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Possible Japanese Candlestick Chart Trades for December 31, 2007

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:46:07 EST

Possible Japanese Candlestick Chart Trades for December 31, 2007 - by brandon

So what's the big deal about Japanese candlestick charts? The more I work with them, the more I believe that it embodies The Wisdom Of The East, the Tao of the Market. Let me explain. The closest Western cousin is the Open-Low-High-Close (OLHC) chart, which shows the same data as the candle chart. However, when you look at a candle chart, you get a much clearer picture.

Compare a one month OLHC chart of Microsoft with a candle chart for the same month. The OLHC chart shows the open and close as tick marks, open to the left and close to the right, of the line whose height is the difference between the high and the low. The candle chart, instead, shows the open and close prices as a rectangle, either colored green (or transparent) when the close is higher than the open, or red (or black) when the close is lower than the open. Immediately, you see the volatility of the price action. A small rectangle (or a line if the close = open, a pattern known as a doji) means little or no price change. A deep rectangle means a large move. The price move and direction, the most important information for a trader, jump out at you. Over time, a series of deep, green rectangles shows a clear uptrend, with the reverse for a downtrend. With the OLHC chart, it's difficult to pick these trends up visually.

The eye is drawn to the high vs. low line on an OLHC chart, while on a candle chart the eye is drawn to open vs. close. What's more important? Think of the daily market action as like a sports contest - to mix a sports metaphor, the Chicago Bulls vs. the Chicago Bears. The whistle opens at 9:30 am and closes at 4:00 pm. The price zigs and zags all day. Who won the game? Was it a close match (1-0), or did one side trounce the other (52-0)? Try figuring that out with an OLHC chart. With a candle chart, you know both immediately.

There are many other subtleties with candle chart reading. I hope this gives you glimpse into its power and why all those 18th century Japanese rice traders became so rich.

TRADING ACTIVITY UPDATE FOR DECEMBER 28, 2007

The market was flat today. That's not a good trading environment. In fact, none of my three potential trades - UA, GES, and NTRI - displayed the upward price action required to pull the trigger. I did not adjust any stops on existing trades, which closed roughly flat, like the market. In summary, a day to sit back and smell the flowers.

POSSIBLE TRADES FOR DECEMBER 31, 2007

1) AT&T (T) generated a bullish kicker - a strong bullish signal signaling a trend reversal, usually on a news surprise. In this case, AT&T won a patent infringement suite from Vonage (VG). AT&T closed at 42.44, close to its 52 week high. Sounds like T might be breaking out to the upside. I will buy if T can sustain a price of 42.55 or higher, with a target of selling when the chart tells me that the up move is over.

2) Baldor Electric (BEZ) generated a bullish piercing pattern and has been rising slowly recently from its low below 32. It closed at 34.48 and has been beaten down from recent highs of 38 in early December and 44 in early October. I will buy if BEZ can sustain a price of 34.60 with a target at 38 and, if the chart gods smile, 44.

3) H&R Block (HRB) generated a bullish harami, closing at 18.09, close to its 52 week low. HRB has been beaten down because of its problems with Option One, its subprime mortgage division. Based on the chart, I think HRB can retrace its recent high of 22. I'll buy if HRB has legs to stay at least above 18.20 for the day.

Aon Corporation - A good stock for long term investment goal

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 14:55:45 EST

Aon Corporation - A good stock for long term investment goal - by brandon

S&P500 Stock - Aon Corporation (NYSE: AOC)

Excellent Liquidity- A good stock for long term investment goal

Aon Corporation is headquartered in Chicago. It is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. It likes to be in the insurance industry and has a generous view. 43,000 people working in 500 offices in more than 120 countries help Aon earn its money. The company proudly says that it can anticipate how changes in one sector can impact another and integrate services leveraging its expertise across hundreds of disciplines around the world. Take a look at its "hundreds of disciplines"-

Risk and Insurance Brokerage Services segment offers retail brokerage services, advisory services to entertainment, media, financial institutions, marine, aviation, construction, health care, and energy industries. Risk management solutions cover property, general liability, directors' and officers' liability, and workers' compensation risk. Affinity products are for professional liability, life, disability, income, and personal lines to individuals, associations, and businesses and lastly premium finance services takes care of general underwriting, placement, and captive management services. It is also a broker for reinsurance services and provides advice, placement of reinsurance and alternative risk transfer financing with capital markets, actuarial consulting, financial and regulatory consulting, portfolio analysis, catastrophe modeling, and claims services to insurance and reinsurance companies, and other risk assumption entities. Aon gives consulting services to employee benefits, compensation, management consulting, communications, strategic human resource consulting, financial advisory and litigation consulting. The Insurance Underwriting segment operates as an underwriter and distributor of individual accident, disability, health, and life insurance products. The company was founded in 1919 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. Whew! these are an overwhelming set of activities.

The star leadership team handling these business posses overwhelming experience and are well positioned to take care of the business. Gregory C. case is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Aon. He was with McKinsey & Company, the international management consulting firm, for 17 years, most recently serving as head of the Financial Services Practice. He serves as a member of the Executive Committee of Board of Directors and as a Director of Aon Foundation. He has outlined a three-part strategy for building Aon. His vision centers on delivering distinctive value for clients, attracting the best talent and achieving operational excellence. Under Case's leadership, Aon has strengthened its position as a global organization offering integrated business solutions for its clients. Case has said Aon's goal is to be recognized as the leading and most distinctive risk advisor in the world, not the biggest. Case has nearly two decades of experience in the insurance and financial services industries.

David P. Bolger is the chief financial officer. He was with Bank One Corporation for 21 years.

Aon has a number CEO's located in different parts of the world handling its various business segment and worldwide operations.

The Risk and Insurance Brokerage Services segment generated approximately 63% of the Company's total operating revenues in 2006. This is the largest of Aon's operating segments. Risk and insurance brokerage and related services are provided by certain indirect subsidiaries, including Aon Risk Services Companies, Inc., Aon Holdings International bv, Aon Re Global, Inc., Aon Limited (U.K.) and Cananwill, Inc.

Retail brokerage delivers specialized advice and services in industries, such as entertainment, media, financial institutions, marine, aviation, construction, health care and energy. As a retail broker, Aon generally serves as an advisor to corporate clients, and arranges a spectrum of risk management solutions, including property, general liability, professional and directors' and officers' liability, workers' compensation and other exposures.

Consulting generated 14% of the Company's total operating revenues in 2006. This segment has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Pacific region and South Africa. Through its subsidiary, Aon Consulting Worldwide, Inc. (Aon Consulting), Aon provides consulting services in two sub segments (Consulting Services and Outsourcing)

Insurance Underwriting has operations in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. This business generated 23% of Aon's total operating segment revenues in 2006. The Company classifies its insurance underwriting businesses into two sub-segments: accident, health and life, and property and casualty.

Organic revenue growth was 6%, Brokerage Services business grew 3% organically, despite soft market conditions, and Consulting Services grew 8% organically.Accident and Health insurance grew 21% organically, with strong growth in Sterling currency. Overall growth was 3%, driven by solid performance in retail brokerage operations. Pension expense for major defined-benefit pension plans is $14m, vs. $63m last years third quarter. Expects pension expense of approx. $85m in 2007, vs. $240m in 2006.

Net income increased 8% to $213 million or $0.66 per share, compared to $198 million or $0.57 per share for the prior year quarter. Net income from continuing operations increased 23% to $212 million or $0.66 per share, compared to $173 million or $0.50 per share for the prior year quarter. Net income from continuing operations per share, excluding certain items, increased 37% to $0.70 compared to $0.51 for the prior year quarter.Aon Corporation continues to make investments in new markets and talent for its future growth. Their balance sheet is strong and they repurchased $345 million of stock during the quarter, highlighting their commitment to creating long-term shareholder value. Adjusted EPS increased 67% in S1. 3Q07 Performance EPS from continuing operations were $0.59, more than double a year ago as compared to S2. 3Q07 financial performance. EPS were up significantly by any measure.

Arthur J. Gallagher, Torchmark, UnumProvident, CIGNA, AFLAC, Conseco and Universal American Financial are its competitors till date. As i had made a mention on its prediction capabilities earlier,here's another concrete example. Aon correctly predicted the return of a functioning worldwide property catastrophe reinsurance marketplace, In such a marketplace, cedents would generally find sufficient capacity at terms and conditions that represented accretive underwriting capital for their organizations .Aon believes in its ability to provide an expectation in advance of key renewal dates provides significant value to their clients.

The company was benefited from cash distributions relating to securities, with an estimated value of $150m in excess of their carrying value. Assuming horizon of 4-6 years for monetization of remaining private equity investments, the company expects average quarterly distribution of $6-10m over near-term assuming no change in underlying value of investments. Aon can deliver best-in-class expense discipline. Anticipates program will result in $360m of charges and $50-70m of savings in 2008, $175-200m in 2009, and $240m of cumulative annualized savings by 2010, before any potential reinvestment of savings, Liquidity is excellent. So I feel its worthy stock among its competitors.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation - I like it

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 10:59:02 EST

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation - I like it - by brandon

S&P500 Stock: Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC)

A low risk and long lived stock- a good buy

The oil and gas exploration and production industry consists of about 7,000 companies with combined annual revenue of $260 billion. This industry segment does not include transmission, refining, or retailing of petroleum and natural gas products. Demand is driven by economic activity, population growth, and energy efficiency levels for residential, industrial, and transportational uses of oil and gas. Profitability of individual companies is driven by the success rate of new wells drilled and the ability to increase production from existing wells. Large companies have an advantage in access to capital, including the ability to buy or merge smaller companies. Small companies compete by focusing on a few geographic areas and developing expertise within those areas. The industry is capital intensive: average annual revenue per employee is about $2 million. Oil and gas compete with other energy sources, such as coal, nuclear power, and hydroelectric power, for industrial and home heating applications. Renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are emerging alternatives for transportation applications. Major products of the oil and gas exploration and production industry are crude oil (about 45 percent of industry revenue) and natural gas (55 percent). About 80 percent of US petroleum production comes from offshore wells and 20 percent from land-based wells

Anadarko is one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the world. Anadarko produces crude oil, gas and liquefied natural gas. It operates in United states, Algeria, China, Venezuela and Brazil. It has 3.01 billion barrels-equivalent of proven reserves and produces 489,000 barrels of oil per day. Proven reserves are located in U.S., Canada and Algeria. Anadarko's site in North America starts from the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, up through Texas, Louisiana, the Mid-Continent, western U.S. and Canadian Rockies and onto the North Slope of Alaska. Anadarko acquired Kerr McGee for $16.4 billion and Western Gas Resources for $4.7 billion and sold its Gulf of Mexico shelf subsidiary for $1 billion. This is widely perceived as the reason for its success.The company was named Anadarko in 1959, a subsidiary of Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company.

Trivia: The word Anadarko comes from "nadarko" - a centuries-old American Indian word signifying "those who ate the honey of the bumble-bee ( couldn't contain my curiosity!)

James T.Hackett is the President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to this position he was the CEO Seagull Energy Corporation first and then Devon Energy Corporation. Both these companies were gobbled up by Ocean Energy, Inc. and hence he became Ocean's CEO.

Mario M. Coll, III is the Chief Information Officer. He started his career in NL Industries, Inc. Mobil Oil held his attention for some time. Then he joined Devon Energy Corporation and subsequently Ocean Energy, Inc. post the acquisition.

Karl F. Kurz is the chief operating officer. He has been part of the energy industry for 25 years. ARCO Oil & Gas Company offerred him his first job. The he moved on to Vastar Resources, Inc. and NGL Marketing Department.

R.A.Walker is the Chief Financial Officer. UBS Investment Bank, 3TEC Energy Corporation and Prudential Capital Group were his previous companies.

I checked the competition, they are big. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Devon Energy, Cabot oil & gas, Comstock resources to name a few. But the ace up its sleeve is the production location. Most of its production activities happen in the United States and hence is not vulnerable to political strife and terrorist attack. It works under favourable government conditions.

Revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2007 were $3.82 million, an increase of 29 percent from the $2.95 million reported for the second quarter of fiscal 2006. Total quarterly billings, which include deferred revenues related primarily to professional services fees were $4.29 million. Revenues for the first six months of fiscal 2007 totaled $7.29 million compared to $4.83 million for the same period in fiscal 2006, an increase of 51 percent. The company reported a GAAP net loss of $1.91 million or 5 cents per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2007 compared to $947,000 or 3 cents per share in Q2-2006. GAAP net loss includes $395,000 of non-cash related expenses of stock compensation, depreciation and amortization. Total gross margins for Q2-2007 were 77 percent compared to 71 percent in Q2-2006.

The hydrocarbon exploration and production business is currently in an exciting and challenging state. Economies worldwide are growing at a rapid pace. Many of the most promising underdeveloped or new hydrocarbon provinces are located within geopolitically unstable countries, in extremely deep water or in environmentally challenging locations and the competition for these contracts is intense. Crude oil will touch $100 any day now as the dollar keeps weakening. As the dollar weakens further the crude oil will march past $150 making Anadarko more profitable. For the moment a a 5 year outlook paints a picture of value stock. So folks do you want to buy and or wait for the crude oil prices to sink?

Amazing Amazon – Wealth Creator

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:41:09 EST

Amazing Amazon – Wealth Creator - by brandon

S&P500 stock - Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN)

Amazing Amazon - Wealth Creator

Now 43 year old Jeff Bezos started this Universe's biggest bookstore in 1994 which has rapidly become the biggest store for everything. The website offers all kinds of books, music, DVDs, and videos which still accounts for the majority of the firm's sales. Expansion of Amazon.com added magazines and newspapers, video games, software, Amazon shorts, electronics, cameras and photos, cell phones and service, computers and PC hardware, office products, musical instruments, outlet, home and garden products, bed and bath products, furniture and decor, gourmet food, kitchen and house wares, pet supplies, automotives, tools and hardware, industrial and scientific, apparel and accessories, shoes, jewelry and watches, grocery, beauty, health and personal care, sports and outdoors, toys and games, and baby products. Amazon has always been a model for E-commerce companies.

Amazon has started providing Amazon Marketplace and Merchants programs, which enable third parties to sell their products on its Web sites; allow customers to shop for products owned by third parties using its features and technologies; and enable individuals to complete transactions that include multiple sellers in a single checkout process. The company also provides merchant services for third-party retailers; marketing and promotional services; and Web services comprising Amazon simple storage service, Amazon elastic compute cloud, Amazon simple queue service, Amazon mechanical turk, and Amazon e-commerce service for developers. In addition, it operates other Web sites, including a9.com and alexa.com that enable search and navigation; and www.imdb.com, a movie database. Its retail Web sites includes amazon.com, amazon.ca, amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon.co.jp, amazon.co.uk, joyo.com, shopbop.com, and endless.com.

Bezos has focused everything at Amazon's Web site on making it easy for visitors to find what they want, discover what they didn't know they wanted, and buy it fast-with just one click of the mouse. Nearly 70% of Amazon's sales are from repeat customers. Amazon has ended up being in just about everything.

Tom Szkutak is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Tom started his career with GE handling the fiances of its various divisions like GE Lighting, GE Plastics and GE Investments. He joined joined Amazon.com in October 2002.

Jeffery Blackburn is the Senior Vice President, Business Development. He left Deutsche Morgan Grenfell where he was the Assistant Vice President in 1998.

Amazon offers an easily searchable trove of 3.1 million titles-15 times more than any bookstore on the planet and without the costly overhead of multimillion-dollar buildings and scads of store clerks. That paves the way for each of its 1,600 employees to generate, on average, $375,000 in annual revenues-more than triple that of No. 1 bricks-and-mortar bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc.'s 27,000 employees. Amazon has delighted investors with impressive results in the first two quarters of the year, said third-quarter net income more than quadrupled to $80 million, or 19 cents per share, from $19 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 41 percent to $3.26 billion. Operating income rose to $123 million from $40 million, above its own forecast for a range of $75 million to $110 million. The results beat average Wall Street estimates of 18 cents per share in profit on $3.13 billion in revenue. For the fourth quarter, Amazon said it expects net sales of $5.1 billion to $5.45 billion, with operating income of $221 million to $291 million.

Seattle-based Amazon, the second most popular e-commerce site behind auctioneer ebay, has pared back the rate of its spending this year, which helped improve margins and boost earnings growth while pushing up its share price 136 percent since January 3. Amazon fully-valued--its price-earnings ratio is far higher than Internet companies and retail rivals. Amazon trades at 59 times projected forward-looking earnings, compared with eBay at 22 times, and Wal-Mart Stores at 13 times estimated 2008 earnings.

On Monday, the online retail giant unveiled its Kindle e-book reader, a wireless portable reading device with instant access to Amazon e-book store. The device comes with a headphone jack for audiobooks, as well as an e-mail address. Kindle uses a new technology called electronic paper, something that doesn't seem like a computer monitor and gives the user a completely different experience from using a computer. The user does not need to rush to a wi-fi hot spot to download; instead kindle uses a cell phone like wireless technology. This is more like a blackberry device but at the same time it is not a black berry. Kindle is aimed at the restless travelers and the serious business type who can access newspapers, magazines, books, blogs wherever they are, be it in bed or train. Kindle uses advanced wireless technology and does away with the monthly wireless bills, service or data plans and yearly contracts.

This product has got all it takes to become a disruptor and looks like will add substantially to the revenues. When the market capitalization surged Amazon made appropriate acquisitions to suit its business model. Amazon's complete focus on profitability will ensure great results year on year. And now with its focus on new hardware devices which are synchronized with its e-store, the company will start accumulating more and more money. This is a company that believes in business model innovation and is always looking to develop disruptive products. Amazon over years will create a lot of wealth for its investors.

Reliant Technologies, Inc a good long term investment

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:36:31 EST

Reliant Technologies, Inc a good long term investment - by brandon

Reliant Technologies, Inc Review

Reliant wants to build technologies for laser medicine. It has named its product, Fraxel. This is a shorter version of Fractional Photothermolysis. The company explains the term thus-when you think Fraxel, think pixels, yes this is same pixel which constitutes the images on the computer. Now Reliant says the technology is designed in such a way that the laser machine scans the skin under treatment by breaking the surface skin into tiny pixels or micro thermal zones. This way the treatment is more thorough and gives more shine and tone to the skin with minimal or no side effects. Anyways this is how their technology works. Now about their products starting with the prefix Fraxel, which is a little more interesting, at least to me because of the eye catching names. Let me do a "clinical dissection" of the product meant for skin treatment. Observe how the company spells the the name.

In the days of the year 2006, Fraxel re:store (notice the colon after "re") was introduced to redo the facial skin and the skin on the neck, i believe what they mean is all aberrations and unwanted moles will be removed. The medical term used for this treatment is nonablation, no cutting. This is to do more with technology that reliant has designed wherein the laser device rolls on the skin and switches on only when it finds a bump or a crevice in the skin. This way skin will not get burnt or charred due to over exposure of laser beams on the skin (The very thought gives me goose bumps!!!!).

Year 2007 dawned and Reliant released Fraxel re:fine Laser system. This laser treatment restores the natural young look of the skin, by improving the skin texture, tone and pigmentation and improves what the discerning artists call, the fine line.

Reliant named its third product, Fraxel re:pair, luckily still in the pipeline and the company hopes have FDA clearances by 2008. This technology repairs the dead tissues of the skin without damaging the good tissues that surround by cutting or to use a prudish medical term, ablation. Reliant is seeking FDA approval for using this technology to clean the acne. (hands folded in prayer- save the teens who sprout acne!!!)

Reliant also sells skin care products under Fraxel Skin Ecology System, exclusively developed to be used in conjunction with the laser treatment basically to enhance the benefits of laser treatment. So its not OTC product.

On a serious note the technology on offer is very impressive as the company has incorporated a simple technique of treating only those tissues which are damaged leaving the surrounding tissues non ablated. Laser medicine is growing at a scorching pace and Reliant Technology happens to be in the right business at the right time. I have seen the number of laser surgeries administered in the retinal correction, hair growth and skin correction and i know the company is poised to grow big with its technology and continuous R&D. For the layman, a simple Google search on Laser medicine will yield 12.4 million pages, this was not so a couple of years back. The efficacy of the technology is widely accepted. Laser treatment is catching on the same way as the world one day woke up and realised the earth revolved on World Wide Web. An industry overview conducted by Millennium Research Group, estimated close to 3 million skin tone surgical and non surgical procedures to have taken place in the year 2006 and conservative numbers indicate 8 million such procedures to take place by 2011.

The top team of Reliant possesses good experience and foresight to have managed the company and its revolutionary technology impressively. Headed by Eric.B.Stang as President and CEO of Reliant, the company is in right hands as his experience covers NAND flash memory products to radiation therapy. He is a perfect fit as his understanding of laser technology has guided the company to explore uncharted territories. Len DeBenedicts is designated as CTO and aptly so as his 30 years experience covers breakthrough laser technology and medical systems. Interestingly he was part of the laser scanning technology team for Xerox. I guess this exposure has helped him guide the design of Fraxel technology. Jeffery S.Jones takes care of operations, marketing and sales. He honed his skills while he worked for various Engineering and Medical devices companies. His complete understanding of the market has helped Reliant successfully market its products. Finances are taken care of by Andrew Galligan in his capacity as the CFO. He started his career by handling finances of various medical companies, rose through the ranks and then joined Reliant Technologies.

Reliant proposes to offer 4,700,000 shares of common stock to the public and has proposed a listing price in the range of $14 to $16 per share. The company proposes to use the proceeds for sales, marketing and research and for capital expenditures with respect to manufacturing equipments. This company is a good bet for anyone looking for a long term investment.

Virtual Radiologic Corporation - Great for Long Term

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:03:26 EST

Virtual Radiologic Corporation - Great for Long Term - by brandon

Virtual Radiologic Corporation

Good Listing, great for Long term

Virtual Radiologic Corporation transmits digital diagnostic images to remote areas, 24/7. It specializes in ultrasound, nuclear medicine, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Virtual Radiologic delivers its interpretations by web, fax, and network printer. The response time is 30 minutes. In August this year the company was named to Inc. magazine's 2007 Inc. 500, a compilation of the 500 fastest-growing companies in the Unites States.

Teleradiology is the practice of transmitting digital diagnostic images to a location, remote from the site of image origination, for interpretation by a radiologist. All thanks to the advances in technology, images are transmitted from the point of origination to anywhere in the world more particularly to the location of the radiologist. These images are sent in a reliable, cost-effective and encrypted manner. Before the advent of this technology radiologists were forced to live near the hospitals or clinics which employed them and had to travel to those locations to read the images, causing a lot of frustration and inefficiencies. With this technology radiologists need not be constrained to a particular location to read the images. Teleradiology services is gaining wider acceptance in hospital and clinics due to the advancement in the technology. With an increasing volume of diagnostic imaging procedures coupled with shortage of radiologists, teleradiology can now provide improved patient care efficiently. It has reduced the time between request for a radio graphic image read and its interpretation.

Data collected by Frost & Sullivan says digital diagnostic imaging procedure will grow at a rate of 15% per year. It goes on to add that in year 2004 300 million images were interpreted using Teleradiology. And this will touch 500 million images in 2009. An aging population and with Physicians opting for these images is driving the demand for such imaging procedures. The United States is facing a severe shortage of radiologists according to studies published by the American College of Radiology and the American Roentgen Ray Society. The American College of Radiology's says the number of physicians in radiology residency programs is decreasing at an alarming rate. In addition, the study estimates that, by year 2020 radiologists will be less by 15000.Along with this shortage, most of the radiologists are over the age of 50 and hence are spending fewer hours in their practice. This has led to under staffing in most hospitals and clinics.

Broadband communication has improved by leaps and bounds and digital diagnostic imaging can now be transmitted and stored without any loss in data. This has allowed a more efficient review of radiology images by radiologists located in a different geographical location within the United States. The transmitting protocol has been standardized and is abbreviated as DICOM, Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine.

This protocol allows interoperability of various radiology images. These images are viewed using a software known as Picture Archival Communications Systems, or PACS. This has allowed hospitals and clinics to store, manage and view images between them, more akin to file sharing system. Teleradiology has the government mandate as it now insists all hospitals and clinics to digitise patient data. All hospitals and clinics are now upgrading their computer systems and equipments. This has led to cost savings by health care institutions as it gives them access to highly-trained radiologists. Historically, medical care has been administered by local providers and clinicians driven by the need to maintain a patients medical history, perform physical examinations. But with advances in technology information gathering and filing is simplified. Teleradiology is now the answer to the shortage of radiologists. Contracted Teleradiology is now being accepted by hospitals and clinics due to significant cost savings.

Virtual Radiologic Corporation is one of the leading providers of teleradiology services in the United States. Frost & Sullivan has ranked them as the second largest provider of teleradiology services in the United States. Radiology practices, hospitals, clinics and diagnostic imaging centers are given 24 hours a day, 7 days a week attention from Virtual. The company uses distributed operating model which gives certified radiologists the flexibility to choose the location from which they work, for the moment within the United States, and allows Virtual to serve customers located throughout the country. Virtual has a robust communications network which has encrypted broadband Internet connections and proprietary workflow management software. Services include both preliminary reads, which are performed for emergent care purposes, and final reads, which are performed for both emergent and non-emergent care purposes. In November 2006, Virtual started licensing the use of its technology infrastructure and began providing support services to radiology group customers. Their affiliated radiologists are certified by the American Board of Radiology. At present the company has 106 radiologists working for them. These radiologists provide their services to 457 customers serving 787 medical facilities, which includes 736 hospitals.

Virtual has in house software engineers who develop its proprietary software and workflow solutions. Virtual is now waiting for patents to be awarded to these software solutions.

Dr. Sean Casey is the a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. He was a clinical associate professor at the University of Minnesota and is a certified radiologist and neuroradiologist and is also on the board of American Board of Radiology. He is responsible for the development of service offerings and business model.

Robert Kill is the President and Chief Operating Officer. He has 20 years of experience in operations, sales and marketing in the health care services.

Richard W. Jennings is the Chief Technology Officer. He was in the information technology related business for 25 years before joining Virtual.

Principal competitor is NightHawk Radiology Holdings, Inc which went public in the year 2006. Night hawk acquired Virtual's other competitor, The Radlinx Group, in 2007. Virtual faces intense competition from Nighthawk due its great visibility and bigger customer base. Virtual has had its own share of law suits. In July 31, 2007, Merge eMed, Inc filed a complaint that virtual has willfully infringed on certain of Merge's patents relating to teleradiology. If the ruling is not in favour of Virtual then the company might incur great losses. All its radiologists must be granted credentials to practice at each hospital from which the radiologist receives radiological images as per state regulations. If Virtual is unable to obtain proper licenses or hospital credentials, then its business will suffer.

Virtual has experienced strong revenue and reported $54.1 million in 2006. But at the same time it incurred losses of $0.5 million in the same year. In effect the company has a history of losses. But going by the demand for teleradiology, the company is poised for giant leap forward in terms of revenues and presence. With most countries around the world acknowledging and adapting such technological advances in the medical care, Virtual will see expanded growth beyond the United States. I must say a decade long investment in its shares will yield a tidy some for retirement.

SuccessFactors, Inc looks attractive

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:48:18 EST

SuccessFactors, Inc looks attractive - by brandon

SuccessFactors, Inc

SuccessFactors wants to increase productivity inside of every company by building a bridge between employee performance and goals. It sells performance and talent management software in 156 countries and 18 languages. Companies use this for improving compensation planning, goals management, performance monitoring, employee surveys, individual development planning, and succession management. The company's Performance Management software suite includes Web-based applications for automating the performance review,goal management,compensation planning, analytics and planning and longer-term succession planning. Recruiting talent, identifying skill gaps and streamline on the job training are some of the other benefits of this software.

Performance Management helps in online review. Goal Management helps to streamline employee goals with company's objectives. Compensation planning ensures right rewards for the right performance. Analytics and Reporting gives a graphical metric of performance and talent management. Here is the sector wise list of its customers, Consumer, Goods industry, Energy and chemicals, Financial Services, Government and Higher Education, Health care, High tech, Life sciences, Manufacturing, Non- profit organisations, Services industry and Retail. It has more than 1300 individual customers. Its product, after continuous innovation, is standardized on the J2EE technology and the programming language used is Java.

SuccessFactors faces intense competition form third party human resource software development vendors like Authoria, Inc., Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc., Halogen Software Inc., Kenexa Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Plateau Systems, Ltd., Salary.com, Inc., SAP AG, Softscape, Inc., StepStone Solutions GmbH, SumTotal Systems Inc., Taleo Corporation and Vurv Technology. As can be seen some of these companies are market Goliaths who have better resources and bigger distribution channels. Since the entire industry is price sensitive a small slash in the product pricing could harm SuccessFactors's revenues in the long term. At the same time SuccessFactors continued incomes depends on customer renewal of the license. This is the crucial stage for any company as a fickle customer could shift allegiance without remorse. SuccessFactors after sales support and customer friendly initiatives are on par with the best in the industry. The other chink in its armour though not significant at the moment is customisation, if large clients require customized features and functions, then SuccessFactors might falter a wee bit in terms of implementation. Any such delay will lead to substantial losses for their customers. Brand awareness will always be done on a shoe string budget which can be out done by any of the mega competitors. And lastly talent retention in SuccessFactors. Since they use in house software to monitor any lapses, all loop holes should be plugged!!

The company's operating expense is largely on research and development and sales and marketing. SuccessFactors is now shifting gears to induct more direct sales personnel. Sales and marketing expenses were 117 percent of their revenues until September 2007. Research and development was 47 percentage of the revenues. Its sales team is present in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. IBM is its reseller for the application suite.

Lately organizations feel the need to focus on talents of employees, and motivate them to increase the performance. Clear goals and objectives at all levels is being defined in all organisations to reward employees clearly, objectively and consistently, based on measurable results and on their engagement, future potential and ability to energize and lead their colleagues throughout the organization. Hence an investment in software as provided by SuccessFactors will always be in demand. The company just needs to capitalise this requirement.

SuccessFactors was founded in May 2001 by Lars Dalgaard who is also the current CEO. He worked in Unilever and Novartis before starting the company. Finances are taken care by Bruce C Felt, Jr. in his capacity as CFO for SuccessFactors.

SuccessFactors is clear on the reasons for initiating this IPO. Brand awareness. Since the company will be under constant scrutiny, more customers will get attracted to its state of the art software solutions. The other reason, as always, is to clear the debt the company has in its books. The future of the company is very bright as organisations are moving towards achieving efficiency and reducing costs by deploying such work force management software. And since SuccessFactors is focused on constantly innovating, it need not fear about its guidance figures for the decade to come.