I'm always on the lookout for new value screens (a screen is a way of filtering stocks for certain characteristics that might mean they have positive profit potential). I found a list that works well for people who live off dividends: 23 Safe Dividend Stocks by Alan Brochstein at Seeking Alpha. He explains his methodology…
I just shorted 10-year and long bond futures.
I have been watching CNBC and searching around the web for sentiment indicators. CNBC's Trillion Dollar Opinion Polls had 0% claiming that this was the start of a bear market. The DealBreaker Poll came out at 50/50. Motley Fool investors are bullish. I found that, when people couldn't understand why the market was falling, it…
I'm building my list of financial stocks to buy. But I'm not buying yet. Why? This market is starting to remind me of 1998 during the Asian Credit Crisis or the 1994/95 Mexican Peso devaluation. For those of you not born yet, in both cases, once the disturbance was over, market participants breathed a sigh…
The New Zealand Dollar has so many people piling onto it that the governemnt is getting worried. New Zealand Telecom has been very good to me and is now fairly valued. So, do I want to be where the crowd is outside the U.S. in beautiful country with environmentalists and peacenicks for governments? Well yes,…
One nice thing about being a blogger who was a successful trader and is still an active investor/trader means that when I ask a hedge fund manager some questions, he asks me some too. We also talk about our positions. Yesterday I was lucky enough to get a bit of Joe Capone's time while he…
Photo:Maulleigh, Creative Commons, Flickr What to do with all those profits from big oil stocks? I'm starting to put more money to work in the financial sector. Fears over sub-prime mean that no self respecting fund manager (managing someone else's money) wants to be caught owning financials if losses from sub prime CDO's end up…
Photo:Johnny Vulkan, Creative Commons, Flickr I recommend watching John Doerr's emotional talk on green technology and investing at the 2007 TED Conference. I hope he is inspirational to businesses looking to find the solutions to climate change. I also hope he is inspirational to government to get out of the way and dial back subsidies…
I recommend cartoonist Tom Hart 's parodies of a TV investment personality called The Money Warrior. I hope that we, at The Panelist, can get to the point where we are parodied like this.
General Electric (GE – $39.50) reported earnings today. The stock is now up to $39.50. That's about 14% since I started buying GE back in March. What am I doing now? I'm still holding General Electric. Would I add to my position at this price? I don't own as much GE as I'd like, but…
We, here at The Panelist, really enjoy our "full disclosure" policy. We encourage our writers to disclose everything about their relationships to a company, no matter how remote. Beyond disclosing whether they own a stock, our writers often disclose their use of the company's products, or those of a competitor. They will even go as far as…
I paid $68.27 to add my position in (AIG $68.64) today. The P/E is under 12. The company is growing nicely with many business lines and is still being punished for insurance scandals past. There is pretty big open interest in the $70 strike options for expiration next week, which should act as a kind…
Based on a reader comment from Alex, I decided to update my Intel cocktail from March. "Question: INTC stands today at 24.68. Are you still in these positions, as declared on 3/21/07? The stock is up 30% from your 17.41 "cocktail cost"…what're the results of your investment, now that the underlying security has surpassed the…
I'm usually not a fan of trying to pick market tops. I prefer to let the market top out at levels higher than I'd imagined and sell on the way down, hopefully still above those prices that are higher than I'd ever imagined. I still think U.S. stocks look like the bargain of the world…
"If you hooked the U.S. Treasury market up to an electroencephalograph, you would see it flatlining." My favorite quote today is from the Trader Daily website. Yeah, I've been selling a few select stocks in the recent rally, but bonds have been painfully boring and, like a patient in the intensive care, you hope they…
I love anything counter-intutitive. The blog at Pajamas Media claims the Live Earth Concerts may release more carbon into the atmosphere than Afganistan in 2006. Because the vast majority of people attending these concerts would be out burning loads of fossil fuels in their cars, at the beach, attending some other electrified music event or flying around anyway,…
This is the ongoing list of my top holdings. For the first list by ticker see my May List. Top Ten Listed/Tradeable Holdings as of June month end (prices as of July 3, 2007): Ishares Inflation Protected Treasuries ETF (TIP – $98.51)Chevron Corp (CVX – $86.44)Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A – $110,000)Conoco Philips (COP – $80.45)B P…
In this story from The Naples Daily News, local resident Eric Jackson manages to shake up Silicon Valley giant Yahoo (YHOO – $27.13). Because I was the first blogger to notice Mr. Jackson's Plan B campaign to increase shareholder value at Yahoo, reporter Laura Laydon called up for a couple quotes.
Photo:bear69designs, Creative Commons, Flickr Historically, Venezuela has a love/hate, mutual abuse relationship with foreign companies. Venezuela seems to nationalize its foreign partners every 30 years or so and, as the last time it happened was in the seventies, it would seem that we are due. Now, I don't know all the details behind the negotiations that made…
Claymore Securities launched the Claymore/KLD Sudan Free Large-Cap Core ETF (KSF – $25.00) today. The Claymore/KLD Sudan Free Large-Cap Core ETF tracks the KLD Large Cap Sudan Free SocialSM Index, which, according the KLD/Claymore press release, is the first socially responsible index tied to the issue of Sudan divestment.
Photo:neubie, Creative Commons, Flickr I often see people begging for money in New York. Today I saw a guy with a handwritten sign on a street corner outside The Coffee Shop in Union Square. He wasn't asking for money, he was asking for a job as a director/actor/filmmaker. Now this is what I call marketing. …
I don't know how true rumors of Newscorp (NWS – $23.74) negotiating to own a piece of Yahoo (YHOO – $27.91) got started, but it would definitely be a postive for the stock. It would mean that management had a shareholder who would always be lighting a fire under their butts. I'd love to have…
Photo:stevevance, Creative Commons, Flickr Blogger Tom Sullivan is right to be skeptical about Home Depot's announced buyback. Mr. Sullivan ends his ValuePlays blog entry begging for "details boys… details."
Photo:jeffhuttonphoto, Creative Commons, Flickr Market players are facing plenty of reasons to exit positions and avoid any near term selloff in the coming weeks. Geo-political instability in the oil markets and rising interest rates are putting pressure on stocks, and the lack of a strong follow through on the recent retracement has given traders a…
Inflation protected fund? Think again. Michael Katz from TheStreet.com finds Western Asset Management changing the nature of its inflation protected securities fund (WIW – $11.57) to allow it to hold 40% junk bonds.