Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Not your ordinary digital TV package

Shares of China Digital TV (STV) hit a high of 49.49 in premarket trading, roughly 25% up from yesterday's close. This follows yesterday's 39% gain. Is there something the Co offers to its subscribers in those 26 provinces that we don't know about? Are customers giving tons of hard cash to the cable guy when he shows up to set up the box and smart card? Is the Playboy Channel secretly stashed among the hundreds of channels and the government doesn't know it yet?

But seriously, the run-up kinda scares me. What goes up so easily can come down just as quickly even though the Co has superb growth rates and real cash in its coffers. Maybe it's just uncomfortable because this stock is taking all the pain out of making money. That would mean that something is really wrong with me!

What's happening may be this: the tiny float (12 million ADRs) plus Cramer's hyper-bullish 'Buy' tag on the stock during yesterday's Mad Money Lightning Round are in effect. It's all highly entertaining, whether I'm long in the stock or not. It's just a heckuva lot more fun to have a few shares.