continue to have good growth during this tight economy. I've been looking into getting into more clothing and/or consumer goods stocks with the good growth I've gotten from URBN and LVMUY.PK.

Related Stocks: LVMUY, URBN, VLCM

Pops & Son 4th Wine Trip, Day 3: Chateau Jean-Gene-ie via WineTwo and tha Kaz

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:08:09

Day 3 of our wine trilogy was my last day with Pops on this, our 4th Wine Trip together. I wrote about the first day in Napa, here and the second, more freestyle day in Sonoma, over here. Today we were focused on the whole reason we included Sonoma on ...

New Top Logger. Congrats Dr. Xeno.

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:08:07

As you can see from the screenshot below, our own Dr. Xeno has become the official top logger at WineLog with over 870 wines logged. This guy is insane. His closest competition is The Grand Hotel (a list of the wines available - or previously available - at that hotel) and ...

Morton’s goes with the Flow

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:08:07

Morton's Steakhouse and Riedel “Flow" stemware is quite the match in the coming months. Celebrating their 30th anniversary, Morton’s along with Riedel Crystal, is highlighting the difference a proper wineglass can have on a wine’s aroma and taste. Titled "From the vine to the glass", It's a great ...

Pops & Son 4th Wine Trip, Day 2: The Good and the Bad

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:08:09

Friday was the sandwiched day of our trip, a continuation of the 4th wine trip that I've taken with Pops. I wrote about the first day when we visited Flora Springs via GiftyBox and Pope Valley Winery. It was the beef in our burger, cold cuts in the sammy, ice ...

Riedel and Me at Morton’s Steakhouse Monday August 18th

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:08:06

Morton's and Riedel have teamed up to offer a unique experience. The steakhouse was nice enough to offer Kim and I complimentary tickets to their "from the vine to the glass" event at their King of Prussia, PA restaurant next Monday. Since Kim is abstaining from alcohol while nurturing our ...

Pops & Son 4th Wine Trip, Day 1: Giftybox, Flora & the Pope

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:08:07

OK, so I wasn't off gift shopping for some flowers to take to the Pope, I admit it. His continent was involved, however. A few weeks back, my sister and my mom headed off into the skies towards a three week trip in London and Paris. Freed from ...

600, 6, 2

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:07:06

Would anyone like to venture a guess to what this title refers? Try 600 wines, 6 people, and 2 hours. I was fortunate enough to attend the "Philadelphia Wine Festival", sponsored by Philadelphia Magazine and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) on (date) along with WineLog's illustrious owners, Bill, Kim ...

Lionheart Wines @ Artisan Recap

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:07:06

Last Thursday's Lionheart tasting at Artisan was a roaring success, with both tasters and winemakers very satisfied with the evening. Wine was discovered, bottles bought and taste buds were pleased. As I announced previously, Lionheart's winemaker Leon Glover brought out 5 wines for us to try, all pre-release until his Mane ...

MNKD: Interesting Biotech Prospect

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:07:23

Mannkind has a great drug in development that really has been beaten down due to rivals' failures...yet their failures are due to different formulations and MOA's than Mannkind's Technosphere platform. I agree. I bought in and here's hoping that the market and FDA realize those differences and I was able to buy in on bad rumors!

http://www.fool.com/investing/small-cap/2008/05/06/mannkind-moves-ahead.aspx

Related Stocks: MNKD

ILF,EWZ,IFN,EEM,EWG: Big enough drop for me

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:07:42

I've been watching all of these stocks ever since I got out with healthy short term gains earlier this year. I still owned IFN but I didn't sell before it got nailed in the general downturn, so I purchased more to lower my cost basis. All of these are some of my favorites that have fallen due to the general market sentiment and finally fell far enough for me to get back in, ~10% or more. I'll stay until I get another 20% or so gain out of them and back out again (pending other news that I might have on their respective international markets).

Related Stocks: EEM, EWG, EWZ, IFN, ILF

SU: Back in

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:07:30

Suncor took a little bit of a dive around the time I purchased these shares due to what I believed was an overreaction to results and market sentiment with the craziness of oil right now. I think it's a fantastic company that will only do even better with oil climbing or plateauing. I might go back out in the short term and continue to play the sentiment game, however.

Related Stocks: SU

URBN: Great retail

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:07:26

I have always admired Urban Outfitters and its high-end women's retail division, Anthropologie. My wife is rather obsessed with the store, actually!

I was motivated to look at their fundamentals. They've had a great run this year and I still believe that they have more to go before plateauing for a bit. This is going to be more of a buy and hold situation.

Related Stocks: URBN

ARIA,ARNA,EXEL: Stocks downtrodden, but still bullish

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:07:30

While these micro and small cap biotechs have been pummeled this year along with the entire sector, nothing has changed for me in terms of their prospects or scientific success. I have bought more to decrease my cost basis and await an upturn in the sector as well as their own individual drivers.

Related Stocks: ARIA, ARNA, EXEL

WineLog.net Presents Lionheart Wines @ Artisan Wine Lounge & Cafe

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:07:07

WineLog.net is very excited to announce an evening discovering the wines of Lionheart Wines at Artisan Wine Lounge & Cafe in Walnut Creek, CA. Winemaker Leon Glover will be pouring his Summer release wines that will be officially released later this month. I first discovered Leon's Lionheart Wines when tasting ...

Parsonage Village Vineyard 1st Annual Wine Club Party

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:07:06

Most of my readers know that I have a fond place in my heart for the wines from Carmel Valley, CA. Beth and I have made numerous trips to the Carmel-by-the-Sea and Carmel Valley region over the years, as evidenced by the travel post I wrote earlier this year. ...

Anise Biscotti with Red Wine - a bite of heaven!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

That's the combination Sweet WillYum's owner and baker Sue Kershner suggests for a quiet evening. Personally, I think Uncle Eric's Granola Biscotti would go just as well with a mellow wine. What would you pair with Will's Chocolate Chip Cookies? Or Chocolate Peppermint Dr. Patti's? Visit www.SweetWillYums.com today to order your ...

Wine 2.0 Spring Fling @ Crushpad

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

I was first initiated into the innovative world of Wine 2.0 when I attended their NRO event at Varnish last November. What I found was an extremely thriving movement of loosely knit and mainly younger wine aficionados, producers and entrepreneurs that were expanding upon the path set down by ...

Twisted Oak Wines Are Good. They Are For Sale.

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

For those of you who aren't aware, the blogger Jeff Stai (El Bloggo Torcido) also runs a winery. And the Twisted Oak wine is excellent. I've had a lot of their stuff at different wine events and the Twisted Philly event they setup for us, and it's all been good. Not ...

Clayton Art & Wine Festival

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

Beth and I have been itching to enjoy any of the Spring days lately that are actually warm and wind-free, so when we saw that not only was the weekend going to be warm, but that the Clayton Art & Wine Festival was on deck, we picked up the Pug ...

User Email: Logging Wines with WineLog Mobile

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

Here's a question that recently hit our inbox. I thought others out there might be interested in how to log wines through the WineLog Mobile site and might not even know about the cool "send yourself a message" feature. The email: I really like your mobile site, and it looks great on ...

Syrah or Zinfandel?

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

One of the things that I've really tried to step up in my personal wine education is my ability to guess a blinded wine's provenance or origin. What is the grape, what is the region and if I'm super-lucky, what is the actual wine? In this case, led by Lisa ...

More Wineries Change Hands

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

More major wineries have been sold in the US. This time, unlike some of the more recent major deals in the wine biz, two conglomerates are shuffling their portfolios. Constellation brands, one of the top two largest international wine conglomerates, has announced (AP commentary) that they are selling ...

Barrel Tasting with Lionheart Wines

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

Every time I go to a wine event that includes multiple wineries, I will usually find one winery that is new to me and stands out from the rest. I stumbled across many great wineries at the Wine 2.0 Spring Fling at Crushpad last April. But two wines from ...

Walnut Creek Wine Walk Recap

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:07:05

The Walnut Creek Downtown Business Association launched a new yearly event this past Wednesday (06/25/08) with their first annual Downtown Wine Walk. For a $20 fee, you (were supposed to) receive a commemorative wine glass and a map to that showed the various downtown stores, restaurants and bars that ...

OXM: No upside

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:06:12

My wife used to work for Tommy Bahama and had acquired these shares through their ESPP program. I don't see *any* upside for the parent company Oxford, and thus am selling these shares now that she's left for a new company. Yes...Tommy is doing well, but they're spending so much on expansion right now that they've actually took a loss las quarter and I don't want to hold onto these shares.

Related Stocks: OXM

IYM: Taking gains and acruing cash for downturn

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:06:08

I still foresee further market weakness, and perhaps even a large 5-10% general pullback. As such, I'm sticking true to my plan of taking all +20% gains (when no further positive news is forthcoming) and building up my cash balance. This is one of those moves.

Related Stocks: IYM

GILD: Taking gains and acruing cash for downturn

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:06:25

Related Stocks: GILD