Are the Canucks For Real?

Imagine this - a Vancouver Canucks team that did not finish with 54 wins and 117 points this year. Instead, they finished the season having to fight to the bitter end to get that Presidents' Trophy, but lost out to the Sharks by a single point. Despite having the most goals scored and fewest allowed, despite having a top ranked power play and third ranked penalty kill, the team only finished second. In that situation, I ask you this, "Would Vancouver still be favoured to win the Stanley Cup?" Imagine that.

It's a hypothetical situation that isn't so far-fetched. Consider the idea that if the Northwest Division was more competitve, Vancouver may have had fewer wins within the division. The Canucks won 18 out of 24 games against their divisional foes, an impressive feat on its own under normal circumstances, but not as impressive when 12 of those games happens to be against the rebuilding Avalanche and Oilers and the remaining 12 were against the Flames and Wild, who also did not make the playoffs.

Had the division been a little better, Vancouver probably would have only finished with 12 or 13 wins against the Northwest, the amount of wins against the other two Western Conference divisions. In that sense, the team would have earned about 10-12 points fewer, putting them on par with the Sharks or Red Wings.

Last season, the Washington Capitals won the Presidents' Trophy but were ousted in the first round by the Montreal Canadiens. Questions about the team's inflated place in the standings has been raised for many seasons now. The Southwest Division has never had more than two representatives make the playoffs since Ovechkin was drafted. And last year, no other team made the playoffs. The Capitals have had a dominant record against their division rivals, reaching the same win levels as the Canucks did this season against their own respected division. However, the Capitals record outside the Southwest was mediocre at best, barely posting above .500.

So are the Canucks built for the playoffs? Based on their elite statistics, you could easily argue they are, but seeing them almost lose to an eighth place team that's a shadow of their former glory should have fans concerned.

Ryan Kesler, who is having a break out season, managed to score an impressive 41 goals, tying him with team mate Daniel Sedin, and tied for fourth overall in the league. However, Kesler managed to pocket just 11 goals against playoff teams, and it's not like he only played 25 games against playoff teams. The amount of games versus playoff and non-playoff teams is almost exactly even at 41. This lack of productivity has continued into the first eight games of the playoffs, with zero goals.

Even Don Cherry says you need your best players to score in the playoffs. After all, you can only lean on your third and forth line for so long; their roles are not to score. The Sedin brothers just haven't really showed up statistically. TSN pointed out some poor defensive play by Henrik which ultimately lead to at least two goals against Chicago. Maybe it was a weakness that nobody was aware of because it was not exposed during the regular season. I don't really know.

To say that Vancouver does not deserve the Presidents' Trophy would be the voice of a bitter Oilers fan. Vancouver and Calgary success just isn't allowed in Oil Country, but as a realist, I know that Vancouver is a good team, arguably the best Vancouver team since 1996. They do deserve the Trophy, no doubt about it. However, with that said, I truly believe this team is a 48-win team. So to answer my own question above, no, the Vancouver Canucks real odds of winning the holy grail is about as good as the Sharks or the Wings. That's going to set up a very good third round.

A Small Wager on Las Vegas Sands

About two weeks ago, I wrote how Las Vegas Sands [LVS:NYSE] had been trading in a small range for several weeks, giving arise to great option writing opportunities (click here). Those that heeded the trade suggestions and continued, would have seen healthy profits.

Well, the shares of Las Vegas Sands are still trading in a tight range, although the range has shifted upwards by about $2. The shares have continued to resist breaking through above $46.50 and has held support in the high $46.00 range, give or take a few cents. It also helps that the upper Bollinger Band, which have also thinned over the last few days, indicating lower volatility, is floating below $47. I took the opportunity this week, earlier than usual, to write a short straddle on Las Vegas with the weekly 46.00 calls and puts.

The current premiums received on the pair is roughly $1.20, giving you a break even range of $44.80 to $46.20 (excluding commissions and SEC fees). This range gives downside and upside protection of over 2.6% each from the strike price.

Normally, I write the options on Wednesday or Thursday, but decided that I would rather take advantage of one extra day to capture a few more cents on time value. My outlook on the stock most likely won't change over the next few hours, unless significant news were to change that.

If you are slightly more bullish or bearish on the company over the next four days or risk adverse, consider implementing a short combination trade, instead of the short straddle mentioned here. One could cut their potential earnings today by writing a higher strike on the call or lower strike on the put. The 47 call expiring April 29 are trading at about $0.26 while the 45 puts are roughly $0.22.

A combination is less risky but also potentially more profitable, as it may require only two trades instead of three. It is only more profitable if the stock deviates further from $46 but still remains between $45 and $47. With a short straddle, one leg must be closed out, and the further away from $46, the lower the net profit. In this situation, if the stock closes near $45.30 or $46.70, the short combination would be more profitable than the above short straddle.

Disclaimer: Writing uncovered (or naked) options requires substantial margin and is only available to sophisticated traders. Uncovered calls have unlimited risk and can have infinite losses. Before making any trade, always discuss this with your advisor or professional broker.

Intertainment: When a Stock Goes Viral

Every so often, a tiny company posts news that send traders into a frenzy. These penny stocks soar hundreds of percent in a matter of days making early investors very wealthy. Volume could jump from as little as 25,000 to 100 million, as traders get a little envious and want in on the price action. This is what we're seeing with Intertainment [INT:TSXV], the next penny stock that just went viral.

The stock went from being worth a dime a share to over $3 in less than three months, but the move was not a nice steady line most value investors look for, it was a bumpy three months where price action occurred at the start of February and just this week, a gap of ten weeks. And those who bought it the first time it went exponential would have seen themselves buying into massive exuberance, often irrational, followed by roughly half their investment wiped out in two days. If they had waited ten more weeks, they would have seen their investment, or more accurately, gamble, grown to almost three times their original purchase.

Of course, having worked in the investment industry for years, I know that those who bought near the highs are often not sophisticated traders and were buying into the hype. Eventually, these traders will get burned (as we've already seen today alone). As well, their level of patience is no where close to a fund manager or a value investor who might wanna wait it out.

Historically, penny stocks that make major moves and go exponential eventually succumb to reality. Earlier in the year, rapper 50 Cent tweeted about a stock called H & H Imports [HIHN:OTC], sending the stock up ten times its value in days. Several weeks later, it had another bullish move, sending it to $1.75. The stock was 4 cents before the tweet. Where is it now? 73 cents. That's about 40 per cent from its highs obtained when five million shares moved it up in March.

Last year, Electrovaya [EFL:TSX] had major news and went from under $1.00 to over $4.00 in just over a week. Volume surged to over 6 million from just a few thousand per day. Where is this stock now? $2.12.

Before that, there was Resverlogix [RVX:TSX]. It almost tripled from about $3 to $8 in a few days. The stock today is at its lowest point in the last three years, $1.97.

And one final example, Weststar Resources [WER:TSX], a stock I sadly own, and bought at the start of my trading days. The stock, which has done a reverse stock split last fall, went from $2 to $14 (it was actually about 15 cents to $1.10 pre-split) only to have fallen from grace as well. Today, it is 95 cents, and was as low as 17 cents in the summer.

If there is any lesson in this, it's that if you have never heard of the company before it went viral, your best bet is to stay the heck away from it. Most traders are unable to short against the hype, which I have done to two of the stocks above. The truth is, Intertainment will be a long, forgotten stock by the end of April whose securities will probably be sitting in someone's account, along with Nortel, Weststar, and the rest.

Continued Consolidation on Las Vegas Sands

Shares of Las Vegas Sands [LVS:NYSE] have made option writers, like me, wealthier over the last three weeks. Having recognized the early signs of a consolidation pattern in the making, short combination trades have proven profitable. A short combination is a spread trade where the trader writes two naked/uncovered options: A put at a lower strike and a call at a higher strike. This is a neutral strategy with the hope the stock's value remains between these two values by the expiration of the options, allowing the trader to earn money.

The stock's value took a turn for the worst in March when rumours about legal issues arose. Early reaction was negative; the stock's value plummeted about 25 per cent in under a month. But as it approached its 200-day moving average, the stock saw some support. It was at this point that more information about the legal suit hit the news and it was apparent that a big disaster was not looming. The stock then gapped up back to the mid-40's.

The stock had some trouble trading above $45 at the end of March and continues to show some resistance in the $45 area, meanwhile, holding above $43. This sideways pattern, often referred to as a trading range or consolidation trade, has held very well for over three weeks now.

Option writers have taken advantage of this range by writing weekly puts at a strike of 43 and weekly calls at a strike of 45. The stock has closed between $43 and $45 on Friday for four consecutive weeks. More importantly, the stock has been volatile enough to allow traders to capture added risk premiums and the ability to wait and write options when the stock falls or rises to $43 and $45 levels.

Often is the case, when implementing a spread strategy, traders will write both legs at the same time. However, because of the volatility, by writing the options on different days or even different times during the day, traders are earning additional premiums. The table below shows the bid value of the options at the high and the low of the day during the stock's high and low.

Time Stock Price Apr 21 45.00 C Apr 21 43.00 P 10:14 AM EST $42.84 $0.14 $0.83 3:55 PM EST $45.86 $1.33 $0.10

As we see, under traditional spread timing methods, if the trader implemented the short combo near the low of the day in the morning, the trader would have earned a net premium of $1.02 (14 cents on call, 88 cents on put). However, seeing that the stock has traded in such a volatile range, a trader could have written the put only, and waited a day or two for the stock to move closer to $45. In this case, the stock did it in three hours. So, instead of earning $1.02, the trader could have earned as much as $2.21 (1.33 cents on call, 88 cents on put). That's roughly 120 per cent more!

However, a trading range is always temporary. It could last only a few weeks, or even a few months. The caveat to a short combo trade is that when a break out up or down occurs, a trader must recognize and close out the in-the-money option before the trade becomes unprofitable. One could consider rolling up the option helping offset losses, if any, while capturing additional time value on a new leg.

Note: I started writing this before the stock made a major move in the final hour of trading today. The material above is for informational purposes only and is not meant to be advice or an opinion that the stock will remain sideways for this week. I have NOT yet opened up a position on LVS this week.

Disclaimer: writing uncovered (or naked) options requires substantial margin and is only available to sophisticated traders. Uncovered calls have unlimited risk and can have infinite losses. Before making any trade, always discuss this with your advisor or professional broker.

A Short Straddle on Alcoa

Alcoa [AA:NYSE] kicks off the unofficial earnings season for the first quarter this evening, when it is prepared to announce its own Q1 results. But today, I'm not going to discuss the numbers and its estimates and forecasts. No, you can get that anywhere. Today, I'm going to quickly discuss a common trading strategy that may be employed to take advantage of the risk premium priced into stocks before an earnings report.

A short straddle is a neutral trading position in which a trader believes the stock will have a small move. Because of the higher risk and expected volatility in the stock, the option premiums will be substantially higher than it would be under normal circumstances. This strategy requires the ability to write an uncovered call and an uncovered put. In the case of Alcoa ($17.70), you could consider writing a short straddle at a strike of 18.00. The current bids on the call and put are $0.34 and $0.66 per contract respectively. That nets you $1.00 per pair of legs. Excluding commissions, the break even range on this trade is $17.00 to $19.00. That gives downside protection of 3.95% and upside protection of 7.34%. This means if the stock falls no more than 3.95% or rises less than 7.34%, you will profit. The closer it is to $18.00 by Friday, the more you earn.

But if you think the stock might move slightly lower than the current price of $17.70, then you could consider writing the 17.00 call and put. The net premiums would earn you $1.07, which would give you a break even range of $15.93 to $18.07. This strategy would profit if the stock fell less than 10.00% or rose less than 2.04%.

You must also close at least one leg on or before the expiration date. The closer it is to the strike price, the less you will have to pay to close the in-the-money option.

Disclaimer: writing uncovered (or naked) options requires substantial margin and is only available to sophisticated traders. Uncovered calls have unlimited risk and can have infinite losses. Before making any trade, always discuss this with your advisor or professional broker.

Extra Point a Moot Point

Every year, NHL fans and analysts start a debate about whether or not the extra point for losing in overtime or the shootout is justified. Some argue that it keeps the playoff race alive and rewards teams for extending the game. On the other side of the coin, opponents argue that there should be no rewarding mediocrity and losers. Its a battle that occurs all throughout every season since the extra point was adopted. The argument has even brought up other creative solutions, most notably creating a three-point system, where a regulation win is worth 3, an OT or shootout win is 2, and the OT or shootout loser earns 1.

But before we continue to divide fans on this topic, what we should really consider is if it has a real impact on the standings. Last season's Philadelphia-New York game to finish the year made for real excitement. The winner of the shootout would make the playoffs. If you didn't know, the Flyers would win that game, earning 7th and ultimately reached the Stanley Cup Finals only to lose to Chicago. Anyways, I digress. In my opinion, the debate on the extra point is a moot point and I can easily prove it with statistics and not opinion.

The extra point has contributed very little to the standings in both conferences. In fact, there would be no change to the teams earning a playoff spot, but there would be substantial changes to the standings, at least for the 2010-2011 season. And strangely, the point totals in the theoretical standings (without extra point) are almost a mirror image between the two conferences.

Eastern Conference Official Standings		Eastern Conference Without Extra Point
Team	Pts	Team	Pts
Washington	107	Pittsburgh	98
Philadelphia	106	Washington	96
Boston	103	Boston	92
Pittsburgh	106	Philadelphia	94
Tampa Bay	103	Tampa Bay	92
Montreal	96	Montreal	88
Buffalo	96	NY Rangers	88
NY Rangers	93	Buffalo	86
Carolina	91	Carolina	80
Toronto	85	New Jersey	76
New Jersey	81	Toronto	74
Atlanta	80	Atlanta	68
Ottawa	74	Ottawa	64
NY Islanders	73	Florida	60
Florida	72	NY Islanders	60

Notes: In theoretical standings, Montreal has more regulation wins than the New York Rangers. Florida and the New York Islanders tied in the season series, but Florida had a better goal differential over the entire season.

Western Conference Official Standings		Western Conference Without Extra Point
Team	Pts	Team	Pts
Vancouver	117	Vancouver	108
San Jose	105	San Jose	96
Detroit	104	Detroit	94
Anaheim	99	Anaheim	94
Nashville	99	Los Angeles	92
Phoenix	99	Chicago	88
Los Angeles	98	Nashville	88
Chicago	97	Phoenix	86
Dallas	95	Dallas	84
Calgary	94	Calgary	82
St. Louis	87	Minnesota	78
Minnesota	86	St. Louis	76
Columbus	81	Columbus	68
Colorado	68	Colorado	60
Edmonton	62	Edmonton	50

Notes: In theoretical standings, Chicago secures the tie-breaker over Nashville with more wins head-to-head.

The information in the table illustrates that the extra point has done very little in terms of rewarding enough teams to catapult them into the playoffs. The reason for this is that most teams in the NHL have a similar amount of points from overtime losses, but what we do observe is that more teams are closer to a playoff spot, suggesting more teams are in the hunt for a longer period, making later games in the season more important.

Going back the last few seasons, the top eight teams in each conference would have been nearly identical, with the exception of 2008-2009 where three teams would have been tied for eighth in the east, possibly having removed Montreal from the last playoff spot in replacement for Florida or Buffalo. As well, in 2007-2008, the eight place team in both conferences may have changed. In the east, Carolina would have advanced instead of Boston, and possibly Edmonton earning eighth, instead of Nashville.

With all the data and facts stated, the debate about whether the extra point is needed or not will continue, but what we do see is that an extra point earned by teams losing in extended time lengthens a team's hunt for a playoff spot, which makes the NHL season a little more exciting. Over the last four years, only one team would have certainly made the playoffs, with an additional two possibly having earned a spot, depending on the tie-breaker for that season. All in all, this eternal debate really is a moot one at that and until there is a season where a team loses 20 or 30 games in extended time, it will remain that way.

Reading a Detailed Quote

It's been a while since I wrote something that was basic and educational for some of my readers, so I'm gonna make a post of the most basic element of investing: reading a quote.

Many people get their quotes from the newspaper or a financial website, but most people don't really know how to read a full quote. They just check to see how well their companies finished. But more experienced investors understand that a day-end quote is not necessarily an accurate tale of the company. So today, I'm going to review a basic detailed quote normally obtained through brokerages and many financial websites, and understanding what each part means.

The picture below is a standard detailed quote you might normally obtain through a brokerage, in this case TD Waterhouse. Each bit of information on the detailed quote has a very important function and I will break that down (The original image has been edited to fit this page).


Line One: Buy, Sell, BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA (THE), 3:04:38 PM EDT
Buy, Sell Two quick links that provide ease to an order entry screen allowing you to buy or sell the stock.
BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA (THE) Simply the name of the public company.
3:04:38 PM EDT Not the current time in Eastern Time, but the time of the last trade. This may be important for low volume assets that may not trade every few seconds as you will see later on.

Line Two: Symbol, T, Bid, Ask, Last, Change, Volume, FSI
This line is just a heading line and needs no explanation. See line three for a detailed explanation of each column.

Line Three: BNS CA T, +, 59.02, 59.03, 59.03, -0.45 (-0.76%), 862,497
BNS CA T Indicates the symbol of the company, which is BNS. The CA stands for Canadian market and the T stands for the specific exchange, in this case, TSX.
+ The "+" symbol is the tick. The tick informs the trader if the last trade was above or below the last trade. A "+" means the 59.03 was above the last price. A "-" would indicate the last trade was below the previous trade. If the trade is at the same price, the tick does not change.
Bid The highest buyer's price. Selling at market would sell at this price.
Ask The lowest seller's price. Buying at market would buy at this price.
Last The last traded price. This price is less important for stocks with low volume as it is possible for the bid and the ask to be priced well above or below. Many stocks only trade a handful of times a day, and the last price could have been hours ago, not truly representing the market price if the demand of the stock has changed.
Change There are usually two numbers: The nominal change in dollars, in this case, down 45 cents as shown by the negative and the red font. And the change in per cent. These are always a change from the previous day's close.
Volume The total amount of shares traded between buyers and sellers including cross-trades. It excludes option assignments or other derivatives.
FSI Financial Status Indicator, generally is blank, but will indicate if the stock is halted, bankrupt, etc.


Line Four: Bid Size 3, Ask Size 18, Earn. Per Share 4.07
This is the start of the detailed quote, often ignored by passive investors.
Bid Size 3 This represents the number of board lots at the bid price. One board lot will vary depending on the price of the stock, but in this case, it is 100 shares. Therefore, there 300 to 399 shares wanting to buy at 59.02.
Ask Size 18 This represents the amount of shares wanting to sell at 59.03, in this case, 1,800 to 1,899.
Earn. Per Share Earnings Per Share (EPS), a very important figure used to determine how profitable the company is. The earnings per share is the net income divided by the total amount of outstanding shares in the market. A higher EPS does not always mean it is a better company, it just represents its profitability per share.

Line Five: Day High 59.57, Day Low 59.00, Price/Earnings 14.5037
Day High 59.57 Simply, this is the highest traded price. Again, it does not show the highest bid of the day, only the highest traded price.
Day Low 59.00 Similar to the day high, it is the lowest price of the day, but not the lowest bid/ask.
Price/Earnings Also known as the P/E ratio, it is the stock price (59.03) divided by the EPS (4.07). This is used to determine if a company is over priced or not. 14.5 is considered an average earnings for bank stocks, but every industry will have its own valuations. It can also be thought as the years to break even. It would take an investor 14.5 years to break even if all the profits were paid to the shareholders directly.

Line Six: Open 59.42, Yield 3.5236, Dividend 2.08
Open 59.42 Simply the value of the first trade of the day after exchanges find a best fit price. Has very little importance to many, but in this case, shows the stock has been dropping throughout the day.
Yield 3.5236 The dividend yield, in per cent, indicates the annual return on the dividend. In this case, by purchasing the stock at 59.03, and collecting your dividends, you would earn 3.52% for the entire year. The yield is solved by dividing the dividend into the stock price. (2.08/59.03)
Dividend 2.08 This is the annual dividend value. Most stocks pay quarterly, so this number will be divided by four to find out the next quarter's payout. In this case, it would be 52 cents a share.

Line Seven: 52 Week High 61.28, 52 Week Low 47.71, Ex-Dividend 01-Apr-2011
52 Week High 61.28 This informs the investor the highest price in the last 52 weeks. This number may change if the 61.28 was traded in April of 2010.
52 Week Low 47.71 This informs the investor the lowest price in the last 52 weeks. Both figures are used by investors to determine the current strength of the stock compared to the last 52 weeks.
Ex-Dividend 01-Apr-2011 This informs the investor the next dividend date. The ex-dividend tells an investor when they must own the stock to qualify for the dividend. In this case, it is April 1. Many sites may use the record date, which would require you to understand the settlement of a stock. It takes three days to settle a stock. Most sites often put the ex-dividend date to remind investors to buy BEFORE this day. You may sell on the ex-dividend date and still receive the dividend, however, in many cases, the stock will have dropped an amount equal to the dividend.

So that's how you read a detailed quote. There is a lot of information, but each piece of information is very valuable, both fundamentally and technically. Before you end it here though, some brokerages provide the book order, also known as market depth and level II quotes. The picture below from iTrade is of the same quote at almost the same time.


As you can see, all the information from the TD Waterhouse quote is also available through iTrade, but in a different format. iTrade seems to also include for free the first five levels of the book order. This can be important when trying to penny pinch an order. The book order shows us the total amount of orders at each price for the highest five bids and lowest five asks. The 15,200 shares at 59.00 suggests there are many buyers wanting to buy at 59.00, hinting at support. However, day trader's will eye this level and see how the stock reacts. If the stock hits 59.00 and pushes upwards, it may mean the stock is heading higher, and that there are not enough sellers. But if the stock falls below 59.00, it means there are enough sellers, or not enough demand, to keep it above 59.00, hinting that the stock may start to fall in the short term.

You may have also noticed the PE for both quotes is a little different. This could be because of reporting errors or different methods of reporting on their system. In a nutshell, the P/E should be used as a guideline as its exact number is not really important.

The Jersey Shore Epidemic

If "The Guiness Book of World Records" had a category for the longest 15 minutes of fame, the cast of Jersey Shore, mainly Snooki, would most definitely hold that record. The show and cast have become a pop culture sensation to the amazement of me and many, many people around the world, so much so that I think it's becoming an epidemic.

Recently, Snooki appeared on the cover of Rolling Stones, a respectable magazine for music, politics, and pop culture news. Ne-Yo, one of my favourite singers by the way, resented this atrocious decision by Rolling Stones Magazine and really questioned what the editors and decision makers were thinking. She also appeared last week at a university and was paid $32,000 by the student committee to speak, $2,000 more than a Nobel Prize winner to tell students to work hard and party harder and those with a tan were happier. The student body claims that it was money well spent. Oh and today she appeared on Wrestlemania and won (to be fair, I was impressed with her athleticism). It has officially gone too far.

After hearing that she got paid more than most Canadian's salary, I knew that this epidemic of shallowness, this wildfire of stupidity, this contagion of lunacy just had to end. Oh yeah, did I also mention Snooki was so offended by Ne-Yo's comment that she deleted all of his songs off her iPod? Her megalomania really has made her head big. She expects that when she opens her mouth with her boneheaded opinions and crude remarks about others, they should not be offended, but dare a celebrity speak their own opinion about her and it becomes a personal attack. She even replied saying that Ne-Yo's career is in the gutter right now! Listen lady, you've accomplished very little in the eyes of everyone, so don't act like you own a high chair on your high horse. And your hypocrisy: laughable.

Of course, this Jersey Shore epidemic is only spreading because so many people love this show. The thing is, so many claim that they watch this show for their stupidity, but I honestly think it's a cover up for their pure love of the show and cast. I mean, there are people who dress up like Snooki, people who wait in lines to see DJ Pauly D, people who would probably buy an ab machine or workout routine endorsed by Mike "The Situation." Unless I've gone mad, I thought having some association with this show had a negative stigma.

It bothers me that some of my friends watch this show on a regular basis; I know you guys are better than this. Drunken exploits, narcissism, and sex are a dying act on this show. It's a one-trick pony if you will. The fact that much of the cast has not yet finalized a contract with MTV for the fourth season makes me think the show is nearing its end. The show without its most famous stars would only validate this show is trash. Strange as it may seem, there are millions of other airheads that would fit right in, yet the show needs Snooki and The Situation not because they add anything to the show, but because of their undeniable popularity with Generation Y. Once these characters are gone, its novelty erodes.

If that's the case, maybe my misguided anger at terrible television can be directed at K-Town, a rumoured show identical to Jersey Shore which stars Asians. Yes, our stereotypes are being showcased with millions waiting to see. The fact that television continues to air reality trash only validates where the industry is headed. Reality shows provide a cheap alternative for networks who pay their stars a fraction of what they would have to pay professional actors and actresses while collecting the same revenue from advertisers. Financially, it's a well-thought out scheme that has ultimately hindered the growth of television creativity and programming quality. The stars who rise to the top of these shows very often amount to nothing after the show's end, with many relying on future reality shows exploiting their former celebrity.

With the future of society in the hands of this generation, I'm quite worried we'll have another financial catastrophe in 30 years. The best part about that sentence is that fans of Jersey Shore won't get it, but the rest of us most certainly did.