Sunken Treasure Discovered By Odyssey Marine Exploration (OMEX)

Normally, here at Stock Picky we concentrate on relatively safe stocks for the long term, but I felt like I had to share this one with my readers! The name of this speculative play is Odyssey Marine Exploration, ticket symbol (NASDAQ: OMEX). This is a company that literally hunts for sunken treasure!

Based out of Florida, Odyssey Marine Exploration has over 20 ongoing shipwreck projects throughout the world. Past projects include the shipwreck of the SS Republic which brought in 50,000 coins and 14,000 artifacts, and just last year the company announced it recovered 500,000 silver and gold pieces from The Black Swan!

As if that wasn't enough, the company just filed today that it had filed Admiralty Arrest on two more shipwreck sites. Both of these new found sites are near the English Channel, but are outside the territorial waters of any sovereign nation. The sites both contain cannon and other artifacts which are believed to dated back to the colonial period.

More good news came earlier this week as they announced they will be the focus of an 11-part Discovery Channel series. Now this might not seem like a big deal, but it will certainly bring this company into the public light, which will most like bring a lot more buyers to the table and in turn raise the stock price.

Before you get too excited though, let me remind you that this stock is very, very speculative and you could easily lose your shirt. With that in mind, I am sure you can imagine what would happen to the stock price if they made a really big find!

Now for the numbers... Odyssey Marine Exploration has only been traded on the Nasdaq since October of 2006, with a market cap of only 239 million this is a very small company. The stock has traded between $7.75 and $4.42 over the past year and today stands at around $5.00.


I look at this as a long term lottery ticket, one that could go down to zero, but could also win you that big prize. Remember, you want to be in before they make that big discovery on National Television in the upcoming documentary : )

Is There Any Reason To Own AMD?

One of the first things you need to realize is that there really are only two computer processor companies out there, the much bigger Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). These two companies have been engaged in a price war for quite some time now, well... some would say it seems more like Intel was trying to run AMD out of business. Intel even went as far as sacrificing its own bottom line and in turn it's own stock price.

During this period AMD purchased graphics card maker ATI. It took them quite some time to develop, but they are beginning to bundle the processors and graphics cards together. This should help give Advanced Micro Devices a much needed edge on Intel in the future. It is even already helping them to land contracts like this one just announced with Samsung.

Another reason to conceder owning the hated AMD, is the fact that they just got some fresh, green capital from Abu Dhabi to the tune of 622 million. A very nice chunk of change, to say the least. These foreign investors obviously see long term value in this company, which is certainly a good sign. Piling on have been recent downgrades that have punished this stock even further to it's 52 week low!

The question you need to ask yourself is, "Are people going to stop buying processors"? AMD cannot continue to go down forever, and with the addition of ATI's products, I think AMD can begin to turn things around back into the green. Sure, this stock pick is a lot like catching a falling knife, but in the long term AMD shareholders could be pleasantly surprised if they begin to build a position at this point.
Having a look at the chart though you will realize that this is obviously not for individuals with a pacemaker, especially in these market conditions, but things should eventually turn around. While I did a decent job in calling the bottoms in Vasco Data Securities VDSI, and Ceradyne CRDN, I feel this pick could be even more dangerous due to all the negative momentum. Don't even dream about putting it all in at once!

The markets have been nuts, but I believe they can only take so much before people around the world begin to take notice and begin bargain hunting... Hang tight though, this is the type of market that makes you feel like you are on the cruise ship that just started passing out the barf bags.