Looking back on the February 2010 Smart Money magazine (the Wall Street Journal magazine) is good for a laugh and a bit of a scam.
From the cover:
Fuel your own rally: 5 great energy stocks p.56
Health Care Reform: how to profit from it p.22
Make money with twitter p.46
Where to find winning stocks p.13
The new toolbox for investing is what they illustrated on the cover but its just junk for the uninitiated. The concept of the toolbox isnt explored, so no tools are presented.
How about those midsize energy companies they recommended? Bargain-hunting in the oil patch (p. 59):
Consol Energy (CNX) $45: briefly up for a week or two and then dropped ten points; currently $40.
FMC Technologies (FTI) $54: rose to $75, then dropped to $50; currently $72
Petrohawk Energy (HK) $22: dropped to $15 at the end of April and into May; currently $17.70
Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) $52: currently $64
Pride International (PDE) $32: down to $22 at the end of April and into May; currently $32
How about Health Care Reform and how to profit from it? The half-page article really didnt deliver anything of substance. It mentions UnitedHealth Group, Amerigroup and WellPoint but not how to specifically profit from Health Care Reform so that when you get to the article on page 22 it has been renamed Learn to Love Your HMO. That qualifies as misleading. The share price of UNH dropped and recovered to around where it was when the article was released, AGP went up 15 points, and WLP is recovering from a drop from the $60 range to the $50 range.
How about that make money with twitter article? The online phenomenon Twitter delivers 8,000 financial-advice messages every day in tiny, often confusing chunks. We dont need an article for something so obvious boring and the article discusses Twitter, not making money with Twitter which makes the cover of the magazine look like a liar after seeing the article on page 46 renamed bite sized advice.
Where to find winning stocks? Our Picks – When the market starts rewarding higher quality companies, these firms could shine, according to some pros. So its a list of four companies but it is stretched out to a page and a half so they can call it an article.
Pfizer (PFE, $18) Currently $17.77, but dipped to around $14 in June/July which is the same price it traded for in June/July of the prior year.
IBM (IBM, $129) Currently $141.20, but for most of May, June, July and August it traded for $125 (or less from time to time).
First Cash Financial Services (FCFS, $21) Currently $28.17, traded at $21 up until part of July.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM, $41) Currently $38.87, in April it briefly rose to between $47 and $48 before dropping to $36 where it traded for June, July, and September.
The editors hope youve enjoyed reading the issue rather than feeling like you wasted time in their edition of Smart Crapper magazine. Of course, on the cover well call it something else so keep a look out on the newsstand for the next issue of Smart Crapper magazine, although it will continue to be labeled as Smart Money for graphic design purposes.