NSC up 20% in a month

Norfolk Southern is up from $30 a month ago when i was talking about energy and railroad stocks. I want to kick myself in the head for not moving on that one. Oh well, got to look for new value picks to replace that stock. Email me if you got a good one.

Buying an engagement ring in new york city

Before you step in any store, get a "sheet", which is the market prices for diamonds. It will list size and color scale and state current market price per those dimensions. That way you know what you should be paying per carrat size and color. These are printed weekly.

Only buy GIA certified diamonds, they come with a certificate identifying all the attributes of the diamond in a dossier.

Treat the diamond and the setting (the ring) as different sets of negotiations, if you do it that way then it's much clearer what you're paying for and sometimes easier to set up combo deals where you say "I'll get the diamond here if you knock XX% off the setting price"

You can also bait them as you get closer to the end of negotiations with "I still need to get wedding presents, wedding bands, etc" the promise of future upscale business is very important to these people.

One more thing...it's annoying how much time this takes, put aside 2 hours just to get the ring inspected by an independent auditor who will verify the authenticity of the stone. You have to go with them, then when you go with them.

I suggest getting the stone laser inscribed with the IGA # so you can always feel confident that the stone is the stone you bought after they place it in the setting.

The laser inscription cannot be seen by the naked eye, but can be seen through an eye loop. Makes it easier to insure as well. If the ring is GIA certified that also eases the whole insurance process.

You're mileage will vary but I've heard ring insurance prices generally are ~$200/carrat per year if you link the policy to an already existing homeowners or renters insurance policy.

Dumping VRSN was the way to go

Verisign

As I said in my last post VRSN was bound to drop and it did right after earnings it feel to $23.90. It has rebounded nicely to $26.11 as of this writing of this post (7/28/2005 9:13AM EST) and I expect it can get to $28 within the month but the prospects for this stock should not exceed $30. I would consider $29 the price to pop the parachute at. At current price levels this stock is still attractive up until $26.50.

Infospace

INSP took a hit on the chin yesterday after revising it's future performance downwards. They lost a big partnership as the provider of Verizon's phone directory lookup service, that partnership was worth approximately $9 million. It also looks like the margin's of INSP dropped a great deal when compared to the previous year 38.9% versus 34.4%.

Barry Diller's InteractiveCorp

IACIis up as traders await the reverse split of the company where its subsidiary Expedia will be split from the company and become an independent publically traded company. This should boost the value for current shareholders of IACI initially but beware travel companies are quite mercurial. Anything from oil prices to terrorism can send travel stocks downward.