Bought AAPL at $329 this morning 03-17-11
Bought AAPL at $329 this morning 03-17-11 Was just a temporary dip in my opinion, we’ll see…
Listening to Market Predictions: Do Not Get Caught Picking Your Bottom
The media is having a field day with the market decline. People who wouldn’t normally be interested are watching CNBC or Bloomberg TV and reading the business section. If you are making predictions of Dow 2000 or Dow 1000 you will get on TV or quoted in the newspaper. Now there is also a big…
Global Bailouts Will Lead to Global Inflation: How to Play It
Photo: tao_zhyn, Creative Commons, Flickr All the money used by central banks around the world to rescue the financial system is causing an increase in government liabilities. In other words, they are printing money.
September Madness: At Least Something Fun Comes Out of Crisis
The NCAA basketball tournament is one of the biggest events of the year on Wall Street. I’ve heard of millions changing hands buying and selling teams like stocks throughout the elimination rounds. Shorting is allowed as well as buying. Nearly all the trades are on credit (no money down). I’ve heard of floor brokers on…
Beware Principal Protected Notes
Principal protected notes are a bit of a misnomer.
The Lehman Brothers Collapse Hits the Real Estate Market
Photo: Financial Aid Podcast, Creative Commons, Flickr If you read my blog earlier this week predicting a fall in New York real estate from the Lehman collapse, this big seller ($32 million) could be the first post-Lehman effect on the housing market. Too bad Lehman was the only investment bank not to get a Fed…
How to Murder a CEO
I couldn’t resist the violent title. A mob of fired workers in India killed the local CEO of Italian Manufacturer Graziano Transmissioni. Now, I am totally against death as punishment in any circumstance, and this event will likely hurt the willingness of foreign companies to locate manufacturing in India, but the punishment is ironic given…
Where Does the Financial Bailout Money Come From?
Photo: KRISnFRED, Creative Commons, Flickr I have the following response to a reader question: Where does the $700 Billion that the government is spending to rescue financial institutions come from? Is it printed and will it cause inflation?
Manhattan Real Estate Prices and The Euro
A reader comment asks: The dollar still seems low enough that Russians and other non-US buyers may help with your predicted real-estate collapse … thoughts?
How the Lehman Collapse Made Me Thankful
Jeane Roberts writes a frustrated account of the fall of AIG and points out the amount of public money going the rescue of various financial institutions (except Lehman Brothers). Personally, and for my net worth, I’m disappointed that Lehman (LEH, LEHPQ – $0.30) didn’t get rescued. As an ex-employee and shareholder I would have liked…
Free Toaster With Your Bank?
Bank Shares are just so darn cheap right now they could be giving them away with toasters. If you don’t want to have to figure out which bank is going under next you can just buy the (XLF -22.36) on next dip. Personally, I’ve been buying Lehman (LEH – $20.63) because I think they will…
Criticizing Buffett for Being a Good Guy
I know, let’s bash Warren Buffett for supporting Obama. That is what James Altucher does in showing all the ways that Obama policies benefit Buffett at the expense of everyone else. In his list of examples, he includes that Obama’s (and Buffett’s) support of the inheritance tax is good for for Buffett since he plans…
Looking for Good Dividend Stocks
I’m in Boulder, Colorado today. The town seems full of people living on dividends. If you’re looking for stocks to retire on, go for growing dividends. In these times of uncertainty with the stock market and currency, stable dividends provide a floor on a stock’s price.
McDonald’s Product Placement Ruins Journalism
I have to respect any consumer products company that is innovative in its marketing. First McDonald’s knocks over Starbucks (SBUX – $14.54) with competing coffee. Now they trick the Meredith corporation into accepting innovative product placement no self respecting journalist would take. According to the New York Times, KVVU News in Las Vegas is accepting…
Value Investor: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
As a value investor, this recent market pullback has been good, bad and ugly for me. Good: I’m getting the opportunity to buy quality companies and cheap-long term prices. Recent buys include Proctor and Gamble (PG – $63.38), Pepsi (PEP – $64.55), Coca Cola (KO – $51.00), General Electric (GE – $27.10) and United Technologies…
Consumer Products Shopping Spree Inspired By Russell Rebalance
Photo: Alexsandro Alves, Creative Commons, Flickr The market was selling off today, which hit consumer stocks. Added to that was the fact that the Russell Index Rebalancing that occurred today tends to push down the stocks of companies that have been engaging in buybacks. So what’s a greedy trader to do? Since, I don’t like…
Profit From Clean Energy: Buy the Biggest Patent Filers
Photo: Ian Muttoo, Creative Commons, Flickr If you’re looking for a way to profit from clean energy, look to buy the companies that are filing the most clean energy patents. According to a study by an intellectual property law firm in Albany, Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C., the top spots were taken by Honda…
Obama Advisor Defends WalMart but I Buy Target
Photo: drp, Creative Commons, Flickr Liberals are criticizing Obama Economic Advisor Jason Furhman for his pro WalMart (WMT -$59.50) comments. USNews blogger James Pethokoukis thinks Jason Furhman may not last long with Obama but I hope he does. Furman is from the Brookings Institute and seems to be fairly centrist. I do not currently hold…
The Fed Considers Collateral Value vs. Inflation
Would the Fed hold back on stopping inflation just to protect its new mortgage portfolio? Michael Pento at GreenFaucet certainly proposes the idea. I think the proposal is wrong. The value of collateral held by the Fed is much less important to them than the long-term effects of inflation. Inflation hurts the credibility of the…
The Understated Inflation May Mask that We are Already in a Recession
This morning at my local West Village organic coffee shop after my run but before my a shower, I had raging discussion about inflation and GDP data with one of my coffee shop friends. Suffice it to say there was a bet about BLS data and I won a free cup of mud. But in…
Summer Driving Season Kickoff Video
Okay so I wrote about my actions at the 2008 Chevron shareholder meeting. Now for a little levity about gas prices on the first weekend of the summer driving season. Disclosure: My car is sitting in a garage in Massachusetts. I haven’t used it in more than a month. Thanks to Miranda Marquit’s blog at…
How I Made Chevron An Ethical Investment
Photo:rooreynolds-, Creative Commons, Flickr I own Chevron (CVX – $100.81) and have made a pretty penny holding the shares. Owning oil companies has helped make up for my losses in financial shares this year. The other nice part about holding Chevron shares is that I can do things like appoint Amazon Watch as my proxy…
Forget Commodities, How About URLs?
Is virtual real estate the next big investment craze? Will everyone start buying words online? And are financial words/URL’s going for more than porn words now? I’m consulting a startup web company right now and buying a name is a real problem. I heard a rumor that Mint.com paid $200,000 for their name. At some…
The Growing Gap Between the Rich and the Super Rich
This Onion video may be from last year but it didn’t get many views. Almost makes you feel sorry for the merely rich.
10 Cheap Stocks Under $10
I collaborated with David Neubert to come up with a list of the best stocks under $10, but the first thing he said was, “Most stocks under $10 are ones that have problems.” All of the stocks on his list are speculative. “Just buying stocks with low prices is not a very smart strategy. There…