Publically Traded Strip Clubs

Looks like this would have indeed been a great investment in 2007. According to the YTD chart I looked at it appears that RICK is up over 300% NOT 140. Am I missing something? My chart shows it started 2007 at around 8 and now trades around 28.

Timbo-Hope you got in when they were both around $7. I discussed both these stocks earlier on one of the posts on this board. They have been great investments and continue to grow. Rick's owns their property in Manhattan geez I wonder what that must be worth. They used to trade in the $5-$9 range I would would buy low and sell high. Since late spring of this year I have just held on for the ride. I guess our hard earned money spent at strip clubs is paying dividends in our retirement accounts. Thanks to all the TUSCL members who frequent these clubs.

I've noticed PTT has really jumped up in price. I just don't know enough about the stock myself to want to jump into it. I don't even know what strip clubs that are owned by the holding company. I don't mind hearing stock tips but it seems more like gambling not know much about a stock you might think about buying.

I can't imagine buying in to one of them. But then, you ARE supposed to invest in what you know. I guess I'd do well buying stock in a publicly traded computer programming company that makes internet bulletin discussion board software. Heh ...

To me, the things that make strip clubs appealing are generally borderline illegal. The contact that goes beyond what the jurisdiction restricts; the opportunities for back-room service; the connections for outside-the-club play. I'm not going to be able to transfer my knowledge of what places are good at THAT, into ANYTHING useful for investing in the NYSE.

I remember several years ago I thought about investing all or a lot of my money in internet stocks because they were doing so great. I was really glad I procrastinated when many of those stocks crashed.

Plastics. The future is in plastics ...

Book Guy - "things that make strip clubs appealing are generally borderline illegal". Hell, if they are borderline illegal before I get there, I damn sure try my best to make them "illegal" with MY activities!!! :-)

Trivia - Did you know that if you made a one-time $200 stock purchase in Wal-Mart when it went public (1977?), that your stock would have been valued at about 1.2 million dollars, when Sam died? I heard this on Paul Harvey years ago. Anyone else hear about this fact?

Same story for lots of big companies now'days -- what if you had $200 to invest in Home Depot or Microsoft when they first became available?

Do you see an upward trend or has it topped out? Should I shift to General Motors?

I think the stock RICK is about to go down. The earnings reported later in the day today I thought were below expectations. I might be wrong but that's what I thought I read. That stock looks outrageously high to me. If I was more of a gambler, I would sell it short but I don't know how many traders really like the strip club stocks even if the PE ratio is above 50.

I don't know how to rate a stock in the adult-entertainment sector on the basis of things like PE ratio relative to other similar stocks, since there basically aren't any. If earnings or other indicators are down by X% or up by Y%, how do you know whether that's a good sign or a bad sign, whether it's within or outside the good or bad range? Aside from a few obvious indicators -- net profit up by 1000%, that sort of thing -- what is there to compare it to at all?

Timbo, congratulations, that's great stock picking. Other than the debt, I think the big risk with RICK is like with any high-flying stock that when they don't quite deliver earnings as expected the stock price comes crashing down and then the market cap can't support the debt and things get much worse. Also, since management owns most of the stock you've got to really have faith in them. Of course, if you cash out at the right time you make a ton. I think I might shave a little off the top before too long. PTT is pretty similar but management owns less than half the stock and their operating margins are better. The financials look risky enough but when you add in the political risk you've got to have big balls to buy these stocks.

How do you get hold of info like operating margins, or even, who IS management? I wouldn't trust anything published by an organization that runs strip clubs.

It's from their reports compiled by yahoo. They report just like any other company but they could certainly pull an enron.

Anyone know if the stock symbol PTT changed to something else? I was occasionally checking it to see how it was doing but now I don't see that symbol listed on two free services I use. Did someone buy them out or something?

I've noticed RICK has gone down quite a bit since talked about on here.

PTT has changed to VCGH which better characterizes the name of the company VCG Holdings. Both stocks have dipped a bit as have most stocks have during this latest round of bad financial news job losses, oil prices etc.

Anyone ever use the Hulbert Financial Digest and/or xyber9.com ?

The Digest examines which investment newsletters are actually making money for investors (most aren't long term) and which ones are scams. Cost is only 59 to 69 dollars a year but I haven't gotten around to subscribing yet. I was wondering if they had rated or examined xyber9. According to that web site, he got nominated for the Nobel prize in Economics and is sharing the info so that he can win the Nobel prize claiming the stock market is predictable. He claims he has proved it with a 90 percent accuracy. The forecasts for weekly, montly, and yearly though cost $125 per month. I did read without subscribing he forecasted a market bottom this past Friday and a bottom to this current bear market in May 2008. Just wondering if anyone has read or heard about it. Didn't want to spend $125 per month to find out unless I had a way to make it make money for me.

Thanks trojangreg for the info.

I should have probably mentioned a weekly market bottom was this past Friday according to the web site. In a bear market, you can easily have ups and downs on a weekly basis even if the monthly trend continues to go down until say like May 2008. I wonder if he actually won the Nobel prize if he would discontinue the service. Gravity flunctuations affect how a large number of people buy and sell stocks. I could see the possibility. The market did go down last week. Now maybe someone with some Aerospace knowledge can find out if any programs they use can identify gravity flunctuations. I would really like to know how that program works if it does work.