WPT getting punished

[wpr101]

World Poker Tour's stock (WPTE) has been getting crushed lately. Down 33% since I bought it. Apparently they are delaying their earnings because of problems with auditors. Anybody else been following this or have thoughts on it?

[Sniper]

Wasn't their parent company (Lakes Ent) delisted from the nasdaq?

[StickyWicket]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! See Dominic's post from last week...I called him from the office when I read it in the Journal.

Sticky /images/graemlins/heart.gif

[lastsamurai]

first rule of investing... dont put a halo over any stock..treat them like the dirty whores that they are. cut your loses quick when they start acting up!

[squiffy]

That whole Doyle Brunson episode smelled very fishy, where he put forward what seemed to be a very non-serious offer that was overpriced. It may have been some ploy to pump and dump the stockprice. You don't want to be the sucker buying stock at an inflated price from some boiler-room style operation.

Having said that, you need to figure out what the company is earning or realistically can earn for say the next five years, and figure out if you are overpaying for the stream of income.

If World Poker tour will earn only 1 dollar a share next year, and you are paying $100 for that share, you are only getting say 1% return on your money, and you can get a better return from a CD or many other stocks.

Generally you should ignore hype and momentum, because there is no way to predict how long the hype will last, or when the momentum will shift.

If you want to gamble, that is fine. But just realize that unless you can figure out a stock's true value and true profit potential per share, you might as well go to the casino and bet it on red or black at the roulette table.

If you can figure out that NOK earns enough profit that it will be worth long-term about $10 per share, and if you can buy the shares for $5, you have a good deal.

If you cannot or do not bother to figure out what WPT is really worth, absent the b.s., you are taking a huge gamble without really knowing the expected return and the likelihood of losing it all.

Like paying $500 a share for AOL, when it's really only worth $20 a share. It might go to $600, or it might collapse. You just don't know what it will do and when. And you cannot even make an educated guess.