Stockcoach's Corner

Well, my call on MAX was (almost) right on the money. The stock was up nearly 30 percent on Tuesday and I was pretty optimistic it would continue its run today. But what do I see when I power up my computer this morning? None of other than a big stinkbomb in the form of a PR release from the company saying that management was considering delisting the stock. Most likely management got spooked by the big price jump and wanted to let the cat out of the bag as soon as possible to ensure that the company didn't have to spend too much to pay off the small shareholders. I suppose in the long run delisting will be in best interest of MAX shareholders since the company will now be able to avoid the high expenses associated with Sorbanes-Oxley. Still, I bought the stock as a way of getting a piece of the recent action in energy companies, not as a long-term hold. I sold half my shares this morning in pre-market on Instinet for $4. I'll hold on to the remaining share in the hope that the share price will recover somewhat. I figure I have little to lose: as a holder of only 2500 shares, I will probably get the $3.75 to $4.25 that the company is offering, which is more than the price at which the shares closed today.

In other news, I dumped my shares of ISRL yesterday. The shares were up over 100 percent over the past week on the mistaken belief that the company stands to profit greatly from higher energy prices. In reality, the company's main business is running a cruise ship, hardly the sort of thing that would benefit from the sky-rocketing price of crude.