The Motley Fool

Name that company

I was born in 1913, when five California entrepreneurs pooled $100 apiece to create America’s first commercial-scale liquid bleach factory. Today, I’m a leading maker and marketer of consumer products, taking in more than $4 billion annually. My brand names include Armor All and STP auto care products, Fresh Step and Scoop Away cat litters, Kingsford charcoal briquets, Hidden Valley and KC Masterpiece dressings and sauces, Brita water-filtration systems, and Glad bags, wraps and containers. I was bought by Procter & Gamble in 1957, but antitrust concerns led to my regained independence in 1969. Who am I?

Last week’s question and answer

Founded in 1919, I’m a top global oil-field services company, helping energy firms with everything from exploration and development, production, operations, maintenance and refining to infrastructure and abandonment. I provide engineering and construction services, too. I’ve even supplied a vice president to the U.S. government. I employ more than 100,000 people in more than 120 countries and have done work for NASA and the U.S. military. You’ll find me today in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Australia and all over the globe. My sales have jumped 58 percent in the last three years, while my stock has more than doubled. Who am I? (Answer: Halliburton)

Day trading

If you’re ever tempted to day-trade, think twice. It’s not investing.

Investors (at least good, Foolish ones) study businesses, carefully select stocks, and usually aim to hold on for the long term – years or decades. They consider themselves part-owners of real businesses. Day traders, meanwhile, spend hours glued to monitors, tracking stocks and placing orders. They’ll typically place scores of orders each day and hold each stock for no more than a few hours. Many ignore company fundamentals, focusing only on what might make the stock move in the very short term. While investors may aim to pay long-term capital gains rates by holding stocks for more than a year, day traders are stuck paying at the generally higher short-term rate.

What’s the payoff? Well, a study by the North American Securities Administrators Assn. suggested that only about 11.5 percent might trade profitably, and that some 70 percent “will almost certainly lose everything they invest.” (Note that trading “profitably” does not even mean one will beat the S&P 500, available via the purchase of an index fund at very low cost.)

According to managers of day-trading firms cited in a Washington Post Magazine article, about 90 percent of day traders “are washed up within three months.” A principal of a day-trading firm even admitted, “95 percent will fail in the first two years.” Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt recommended that people only day-trade with “money they can afford to lose.”

The people who have made the biggest killings in day-trading may be those who have run day-trading firms. These outfits provide day traders with trading equipment and charge them commissions per trade. With each customer trading all day long, coffers can fill quickly.

Understand that people who trade stocks online are by no means necessarily day traders. Accessing brokerages online makes sense for most people, especially when commissions for trades can be as low as $5 per trade. (Learn more at www.broker.fool.com.)

Fellow Fool, resist any temptation to buy and sell stocks rapidly in large numbers. Don’t let yourself or those you care about get sucked into day-trading. Learn more about it at www.sec.gov/answers/daytrading.htm.

Domino’s run

Pizza giant Domino’s (NYSE: DPZ) recently reported some piping-hot results. Second-quarter net profit rose 47 percent to $23.4 million. Revenues were up 7 percent. Domestically, same-store sales (sales from locations that have been open at least a year) grew 6.9 percent. The international market proved to be just as strong, capping 46 consecutive quarters of international same-store sales growth.

Despite this growth, Domino’s maintained and didn’t increase its expectations for the year ahead. Domino’s is being cautious because it feels that the strong sales from 2004 might be difficult to match. This news caused some investors to take their money and run, pushing the stock a bit lower. You can’t really blame them for thinking that perhaps the run is over after being rewarded with gains of nearly 80 percent in just one year.

The company expects earnings growth of 11 percent to 13 percent. That seems quite good, but Wall Street analysts are even more optimistic. If the company doesn’t meet lofty expectations, the stock may end up punished, validating those investors who decided to jump ship.

Overall, it’s difficult to justify walking away from such an appetizing company. However, given Domino’s tremendous run during the past year, its somewhat cautious outlook for the second half, and the fact that its annual guidance is significantly lower than what analysts are expecting, it might be wise for investors to get their slice to go.

Sleeping on it

I’m an 86-year-old World War II paratrooper veteran who saved all my hazardous duty pay and, upon discharge, bought 50 shares each of General Electric and Westinghouse. I got married in 1947. In 1952, I bought a new bedroom suite. To pay for it, I decided to sell the GE stock, since Westinghouse paid higher dividends and was big in nuclear energy. That probably wasn’t the best choice. We still have the nice bedroom suite, though.

Based on GE’s multiple stock splits and current price, the suite’s equivalent present-day valuation would be close to $350,000. It would be a nice sum to have now. However, the memories of the fun on the bed are priceless. – Charles R., West Chester, Pa.

The Fool Responds: You’re right. General Electric would have been the better choice.

Over the years, Westinghouse bought (and sometimes sold) many businesses, such as CBS, Infinity broadcasting, American Radio Systems and Country Music Television. After changing its name to CBS, it was bought by Viacom, which today owns MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Showtime and Simon & Schuster, among other properties.

IRA losses

If I sell a stock for a loss in my IRA account, can I deduct that on my tax return? – C.T., Greensboro, N.C.

Sorry. For the most part, you deposit pre-tax money into a traditional IRA. When the time comes to withdraw those funds, you’ll be taxed on the entire withdrawal, regardless of any gains or losses. (Of course, if you make non-deductible contributions to your traditional IRA, they won’t be taxed when you take them in the form of distributions.) With Roth IRAs, you invest post-tax money and eventually withdraw it all tax-free. But you don’t claim losses from year to year.

Why do stock prices go up and down so much? – C.A., Rutland, Vt.

There are many reasons. Here are some: investors reacting to reports of rising or falling sales and profits, changes in management, new products or services, big contracts landed or lost, famous investors reportedly buying or selling shares, good or bad write-ups in the media, analysts upgrading or downgrading the stocks, the stock market in general rising or falling, other stocks in the same industry rising or falling, heightened fear or greed among investors, good or bad news regarding a competitor, lawsuits filed or won or lost, pending legislation that could affect the company’s future, changes in supply or demand for the company’s products or services, global expansion or retrenchment, the industry is “hot” and people expect big things with or without reason, the company might buy or be bought by another company, or the company will spin off a division.

Disregard short-term moves. Focus instead on developments related to your company’s competitive strength, growth prospects and financial health.