UPS, the 'Mad' Man and the 1% Rule

UPS (UPS - commentary - Trade Now) is jacking up its rates for 2010. LakeView Asset Management has a UPS account. We just received this information in an email from UPS:

UPS Ground Service will increase 4.9%; Air and International Services will increase a net 4.9%. The rate increase for Air and International Services is based on a 6.9% increase in the base rate and a 2% reduction in the Air and International Services fuel surcharge. Even with this change, these rates for UPS Next Day Air remain up to 7% lower than our largest U.S. private competitor for similar services.

UPS is one of Jim Cramer's holdings in his Action Alerts PLUS portfolio. I have no position in the name, but I think Jim has this name right.

Speaking of Jim, my son handed me his latest Mad magazine; Jim is on a fold-in page (classic Mad). Forget The Today Show, The Daily Show, CNBC -- with Mad you have officially made it. What, me worry? Congratulations.

In case you did not do your own homework, the 1% Rule kicked in at 10:30 this morning. (I did not post it because I was testing all of you.) You should have gone short. I bought some Ultra Short SPX (SDS - commentary - Trade Now), It worked twice last week. So far, so good today. Don't hold the short overnight.

SDS -- long (but short-biased)

---

At the time of publication, Rothbort was long SDS, although positions can change at any time.

Scott Rothbort has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. He is the Founder and President of LakeView Asset Management, a registered investment advisor specializing in customized separate account management for high net worth individuals. In addition, he is the founder of TheFinanceProfessor.com, an educational social networking site; and, publisher of The LakeView Restaurant & Food Chain Report. Rothbort is also a Term Professor of Finance at Seton Hall University's Stillman School of Business, where he teaches courses in finance and economics. He is the Chief Market Strategist for The Stillman School of Business and the co-supervisor of the Center for Securities Trading and Analysis.

Mr. Rothbort is a regular contributor to TheStreet.com's RealMoney Silver website and has frequently appeared as a professional guest on Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Television, Fox Business Network, CNBC Television, TheStreet.com TV and local television. As an expert in the field of derivatives and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), he frequently speaks at industry conferences. He is an ETF advisory board member for the Information Management Network, a global organizer of institutional finance and investment conferences. In addition, he is widely quoted in interviews in the printed press and on the internet.

Mr. Rothbort founded LakeView Asset Management in 2002. Prior to that, since 1991, he worked at Merrill Lynch, where he held a wide variety of senior-level management positions, including Business Director for the Global Equity Derivative Department, Global Director for Equity Swaps Trading and Risk Management, and Director for secured funding and collateral management for the Global Capital Markets Group and Corporate Treasury. Prior to working at Merrill Lynch, within the financial services industry, he worked for County Nat West Securities and Morgan Stanley, where he had international assignments in Tokyo, Hong Kong and London. He began his career working at Price Waterhouse from 1982 to 1984.

Mr. Rothbort received an M.B.A., majoring in Finance and International Business from the Stern School of Business, New York University, in 1992, and a B.Sc. in Economics, majoring in Accounting, from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, in 1982. He is also a graduate of the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in New York City. Mr. Rothbort is married to Layni Horowitz Rothbort, a real estate attorney, and together they have five children.