CONeal

Have been interested in looking into chocolate companies recently and having a problem finding publically traded companies. I'm aware of Hershey's and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Seems like everything I've come across is privatly held. Does anyone know of any other companies available to retail or of another way to invest in chocolate companies with the exception of coca beans?

One thing that jumped out at me during the cc is that once n gas hits $4.25 the value of n gas comes back on the table. Not sure how much gas will come back and it wasn't mentioned I don't think. will reread once the transcript is available. Your right, Ward mentioned that there were several ways they could go waiting to see how things played out through the year. I'll admit I'm an bit hard on him this time around, was looking for more clarity on the Miss play. Would like to see him buy a few rigs this year if they can find a way to pay for it. Eventually, n gas will come back and would hope they could do some drilling for n gas instead of being tied up fulfilling oil contracts. Edited to add the question asked about gas reserves. Duane Grubert - Susquehanna Financial: Yeah. Guys, could you address your booking philosophy year-over-year? When I look at your reserves this year, you do have significant revisions on the gas side, and last year you guys were pretty vocal about pointing out the low value gas at other companies, didn't really make a lot of sense. So, could you comment about the philosophy a bit? Tom L. Ward - Chairman, CEO and President: Sure. We still believe that. We still believe that a PUD is a PUD when it has PV-10, not PV-0 plus $1. So, we were very vocal last year and were the only Company to write-off all of our PUDs that didn't have PV-10. This year, also last year we were very vocal to say that at 425 gas we start to bring back on our reserves and a reserve is a reserve, is a reserve, that once it has PV-10 and so that's the one if we have gas that has PV-10 we’ll bring it back on the books.

Nice release. I wonder whats in PV10 and if it includes all miss or only booked reserves. Ward will probably do a few more trusts and then will do a JV to drill the miss. They have to do something big to hold the whole thing by production. The leases are only 5 years and we can only drill 250k on our own. Its a nice problem to have. I cant wait for the call. This is my largest holding. Wish he would just uncover the lid to his black box on how he plans to do all this. While I do expect more trusts to be created wondering how they are going to drill all this acreage. Are they going to take some of the capital they plan to raise to buy more drills? JV? Hopefully something will be said during the CC tomorrow.

On Cramer, Ward mentioned that he plans to use the capital markets to help fund 1.2 billion for cap ex this year. Are they financing all of this through Royality Trust for the Missippi play? Thought the first Trust was for 250 million. Didn't actually watch the show, hope somone can put this in more context.

I guess if you can't be like WEB keep doing reverse splits till the share price matches his. One more 1:15 reverse split next year and you can decide if you want to spend 100k on brk vs bh.

Company announced that rent has been reduced and all the deferred rent is not due till 2022 interest free. Nice pop to the stock pver the last week. http://investor.shareholder.com/ta/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=546647

It would be nice if they allowed historical trades to be loaded. Having to wait 3 more years for a 3 year track record is a real turn off.

I am wondering... With all the stuff Cramer has admitted to and tapes that are available where he lays out his manipulation. Could the SEC still go after/punish him for his past deeds?

Looks like it maybe Bank of America. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/11/30/1876995/report-bank-of-america-to-be-wikileaks.html

If Ward bought some shares it would be far moe effective than waisting money on these conderences.

Sanjeev, Is it possible to have a place here where all recommended web sites can be stored in one place? This would make it easier to find good sites related to investing. Suggestion: making a permeant post at the top of the general discussion page.

I would like to thank the board for bringing SNS, SSW, and EBIX to my attention and helping with my returns so far this this year.

Penny's enacted it's poison pill http://finance.yahoo.com/news/JC-Penney-enacts-poison-pill-apf-2967610000.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

globalfinance What GB size is your iPad? I've been debating this purchase for a while and want to make sure I don't spend more than I need to.

I agree with Bronco's thinking on this. It would be better for the bonds to default and let Mid American roll the company into it's fold.

It might be related to this Kaiser also obtained five-year warrants that grant his charitable trust future rights to buy about 6.7 million SandRidge shares from Ward for $5.62. Read more: http://newsok.com/sandridge-chairman-tom-ward-secures-50-million-through-stock-sale/article/3335612#ixzz11vwiRDJP The warrants were granted back when Kaiser bailed out Tom in early 2009.

Sorry, when the previous message was posted it was just a quick glance at the filing while watching the ball game. Hopefully within the next couple of days he mentions why he sold the shares.

The shares were sold by a Family Partnership Trust where Ward has a minor ownership stake. Could be for tax reasons or diversification reasons who knows. I don't think this sale says anything about SD or it future.

Was what I said before. By the way, it's quite humbling to see so many millionaires on here. I still have a ways to go. My student loan debt still needs paring. Paid mine off last week. Glad that debt is gone. Not sure how long you have been paying on it but my interest rate has been 0% since 2008 (variable rate loans) so that helped take a chunk out of it.

I caculate savings only looking at my biweekly paychecks savings/net income. Income from buying and selling stocks are not used for living expenses and always reinvested (for now) so I view it seperatly from savings.

If Sokol is the sucessor to WB then at least two

I think the stated returns are more for publicity of the movie. Watched the movie today and it has its moments but overall was disappointed.

MSFT has alot of cash but most of it is overseas and would have to pay taxes bringing the money back to the US. Since everyone wants to buy debt right now it would be cheaper for them to issue debt with their current rating. This is the logic used for issuing the debt according to the http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-13/microsoft-is-said-to-plan-debt-sale-to-pay-for-dividends-buy-back-shares.html

Since Sears Holdings holds over 80% of the stock they are not taxed for the dividend they receive. Not sure what the terms of the loan are other than the press statement mentioned it was a 60 day loan.

Can’t help but wonder if over the next few months companies in the US start issuing special dividends to take advantage of the expiring Bush Tax Cuts. While it is uncertain how and in what way the Bush Tax cuts will be extended or altogether allowed to expire, one thing is abundantly clear. Anyone in the higher tax brackets are going to be hit with higher taxes. With the tax on dividends increasing up to over 39% I think companies will liquidate a lot of the excess cash in the form of a one time dividend. In the future, instead of increasing dividends companies will either increase the amount of share buybacks or focus more on expansion. Agree or disagree?