frankly, it's not going to be as easy to make top-line numbers. but you can't short a dull market. today is a great example of why you can't do it. the s&p is too high. i've been proven wrong over and over again. i still think there's some bad things on the way. all right. volatility is coming out. volume is low. look at the chart of the day. we'll show you the impact of this loss of volume in the market. volume has been going down. the s&p 500 has, in fact, been going up, as you see here. this is the same pattern that we see in one of the market leaders, and that is the financials. if you look at the s&p financials versus the volume, you see the financials moving higher as the volume is drying up in this market. it is summertime. it is august. this does happen. when you have a market like this where you don't have the volume to go either way, that could make for a much more volatile session in terms of the prices we could see. how do you trade that if you just step aside, karen? >> i do step aside. i don't read much into it. it's actually probably going to

just get exacerbated, thinner margins. and so, i mean, if you see some opportunities, things that trade way off where they should or way higher than they should, maybe it's an opportunity. but some of this noise within a pretty tight band -- when we were in for most of the day. i don't do much. >> it tells you that there's not a lot to do. if the market is trading this soft, there aren't a lot of sellers here. a lot of people are up in arms or valuations being so far ahead of themselves. i don't think people have the conviction to jump in and buy again, but i don't think there's any reason to sell this market. that's why pullbabblicks are ve shallow. >> the second-tier financials are where you have to go. they've been spot-on. to me, the places you want to be, the asset management that we talk about, the raymond james of the world. they've had nice moves. and the jeffreys, which is now overpriced. we've talked about buying that on pullbacks and that's been the right trade since december. the other financials, long in

the tooth. >> the volooms are thin. they've been terrible. but look at city. back over a billion shares today. aig, 134 billion shares trade over there today. million shares, excuse me. the credible volume. when you look at what's trading right now. aig right now, trades about a third of the outstanding shares every single day. i mean, it's really very, very active. last 30 days, it's averaging 35 million shares a day. incredible activity out there. we all know how volatile it is. the reason you're seeing some of these shallow pullbacks is because of that put protection. people have been able to buy those puts at lower volatilities than they had in months. they're able to buy those puts, get that protection that allows them to hold on to stocks without actually pushing those stocks to the down side. >> let's drill down on aig. that is -- you mentioned second-tier. this could be like fifth-tier financials. whatever you want to call it, it did move higher today. we had comments today from a town hall meeting that aig held

this month with its new ceo saying that they're not looking to rush into selling units. they will make them better-looking. they're not going to rush into another and be pressured to dump assets. fundamentally, we have a change here. we have a management shift here. could it be beyond a short squeeze, people really coming into the stock and saying things are changing? >> i don't know. 24 million of 56 million shares short, it's hard to know if -- squeeze isn't the most operative thing going on with aig. it's hard to imagine fundamentals having a bigger effect. >> are these guys really in control of which assets they're going to sell? i hope not. they were terribly in charge of these assets before. they should not be in charge of which assets. it should be the government. that's going to decide the fate of this company. >> financial promise is still hovering around that thing. you wonder what that means. i don't know, frankly. i don't think -- you know, i think karen hit it on the head. this is a typical short

covering. i can't get long in this stock. no way >> another name, ubs, probably some short covering. talk about a stock that had an overhang on it. it's actually emerging from the crisis very well. but, you know, as we laughed in my office today, my partner, walter, said when you throw a party when people get out of jail. that's what happened here. there was a huge stock overhang. they've ree moved this cloud over them. this is very bullish for the stocks. people were short this name. this stock rose 9% today. >> let's move on to google. 4% after being added to goldman's conviction buy list. the company putting a $560 price target on the stock before the goldman call, of course, yesterday night on this show, mark had this to say about google. >> price target, 580 bucks. this stock could get up to 600 as well. step back, they're going to do $26 to $27 in earnings next year. there's a new growth driver coming in in the form of mobile searches. >> it wasn't exactly new if you

were listening to the show last night. >> i don't like the fact that the analysts are watching the show. he obviously paid attention. he just lowered his target. >> it was a little different. >> it looked like the playbook of what he set out for us last night. absolutely incredible how much they mirrored each other. google is doing things right. the fact that they can actually achieve that 26, 27 dollars, pretty big number. >> they're actually going to start monetize youtube in a better way. and then they're getting money from their european operations and internationally, which is more than 50% of their business. very positive for these guys. >> you know, at $26 on the low end of that eps, are you comfortable with the 23 multiple? that puts you at 598. if. you're comfortable, then pile in. if you think that multiple is too rich, you have to take a little caution here. >> that doesn't include the enormous cash stockpile that they have. he wasn't using that, any value at all. that's another 50 bucks.

>> right, right, right. you like microsoft. and you like bing. you like bing. so if you like bing and you feel confident enbing, then are you concerned at all that perhaps bing's success will mean google will be -- >> i don't know that they're going to dice each other up. i asked that question of mark yesterday. he said, you know, we're just waiting to see what microsoft can do to really get a catalyst going. obviously the new operating system would be one catalyst. in the search area, this deal with yahoo, there could be something good. he was hoping for something better. but they're waiting to see what exactly that's going to produce going forward. google is still the king. >> time to go trading around the globe. we're calling this one of the sweet and sour shanghai -- >> no, your not. >> we're trying newt to, but why not? after dipping into bear market territory yesterday -- >> sorry. the puns continue. >> the dipping. you've got to carry on the theme here. china stocks surged 4.5% today. tim, you know, this is not surprising. usually you see a bounce the

next day because the retality mentality ovthere, people want to buy when you see a pullback. >> there's a couple of things you can point to. big earnsinings in shanghai. this is one of the biggest banks in the world. morgan stanley said they're seeing price upgrades. merrill lynch came out with a couple of strong notes. so people had a reason fundamentally to come back into this market. the government reaffirmed. the government is listening. we said this last night. they're not in this market trading it, but they are very concerned about sentiment, so that trickled through the rest of the world. did our market go up today because of china? i don't think so. but people sudlane stopped talking about china today. markets were up on a day when commodities were down. china does matter here. >> maybe they were listening to us yesterday. if you take a look at this, we sort of did research. we called up rich peterson over at s&p and we asked him how many times do we see big swings in the chineeds market?

8% of the time in the past year, we have seen swings of 5% or more on the shanghai index. so this is typical. this is par for the course. you're talking about a market that doesn't have any ability to short itself. there's no efficiencies in this market. >> and the market scares me. it might not scare other people. it scares me. there's a growing middle class in china that doesn't scare me, so that's where you have to go. again, that's where i would go if i wanted to play china. valuations, a litter richer than mcdonald's. they deserve it. yum is still the place to be. >> let's move on to the ancillary plays. you mentioned yum, but the minors were up on this move higher in china. tim, you followed those guys. >> rio tinto had numbers today. they were not weaker in the first half. you talk about china and commodities and about their employees being under arrest in china. you talk about a very delicate situation that commodity producers around the world need china to be playing ball. they need them to be buying

commodities. they strike a very hard line between driving a hard bargain a letting the chinese have their way here. china is gaining ground. they are putting pressure on pricing of iron ore and steel and other copper prices. that will continue. the miners were flat to down today on a day when commodity prices were down. it wasn't a bad day. >> what got lost in the shuffle yesterday, you have that big upgrade that we talked about. the base metmetals, that was a push as well. that got lost in the shuffle. look at some of those different names today. walter industries, very attached to metallurgic coal. patriot coal, a lot of these names are very exposed to the metallurgic coal. had huge days today. 3%, 5% moves. that's on top of a week that's been strong. look at walter. it finished today at $58. i mean, these are stocks that are moving to the up side. a lot of that probably based on

these calls, but a lot of the calls are based on china. >> metallurgic meaning that it's the coal used by miners. >> right. moved towards the steel. >> okay, okay. let's move on to the next one here. policymakers gathering in wyoming today for the fed's annual symposium where ben bernanke is scheduled to speak tomorrow. what can we expect from big ben? what will he say about potentially the fed's exit strategy from easy money? steve leaseman joins us. beautiful there, steve. >> thanks, melissa. you know, bernanke is here. i have to come. what can i tell you? they gather here every year. this year, i think there's probably a lot less panic than last year. last year the feds set up a special communications equipment in the room here so they could hold an emergency meeting if they had to. certainly there's not the feeling that -- as they were doing last year. you see the guys on their cell phones, planning what would become the takeover of fannie mae and freddie mac.

but there is a lot of talk about exit strategies. nobody is saying the fed needs to reverse course. here are the things the fed has mentioned in the past. how do they get out? one of the things that they end up doing, they raise interest on reserves. it's probably -- or on fed programs like, for example, the taf, the term auction facility. right now there's some $800 billion of excess reserves by the banks. if they raise the rates, they decrease the incentives. and then hike the funds rate. the important thing about that, notice that the funds rate, probably the last thing and the least most important thing before they do those other three things. listen carefully, but listen carefully for timing, which is still a ways off. >> steve, is there any kind of pressure on bernanke here? all week we've heard a lot of comments about especially china. are they taking away their policy? that would have huge impacts to the market here. the pressure from outside the fed seems to be bigger than i would expect there to be inside

the fed. are they listening? >> you know, i think there's pressure from both sides, guys. remember, you have to listen to not just wall street, but main street as well. remember, while there's all this pressure of what you talked about, very important, about worrying about inflation and everything, the unemployment rate is still 9.4%. and, you know, still worries that that it's going to keep going. sure, there's lots of pressure on bernanke. the key right now is that they're saying for an extended period they'll keep rates low. at the same time, they're talking about exit strategies and saying we're ready to move when we need to move. by the time you know you're ready to move, it's already too late. >> this is karen. i is this speech really also an audition for a second bernanke term? >> you know, it's interesting. it's a good question, karen. i don't think so. i think -- i think he's involved

in defending what the fed has done. i think any chairman would be doing that. remember, it's been two years of really extraordinary action on the part of the federal reserve. so i think it's natural to come to a place like this, get in front of 40 of your colleagues, 40 central bankers from around the world, along with the leading academics and economists and wall street people from around the world that come in here. you want to defend what you've done. it's going to be hard to say he's not auditioning for the second tum term, but he's defending himself. >> thank you, steve. don't miss steve. he hosts a one-hour special live from jackson hole tonight. that's tonight at 8:00 p.m. on cnbc. >> he's got a difficult schedule, that steve. >> that's steve. he does work really hard. i heard he did go fishing. you'll see -- >> he's got a little -- >> a heavy fly fishing schedule. >> there you go. he's looking good. that's steve fishing. yeah. in his element. all right. moving on. topping the tape today, a company that "fast money" friend regis philbin knows all too

well. which company owns the hair club for men? >> the regis club? yes. regis corporation. >> is that your final answer? >> yes, that is my final answer. >> that is correct. >> thank you all. >> closing the day 13% higher after posting better than expected earnings and maintaining its 2010 outlook. that was the "word on the street." more "fast money" coming up next. the earnings winner of the day, and it's not from selling more vick jerseys. the ceo of dick's sporting goods on how his company hit it out of the park. and pour some sugar on seymour. the sugar shortage is giving traders a sweet tooth. how you can get your fix. when people say,

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welcome back to "fast money." we are live at the nasdaq market site. the "wall street journal" is reporting that dollar general has filed to ipo this year. of course, remember, dollar

general was bought by kkr. so this is the -- potentially the first of many private equity-backed ipos to hit the market in 2009. this would be, according to the "wall street journal," among the year's biggest ipos. so, again, kkr spinning out dollar general, according to the "wall street journal." we also want to check in on shares of the gap. the gap posted earnings today after the close. it was a beat. the commentary is coming out now. it has been a volatile session for the gap. you see there it's been up and down. the cfo is saying the economy is still challenging. but it will proceed with opening about 50 stores, closing 100 stores in 2009. guy, this is a name that you watch? >> gross margins up to 39.7%. operating margins up to 11.6%. inventory was down 14%. we've talked about this a number of times. the problem is that $18.75, you can't get long in the stock. we've talked about being

shorted. not shorted, getting out of it. taking profits. and then look to 16.5, 17 to take them back. you can't get along in the gap here. time for our traders' best ideas. sugar surge now at a 28-year high. it's a commodity -- >> hold on a second. >> what? >> we tried some leopard a couple of -- like a week ago that got me fired up. and we're doing some jonas brothers or something. what is this? there we go. there we go. a little rick savage. a little leopard. that's what i want to hear. we talked about it. we're back to -- we're back to the sugar trade. >> all right. >> the reality is here -- >> it's like tawny kitaen. >> that was white snake. she was on the hood of the car. yeah. thank you. >> we're weak on the music on this side of the desk. >> this is more than a squeeze. this is a structural strad where you actually have sugar shortages of 30% to 40% that are

not going to change overnight. the top three producers are brazil, india and pakistan where you have heavy weather conditions that are bringing down productions. bottom line is to finish food products, this is a big, big deal. got a huge impact on food prices for people at general mills, kelloggs. watch that in their costs for next quarter. right now, play it with czz down in brazil. they're priced at 13 to 14 cents a pound. it's now around 30. they're minting money. corn products international, cpo, this is corn sweeteners or alternatives to sugar. this trade is not going to go away. this is not a case of a commodity trade that's gone through a squeeze on speculation. this is a change in the dynamics of sugar. >> would you say it's a buy right now? the run-up on that stock was scary. >> you'll get upgrades on earnings. they're priced off of sugars. that's half of where it's trading now. they've been trading that way for the last six to nine months. and also, they are specifically -- they're now a

much levered play than they were last year. ethanol is the other big part of their business. that business is growing as well. >> let's move on to earnings now. dick's sporting goods jumping 7% today. the ceo joins us, ed stack. great to have you with us. >> great to be with you. >> your second-quarter sales increased, which is a rare feat in this quarter. >> some of it was driven by promotional activities. the majority of the margin decline was fixed cost leverage with the small comp decrease we had and then cleaning up some inventory in our golf galaxy division. >> what do you think in terms of demand by the consumer? the latest report indicated that sporting goods is seeing declines in tums of spending. >> we think the consumer is still cautious out there, although we're seeing sequential

improvement from our, you know, first quarter and into the second quarter. so we're cautiously optimistic at the present time. >> mr. stack, thanks for coming on. the gap just reported their inventories were down. your inventories are up 3% year over year. should that concern me or is that not a big deal? >> well, the inventory is up in total, but we've added additional stores in doing that. if you take a look at the inventory on a per-square-foot basis, that inventory decleesed 5.5% year over year. >> you talked in your last quarter about bigger-ticket items not being such good sellers. what kind of visibility do you have now on the bigger-ticket items, golf, guns and ammunition? >> the golf business has continued to be a bit of a challenge, although it's gotten much better in the second quarter than in the first quarter. and versus the fourth quarter of last year. the gun and ammunition business in particular has been very strong. the big-ticket items have not been affected in the firearms business.

>> you talked about on your call today the closer of competitors affecting you. for the guys that are surviving in a leaner f eer form as you au should be ready to take even more market share. >> that's correct. that's what we're looking to do. with the closing of joe's in the pacific northwest, they had about 40 stores. we are moving very quickly into the pacific northwest and we'll be opening a number of stores there in the fourth quarter and then additional ones in the first quarter of next year. and we've seen a number of the independent golf retailers closing their doors, and we've been able to pick up market share, even though the total golf business is difficult, we feel we're picking up market share. >> mr. stack, what is your highest margin segment of your business right now going forward? >> it is now and has always been the apparel component. >> speaking of apparel, you've made the decision not to sell michael vick jerseys. what kind of impact will this

have on your business? >> we haven't made a decision to sell them or not sell them. what we're looking at, this is early for nfl merchandise and we're just trying to assess the demand for vick jerseys right now. and as we take a look at that, we'll make a decision whether we think it should be put back into the assortment or not. >> so if there is demand, then any sort of potentially moral concerns about selling those vick jerseys will be outweighed? >> i didn't say that. we'll look and decide what we want to do. we're trying to assess the demand for those jerseys right now. to this point, we haven't seen a significant demand. >> okay. mr. stack, great to have you with us. thanks for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> ed stack, ceo of dick's sporting goods. anybody like dick's? >> the september highs in stock were 23.5. i think it makes the push-up. there's still a big short interest here. he answered the inventory question well. the market is down. dick's is okay here. >> okay. all right.

nice run on the stock there. next trade here, what will be the next money-making revolution in technology? well, looking across my e-mail inbox, the other day, i noticed a research note that may answer that very question. it goes without saying computer technology has changed our lives forever. and the digital revolution will return for years. but the cutting-edge trade is turning old and gray. tech industry growth surged 18% annually from 1961 to 2000, but since then it's been a paltry 3% per year. so its investors either return for the long-term, the fast money has found the next revolution. clean technology. the solar panel price is falling. smart electrical grids ready to distribute power to where it's needed most. and long -lasting batteries. the trade could be ready to explode. 2 billion people enter the middle class in asia and africa in the next 20 years, the

foundation for this growth has been formed. here's the street analyst who is paving the way for what's next in clean technology. comi joining us now, steven from merrill lynch. you say it is an embryonic business. it may be premature to go crazy investing in clean tech. how should investors look at the plays right now? the battery names, the solar names, et cetera? >> it's going to require patience. this is the sixth technology revolution. we think that's getting premature. we're on the first cusp of that next 30 to 50-year wave. we think it's clean technology. renewable energy. it goes by a lot of different names. but we've got to change the way we're doing things. we think there's going to be great investment opportunities s s. >> it feels like we've been on that cusp. for years now. what is going to kick it into high gear so it will pay off for an investor who is investing

now? >> it has been kind of stop/start, but i think that we think that oil prices aren't going to go down in the long-term. they're going to go up. we've got global warming, depending on your view of that. we've got political support, which is different. it's a global business. when you look around the world, governments are getting very involved. it's going to happen. it's just a question of when. >> what is the most promising area? >> solar is long-term because we have huge resource from the sun. literally in an hour, you get enough sunlight to create electricity for the world for a year. >> wow. >> it's tricky. and it's also on a declining cost curve. i it's coming down. ironically, though, it's the most expensive alternative energy approach today. that's why you see the stocks in trouble because they require subsidization today. solar long-term is a great place to be, but you can't just create electricity, you've got to store it. >> the wind corridors in the midwest. is wind a play, and where would

you go there? >> wind is very important. it's potentially going to be 20% of electricity creation in the u.s. we need transmission. the wind is mostly in the middle of the country. the people are on the edges. you need an infrastructure around it to make it work. unfortunately, while it was created in the u.s., it's largely a european business. so it's hard to invest in the u.s. but there's a lot of opportunity overseas. >> which is part of your copper trade on the transmission. so on the lithium-ion batteries, who is ahead of the game? who will show meaningful contribution to their earnings profile? panasonic, sanio? who is it going to be? >> the asians are the leaders today. in the u.s., we have a very small company. very little revenue. but it is a company with the only u.s. manufacturing base at this point. and you recently saw the department of energy give grants to smaller battery companies to kind of get started up.

we think they're likely to be one of the winners over time. it's early. >> if you're an investor right now, fresh capital to put to work tomorrow, where would you remember them put it? >> well, right now in solar we like first solar. it's toning out to be one of the best houses on a bad block. we underweight solar. this is the company that has the lowest cost of manufacturing. it's got a strong return on capital. one of the problems, there's going to be growth, but you don't see a lot of profit yet. this is a company that's very profitable. investors are focused on prices coming down, collapsing their gross margins, so i think it's early. but first solar is a name we want to own. >> what is the best tech name that you'd go for in the solar direction? ibm or one of the other names? >> it's funny. i was a tech analyst for 20 years. they're getting in on the game. ibm's services business is working with utilities. they have to change the way they do things. ge has the largest renewables

business in the u.s. and cisco is getting involved as well. those are three large-cap names that will benefit from this trade. >> steve, hope you come back again. >> thank you. coming up next, should you buy shares of heinz, petsmart or petro china? that's next in "pops and drops." he ran off with his secretary! she's 23 years old! - oh, come on. - enough! you get half and you get half. ( chirp ) team three, boathouse? ( chirp ) oh yeah-- his and hers. - ( crowd gasping ) - ( chirp ) van gogh? ( chirp ) even steven. - ( chirp ) mansion. - ( chirp ) good to go. ( grunts ) timber! ( chirp ) boss? what do we do with the shih-tzu? - ( crowd gasps ) - ( chirp ) joint custody. - phew! - announcer: get work done now. communicate in less than a second with nextel direct connect. only on the now network.

welcome back to "fast money." here's what we've got coming up for you. think tomorrow is going to be another sleepy summer friday in the markets? think again. stay tuned for the market event that could turn your trade upside down. plus, it is the interview pete najarian has been training for for weeks. nfl coach john madden, coming up later in the show. and which media mogul made the most money today? we'll tell you at the end of the show. first, back to our desk for less eco-friendly trades. an inventory rise of -- how do you play this? what is the best way? umg? or perhaps an equity that has x exposu

exposure? >> the way it's been working out, an equity that has exposure. the price of natural gas just is in a freefall today and really getting hit. interesti interestingly, the ung, they have actually started to decouple a little bit. part of that has to do with the restrictions of what's going on with the ung as an actual security and their inability to get more shares registers and people are, you know, wondering might they have to devest some of their holdings in natural gas? that's not the purist way to play it. there are some names that are related, like apc. if you want to be more speculative, i really like the natural gas play overtime. i don't know where it goes in the short-term. we have got to look at alternatives for oil. we have such plentiful reserves of natural gas, i can't help but see very bullish outcome over the next couple of years. this is a space that i want to

build meaningful exposure to. >> i agree. xto has 75% of their exposure in gas or natural gas. with gnat gas, it goes straight into the market. it reacts so heavily. i do think it's a grade you can be in. the only way i'd do it directly, ung worries me a little bit. xto is chesapeake -- >> apparently the volume has skyrocketed because of the lack of ung shares out there because they can't issue new shares. pete, you made a point that some of these alternative names should be more tied to, say, an nat gas. >> absolutely. you look at -- >> as opposed to oil. >> that's the conversation we were having off-camera. for years now, honestly, we've been talking about it shouldn't be tied to oil. everybody has attached solar particularly to the price of oil. it's really a price to nat gas, to coal.

that's where you're looking for your electricity. electricity, that's your direct competition. it's not oil. >> it's the power plant. >> exactly. that's what -- and if you look at the solar names, they've been drifting off. look at nat gas under $3. the solar name has really struggled. >> tight correlation with the -- >> yeah. because of the speculative nature of the solar business. >> and too much capacity in solar coming on in the same way -- >> yeah. just like nat gas. let's move on today. time for today's "pops and drops." >> again, a big rebound in china. most of this is short coved. i don't think it was surrounded by oil. >> heinz? >> oh, the anticipation was worth the wait. nice little 2% pop for heinz. go ahead. >> nice big pop for ubs. 10%, guy. >> it traded very well. the secondary was four times -- makes me wonder what the swiss government needs the money for, but that's another question.

this has been resistant until a year ago. i'd stay away from it here. >> 4%, pete. >> the strongest credit, they gave it a big upgrade. talking about fbr. then they raised the target for a pop that brought the sector up with it. >> we've got a drop for plaxico burress. he pleaded guilty to weapons charges today and agreed to a two-year prison term. he shot himself in the leg last year with a pistol that he was carrying in his waistband. >> youhe would by buy a vick -- >> he's just lucky he got it in the leg, not somewhere else. >> the rails and transportation index, back near its highs. this economy is stronger than it is. >> drop for petsmart. >> yeah. the shares were down. >> all right. pop here for bank of america. it was up 2% today. guy? is. >> federal judge had a nice

ruling for these guys. this was resistant back in december. should be resistance again here. >> american express was up 2%. >> had a jump today. you look at the credit-makers. they all had a pretty nice jump. people are starting to accept that it's not as bad as expected. some improvement. there you get a pop. >> we've got a pop for -- aware that people are still suffering, putpockets have tunnelled over a new leaf and are slipping money back into people's pockets. the initiative is being funded by a broadband provider which says it wants to brighten up peop people's lives in unusual ways. >> that could get you slapped, too. >> i think it's an excuse to put your hands in somebody's pockets. coming up next, guy and pete have been studying for our next interview for weeks.

they've been playing hours and hours of "madden 2010." john madden is our special guest. he's a big fan of the show.

all right. we are no stranger to football on "fast money." as nfl linebacker turned trader pete najarian showed you last night, lessons learned on the field can also be used in the pit. the connection, pete? >> well, it really is. you learn from your mistakes. it's exactly what i'm sure attracted mr. madden to football for so long and then announcing he wanted to get to different levels. as he pushes to different levels, learn from every mistake along the way. you learn from the big losses. that's where you learn the most. then it gives you and allows you to be a participant for games. i think that's what john is going to touch on here. >> if you can, in fact, turn tackles into trades, get ready to meet a superstar playing, coaching, and calling the game. he was, according to legendary producer dick eber stall -- >> i think he's the best sports broadcaster who ever lived. >> john madden's accolades are enough achievement for one

lifetime. 30 years in the booth, 16 emmy awards. "fast money" fans have him to thank for being a pioneer. for madden, tv was just one of many careers. a player drafted by the philadelphia eagles in 1958, then a coach, the youngest in what was then the afl. later leading the raiders to their first super bowl victory in 1977. now retired from broadcasting and coaching, the hall of famer has one more passion. it's made madden a household name for a whole new generation. the most popular sports video game franchise in history. "fast money's" already hooked on the latest edition, "madden 2010." >> i'll give it to you! >> john madden, the legend, joining us here on "fast money." thanks so much for joining us, sir. it's a pleasure to have you with us. >> thank you.

you guys have way too much fun. >> oh, we try, john. >> that's the way it should be. >> you've just retired from broadcasting. this is your first august spent not preparing for an nfl season since you were in high school. has madden 2010 taken over retirement? >> well, you know, partly. and that's the thing. the season is just starting out. so you say do you miss it yet? well, it hasn't started yet. but i know that i'm going to miss it. because i enjoyed every part of it. i enjoyed travel. i enjoyed going to practice and games and watching film and the camaraderie, you know, with the group and every part about it. so the fact that, you know, you do something, you retire and you know it's the right thing, it's the right time, and i have no regrets. but because i loved it so much, i'm still going to miss it. >> so you're not going to do a brett favre and hang on a little too long? >> no, no, no. i don't know that he's hanging on too long, though. i won't agree with that.

but i will say that i'm not going to come back, no. i did my last game that i'll ever do and i'll never do another one. >> we want to talk about the video game, the madden franchise in the video game world has been extremely successful. why do you think it has such longevity? >> because we were the first ones. we started over 20 years ago, and we started before there were video games. and it was a computer game. took us four or five years to get 11 guys on a team, an offense and defense, and the whole thing. so when the video games came, we had the software, so we could adjust our software to any of the hardware. so we were ahead of everyone right from the get-go, and we stayed ahead of everyone all the way up. >> coach, thanks for being on. i'm a giant fan. game on the line, eli just signed a huge contract. manning or stabler? >> stabler. with all due respect to eli.

but you would, too, wouldn't you? >> you're damn right. >> nice. >> hey, coach, do you still keach in contact with some of the other coaches from your coaching day? like charley sumner y played for him at one time. do you keep in contact with these folks? >> yeah, yeah, i do. we have reunions. at the raiders, we had one last year when gene upshaw passed away. we usually get together once or twice a year. you know, i get to see them. i was just up at raider camp. they practiced against the 49ers the other day. i went up and saw all those people, the guys that -- the old-timers there and the coaches and players that are there now. and the old 49ers. so i was back at the hall of fame for four or five days. you see everyone back there. so it's one of those things that, yes, i do stay in touch. >> john, while we have you, i've got to ask about michael vick. you know, combining his talent,

the controversy, would you have taken him back? are you optimistic about this guy's future? >> i don't know what it's going to be. i really don't. i don't know -- i mean, with my team, i had kenny stabler, george blanda. i didn't need a quarterback. i wouldn't have done it. now you say, how about if you had a bad team and didn't have -- maybe i would. i don't know. >> is he a guy you can manage, though? he seems almost unmanageable. >> i think you can manage him, but i don't know where you put him. i really don't. donovan mcnabb is the quarterback there. he's the number-one quarterback and he's going to be the number-one quarterback. when michael vick was the best michael vick, he wasn't as good as donovan mcnabb. mcnabb is the number-one quarterback. >> aren't you changing your offense for michael vick when he comes in as well? >> that's what i think they'll have to do, is figure out, first of all, can he play? he hasn't played in two years. i have too much respect for the nfl to believe that a guy can not play for two years and come in in a couple of practices and

play. you can't do that. i have too much respect for the nfl. but i think it's too be determined what's going to happen to him. mcnabb will be the quarterback. kevin cobb is the second. and if he can play, vick can play, it will probably be down the road and it will be some receiver, quarterback thing. >> all right, john. great to have you with us. thanks so much. >> okay. >> john madden, fan of "fast money." money." more "fast money" coming up. money." more "fast money" coming up. what do you think? hey, why don't we use our points from chase sapphire and take a break? we can't. sure, we can. the points don't expire... ♪ there is nothing for me... ♪ there's no travel restrictions... we could leave tomorrow. we can't use them for a vacation. you can use the points for just about anything. i know... ♪ the way you look tonight ♪ chase what matters. get your new chase sapphire card at chase.com/sapphire. but i've still got room for the internet.

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welcome back to "fast money." we're live at the nasdaq market site in new york city. we just said good-bye to john madden who joined us on the show. he is a "fast money" fan. we talked about "madden 2010." we have to talk about video games. game stop coming out with dismal earnings. why are you laughing? >> i'm not. >> because coach got mad at me and then -- >> he did. john madden is mad at guy adami. officially because guy doubted -- >> he watches. >> he watches. guy said he didn't watch. he does watch. all right. so what is your best trade? >> i'm going to go to china, ga. that's the online gamer for multiple players. this seems to be where it's going. this is fraebl the biggest threat to madden's model. but i don't think anytime soon. but i think these guys are growing remarkably, two names to watch. >> obviously, the valuation is ridiculous. what you hope if you own this,

that somebody buys them. apple, microsoft, i don't know. i think that's what you're hoping for. >> karen? >> game stop is ridiculously cheap here. it was disappointing today. one day there will be downloadable games and that will be terrible for game stop. >> the applications, the iphone, the itouch, all of that touch, apple. >> "final trade" after this. um bill-- why is dick butkus here? i hired him to speak. a lot of fortune 500 companies use him. but-- i'm your only employee. we're gonna start using fedex to ship globally-- that means billions of potential customers. we're gonna be huge. good morning! you know business is a lot like football... i just don't understand... i'm sorry dick butkus. (announcer) we understand. you want to grow internationally. fedex express

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"final trade" in just a minute.

but programming note. i will be on vacation next week. >> come on. >> first time in a year. but rick san telly will be here. if you have a question to ask rick, e-mail us. he will field your questions. "final trade," tim? >> we love the -- gps. >> one special one i like, aro. >> a lot of activity out there. >> i'm melissa lee. thanks so much for watching. we'll see you back here at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow for more "fast money" right here on cnbc. he ran off with his secretary! she's 23 years old!

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hey, i'm kramer. welcome to "mad money." other people want to make friends. i'm not that interested. my job is not to educate, but to entertain you. call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. take a look at this chart, okay? this is a chart of the s&p 500. look at that action. you recognize it, don't you?

oops. wait a minute. that's not the s&p 500. it's just an imitator. it looks like it with the swift upward trajectory since the bottom in early march. wait a second. what is this incredible predictor of where the market is going? it's the -- drum roll please. the obama disapproval index. this is a chart of, well, how many people don't like the president. it's the president disapproval rating. it is going up. and weirdly, it's going up just like the s&p. okay. well, let's see. how closely does obama's disapproval rate align with how the stock market has been doing? now, look at this. i mean, come on. you've got to get a microscope out to see how it's different. this is an actual s&p 500. those are practically identical. the diro