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One of our biotechs a life-saver • 1 week, 14 hours, 40 minutes ago |
We filled our shopping basket a few months ago with a promising food stock, which has performed even beyond our expectations. We think the Dow hit bottom today at 9620, and it might be time to think about adding some bargain defensive stocks, including our food stock, which has done well for us, but has dipped along with the market.
July 1, 2010 • Read More!
Riding the RFID Wave
We first took notice of the use of RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to track inventory when Wal-Mart told its suppliers that the tags were a requirement in order to do business with them. Now RFID has swept through nearly every sector. The company that we think will benefit most in the near term is a 50-year-old electronics manufacturing company with some pretty incredible growth numbers.
April 23, 2010 • Read More!
Stashing Your Cash, Plus
If you’re looking for a safe place to stash your emergency cash, check out the Investment Gym section that will give you the safest options. But if you’re willing to take little more risk, we have another suggestion that is currently offering a ten percent dividend.
April 8, 2010 • Read More!
Is the Baby Bull Ready to Pull in its Horns?
Hope you enjoyed the first anniversary for the baby bull market that began on March 9 last year, when things hit rock bottom. The S&P 500 is up 69 percent since hitting a 12-year low of 676.53, the biggest rally for the index since the Great Depression. We hope jobs are next. Without jobs, the rally won’t be sustained. And another small problem. Fund managers are nearly out of cash.
March 11, 2010 • Read More!
Having a Dog in the Hunt
All many energy analysts can talk about is the Marcellus Shale, the underground formation that runs from New York through Pennsylvania that holds a vast untapped reservoir of natural gas. Several deals involving the Marcellus have just been announced, and you may wonder if we have a dog in this hunt, to use an old Southern expression. Well, we do, and oddly enough our dog is from Norway!
February 23, 2010 • Read More!
Hot Weather, Hot Commodities
Those of us who live in “hot” states like Texas that are also vulnerable to hurricanes are thinking about how commodities are going to be affected by the weather. Experts have predicted an unusually stormy hurricane season, and already, this summer has been the hottest in three years. That has meant that many analysts are forecasting the biggest gains in natural gas futures since 2005 for the six months ending in September.
July 17, 2010 • Read More!
Looking to the Far East for Direction
The stock market has been bouncing up and down like an overinflated soccer ball, although mostly down lately, on news coming from all directions. But perhaps the strongest push in market direction has come from China, which has announced measures that will affect China’s place in the world’s markets.
July 2, 2010 • Read More!
All that Glitters…
Many financial advisors feel that investors should have a minimum of five percent of gold in their portfolios, regardless of the state of the economy. The recent extreme volatility in world markets has made gold even more attractive in uncertain times. But there are many options for purchasing or holding gold, and investors can sometimes get confused or overwhelmed by the choices.
June 17, 2010 • Read More!
Staying Calm When the Market Pushes the Panic Button
One of our favorite ways to judge current sentiment in market is an index that tracks the Chicago Board Options Exchange. It’s known as the Volatility Index, with the U.S. ticker symbol VIX. The Volatility Index is constructed using a wide range of options, including puts and calls, on the S&P 500 index, and it indicates what the market is expecting in the way of 30-day volatility. The VIX is also known as the “fear gauge,” although we prefer to think of it as the pulse of the market.
May 13, 2010 • Read More!
Some Important Lessons from the May 6 Panic
We learn lots of safety techniques to minimize our losses in the market, and when the market is going up, they don’t seem that necessary. But the Panic of May 6 was a big lesson in what to do and what not to do to protect your holdings.
May 6, 2010 • Read More!
Getting a Boost to your Bottom Line from a Mouse or an Alien
Can a superhero like Ironman boost your bottom line? Can a giant like Shrek lift your portfolio? Maybe it’s time to add a mouse, an ugly green giant, some blue aliens, or some comic-book heroes to your portfolio.
April 30, 2010 • Read More!
Revisiting a Choice: Coach Bag or Coach Stock
Back in August 2008, we posed a question to our women readers. The new line of Coach bags had just come out, and we asked which would be the better buy: a Bleecker Leather Patchwork Tote, which retailed for $499, or the equivalent amount of Coach stock. The shares of Coach closed at around $29 that day, so you could have bought about 17 shares of Coach for the same price as the handbag
April 26, 2010 • Read More!
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