Stocks

Ever since my finance class, I've been watching the stock market with a bit more interest. Specifically, I've been watching the value of Sirius stock. Our group did a presentation on Sirius for our class, and we thought that, although they were not currently profitable, this company should probably do pretty well. If the pay-for-radio industry takes off anything like the pay-for-television industry did, both Sirius and XM could have a huge stock value. XM currently trades around $20, which I thought was a bit high, but Sirius trades around $3. I figured that I could buy 100 shares of Sirius just for fun. It would be a neat way to learn more about the stock market, trading, and finance. Plus, at $3 / share, even if Sirius goes bust I'm only out $300. By our estimation, it will take Sirius until late 2005, if then, to become profitable. The content of the streams is very good, and I've been listening to Sirius radio for a little over 6 months now. I'm very happy with the service, and I would definitely re-up my subscription. Subscribers are signing on, albeit at a slow pace.

The only dark cloud for Sirius is that they won't be able to operate at a loss for very much longer. If they haven't reached profitability by the end of 2005, I don't know if they will be able to survive. XM, on the other hand, has the backing of several major players, including GM and Clear Channel. Those folks have a vested interest in the continued survival of XM, as it presents a subscription market that both companies feel is vital to their future profitability. So I can XM surviviing even if they are not profitable in that same time frame.

I said last week that if Sirius dropped below $3 per share that I would buy it. As of right now it is trading at $2.89. Hmm.... decisions, decisions