With profits exceeding analyst forecasts and a debt-ceiling agreement reached, there was reason to believe that the market might be ready to reverse direction and head back up last week.…
U.S. Losing Edge In Stock Listings
According to The Wall Street Journal, “A combination of mergers, fewer U.S. IPOs, lower listing costs abroad and a shift in how investors and stockbrokers do their jobs has driven…
IPOs Making A Comeback – For Large Companies
Judging by the LinkedIn IPO, “going public” may be fashionable again. Investors lucky enough to own LinkedIn shares (i.e., employees and a small number of wealthy, well-connected investors) saw their…
Housing Market Needs Rehab
It wasn’t long ago that housing seemed like the best possible investment. Housing prices just kept going up, up, up. Now 2011 is on track to become the sixth consecutive…
Steroids Running Out For Stock Market
Lackluster economic performance, continuing concern about debt in both Europe and the U.S., and other factors have been pushing the stock market down in recent weeks. Another factor receiving less…
Day Traders Returning
The Wall Street Journal recently noted that day traders are returning to the market. When speculative traders start betting on the market, it’s typically a sign of trouble ahead. Their…
Pick One: High Risk or Low Returns
Here’s your choice: Take on lots of risk and hope for the best or watch your standard of living erode. The stock market has been soaring, thanks to the Federal…
The Myth of Market Efficiency
“Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” – John F. Kennedy The current stock market is exposing the myth of market efficiency. The myth says…
“Buy and Hold” Is NOT “Still A Winner”
Investors are being advised by Princeton Professor Burton G. Malkiel (“ ‘Buy and Hold’ Is Still A Winner”) to hang in there, even when the market drops 60% of its…
When Good News Is Bad News
Sometimes investment managers live in Bizzaro world, the place in the old Superman comics where everything is the opposite of what logic would dictate. A case in point is the…