This will soon be your resource for learning everything that is Warhammer.

Basically, I am a college student at Jacksonville University. My current passion aside from video games is music.  I manage an up-and-coming band: The Drury Lane Project.  From them I've picked up music and started doing my own thing.  I'm also a retired athelete, and a closet nerd.  I picked Jacksonville University because they offered me a rowing scholarship.

Most people who meet me have no idea I could build them a computer, program them a website and could teach that computer science class they just took.  But enough about me.  I'm sure by now you're wondering why I've got you here.

The general idea is that I'm far more experienced with MMOs than any normal human should be.  I've played since the early days of Everquest.  And I've done my best to play most every MMO since.  Be it free or non.  My experiences off the top of my head would include:

-Everquest (50's multiple times during level 60 cap)
-Ultima Online (32ish)
-Everquest 2 (28ish)
-World of Warcraft (beta, 60 many times over and a 70 or two, top guilds, end game raids)
-Shaiya (40's)
-RYL (30ish)
-Star Wars Galaxies (beat all the content right after release, before they implemented too much, but they lost my interest)
-Guild Wars (I don't even remember the level range, but I would say I played about halfway through)
-Dark Age Of Camelot (Not very far, but I tried, was just too out-dated at the time)
-Asheron's Call (20's or so)
-City of Heroes (40 cap)
-Dungeons and Dragons Online (Only about 20 or so, was too laggy to play)
-Throngs of free MMO's

Mainly through World of Warcraft (with a little help from it's brother Warcraft III), I learned to really love the skill of the games.  If I ever lost a duel, I'm ready to reduel immediately to see what I did wrong.  I wish I had some of my old Warcraft videos for you, sadly I only dabbled in fraps for a short time, and lost the videos over the years.  (That's alright, we'll make up for it with some sick Warhammer videos.)  Lets just say I wasn't really excited when I won unless it was 1v4 or some other huge disadvantage.  I want the microing.  I want to have to use every one of my abilities to the fullest extent, or else I'm bored.

Because of this thought pattern, over the years I developed quite the sweet tooth for PVP, and anything else that could challenge me.  What I began to realize was that I had built a wealth of knowledge for Warcraft that most people didn't have.  I could tell what each class should be doing at all times.  I knew all of their abilities and how to counter them, and how to counter those counters.

I've only since realized that this knowledge that came from being a part of the game since beta could be of value to many people.

No you don't have to spend as much time learning the game as I do.  That's not the point.  Infact the point is that you don't have to, because I've already done it for you.  I mean, if you're gonna spend your time doing something, you might as well do it right.

Soon the page will be filled with tips, tricks, videos, how-to's, and any other valuable information you could need to own everyone else on your server.  Take advantage of the opportunity.

Educate yourselves, people.

And together... we can rid the world of the "SINISTER STRIKE!  SINISTER STRIKE! " rogues!

-Maelevolence
All or Nothing

Housing keeps going down. The GDP report included a 20.1% drop in housing investment on top of an 11.8% decline in the second quarter. September housing starts and existing home sales were down 30.8% and 19.1%, respectively, from a year ago.

Roiling the credit markets, the subprime – mortgage crisis has taken no prisoners. The heads of Merrill Lynch and Citigroup were forced to resign after those financial institutions sustained huge write-offs. And it is not over yet for the financial services industry.

The Dow is up about 4% year-to-date (11/19/07). Among the best performing Dow Jones U.S. industry groups in the last three months were economically sensitive basic materials (+12.1%), heavy construction (+25.6%) and computer hardware (+11.7%), which would seem to be forecasting a growing economy. Maybe, but….

Homebuilding stocks have been mauled. The Dow Jones home construction industry index has fallen 54% year-to-date and 23% in the last three months, making it the worst performing sector this year. Housing is integral to our economy, so these stocks may be telling us a recession is up ahead.

Wait! Starbucks reported a 1% drop in transactions in the U.S. for the September quarter. Could this mean we are in recession now?

No wonder investors are nervous. Uncertainty breeds difficult markets and high volatility, a market environment that I expect to persist, at least in the near-term.

I’m always interested in the downtrodden, the rubble pile as I call it. Homebuilding stocks are at the bottom of the heap.

I put together this list of major homebuilders: Centex (CTX), D.R. Horton (DHI), Pulte Homes (PHM), Toll Brothers (TOL), Lennar (LEN), M.D.C. Holdings (MDC), The Ryland Group (RYL), and Kb Home (KBH). I used the Company Stock Risk Profile Fast Track™ to do a quick study. Here’s what I found:

Cash on the balance sheets of this group of companies has plummeted. However, I was surprised that cash balances held up at Kb Home, Toll Brothers and M.D.C. Holdings.

Long-term debt to total capital averaged 32.7% for the group. M.D.C. was able to pay down all of its long-term debt. Excluding M.D.C., the average was 37.4%, within a range of 36.8% for Pulte to 51.7% for Centex.

Free cash flow has been highly erratic, even when the industry was doing well. Last year half of these companies posted negative free cash flow, and three were negative so far this year.

Reported earnings have been disappointing the Street. Trying to catch up, analysts have been adjusting their estimates sharply lower.

Deficit earnings, both reported and projected, negated using earnings based valuation methods. So I turned to book value, and found that the group is selling for an average price / book value of .77 within a range of .61 for Lennar to .97 for Kb Home.

I was intrigued to find high insider ownership at seven companies, ranging from 11% of outstanding shares at Ryland to 23% at M.D.C. Holdings.

Street analysts are carrying 85 ratings for these eight stocks. Forty-two are rated hold and 13 sell.

All eight stocks failed Fast Track™, and I would not be buying homebuilding stocks now. The only positive I found for the group, which is important, is that managements’ interests are aligned with those of shareholders. Otherwise: (1) Debt is too high, particularly for this phase of the homebuilding cycle. (2) Cash flow is not stable. (3) Price / book values appear to be reasonable, but book values are vulnerable as long as home and land values continue to decline. (4) Because of the lack of any solid fundamental underpinnings, I would need the Street to be a lot more negative to begin to pique my interest.

One thing I found really interesting in his screens is that in his investment screen for GARP, growth at reasonable price, many of the companies that were derived were housing stocks like Hovanian (HOV), Toll Brothers (TOL), The Ryland Group (RYL), Pulte Homes (PHM), and Centex Corporation (CTX). Some of the screening parameters included a PEG ratio of between 0 and .75 with a return on equity of at least 20%. These housing companies are nowhere near their highs from years back and still are looking for a bottom so this is an example that stock screens need to be properly evaluated even if they look like good investments at the time. Another interesting screen looked for value stocks that have a high rate of insider purchasing. One of the ten stocks returned from that screen was Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and the price was at 42.85 at the time. Holding until today would have yielded a 300% gain so sometimes it really is worth taking a gamble but using a stock screener can help allow you to take a calculated gamble while lowering your risk.

Amateur investors or experienced investors can get a lot from this book.
a) Beginners: They will find a way to learn about companies that meet their investment themes, and decide whether the company is worth researching more about.

b) Experienced: These people will already have stock investments in mind and stock screening can allow one to find out if there are better investments available. Screening needs to be done continuously, whether it's on a weekly or month basis, because stocks that are returned from a screen will always be changing.

Things to try on your own after getting this book:
1) Based on Kaye's stock screens in late 2004, see how the stocks returned from the screens are doing currently
2) If you like a particular stock screen, put some of the financial inputs from his stock screen to see what companies would turn out today

Overall grade: A-
I didn't read through chapter 11 (screening for mutual funds) or chapter 12 (screening for bonds) as my main focus was to learn about screening for stocks. The first 100 pages of this 229 page book gives a very comprehensive overview of various stocks screen with many examples of each type. Again, use this book as a tool for investing and not as a magic list of stocks.

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