Central European Distribution (CEDC)

This stock has been crashing in sympathy with the Russian market.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=avnXswSKtm4E

That article is an eye opener. It amazes me the high percentage of stock trades around the world that are done on margin today. It was similar in 1929. In Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Philip Fisher talks about how most stock transactions were done on margin by rich individuals in the 20's and the markets became gambling pits. By the 50's when the book was written, very few transactions were done on margin and trading volumes were actually LOWER than they had been in decades. The American public began investing in stocks as did institutions for the first time. Now the pendulum has come back the other way and wild speculation took over global markets up until 2007. Now we are seeing the deleveraging process in action with a decline of 66%+ in Shanghai, 50%+ in Russia, and 35%+ in India, the burst of the oil and commodity bubbles, along with the collapse of US financial institutions that bet heavily on the real estate bubble. Maybe, just maybe, the credit crunch can end the era of cheap money and we can enter an era of good, old fashioned investing like in Mr. Fisher's days. But I doubt it.

Anyway, I don't own this company in real life as it has never been cheap enough for me and is no longer a "hidden gem" like it was a few years back. That said, I still admire this company and think they will continue to grow at a solid rate. Even if the Russian and Eastern European economies go into recession, their people will still drink tons of vodka (maybe even more than usual)!