For some, casual dating can be fun and exciting. The same goes for trading and speculating – the freedom to make free- wheeling, non-committal purchases can be exhilarating. Unfortunately, the costs (fiscally and emotionally) of short-term dating/investing often outweigh the benefits. Fortunately, in the investment world, you can get to know an investment…
Are markets efficient? Do stock prices discount all publicly available information, correctly and accurately? Is the only way to earn higher returns to take higher risk? It all depends who you ask. Academics who study and teach modern portfolio theory will say, “Of course markets are efficient.” But practitioners who put their money where their…
Last week the S&P Media Index lost 8.3 percent (approximately $53.7 billion of value) in just three days. During that time, shares of Viacom (VIA) lost 20 percent, 21CF (FOX) and Discovery Networks (DISCK) lost 11 percent, Disney (DIS) took a 9 percent hit, and even CBS dropped 6 percent. It was a tough week….
Many investors are very bearish on the gold mining space right now thanks to the looming Fed tightening, strength in the greenback, uncertain demand from the key consuming nations like China (as its economy is reeling under pressure), as well as investors’ inclination toward cyclical sectors of the equity markets given reasonable improvement in the…
Over the past several weeks daily sentiment readings from the Twitter stream for the S&P 500 Index (SPX) have had trouble getting above zero. Negative sentiment persists even on days when the market rallies. Since the first of July the daily indicator has only had one print above the moderate level of +11. This caused…
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) (BRK-B) is close to announcing a $30 – $35 billion acquisition of Precision Castparts, its largest acquisition ever. I am quoted in an Omaha World-Herald article on this topic: A 30 percent premium of about $250 a share for Precision Castparts’ 138 million shares would about match the company’s 52-week high and…
Any discussion of China has to open with the now-widely-understood fact that the numbers it reports are not to be trusted. Knowing this makes it easy to dismiss claims of high and consistently-on-target GDP growth, for instance, as a combination of government-directed borrowing and spending, and simple fabrication. But how to handle negative numbers? When…
With the first debate this last Thursday, two issues arose on themes where Americans want change. And, as the primary election begins to heat up the attention on these matters will only increase. These 4 stocks sit directly at the crossroads where the politics meet business and the investors find profits. While the Republican Presidential…
Quantitative Forecast Academic studies have shown that the most reliable way to determine future price movements from past price movements, is by use of momentum. In the Forex market, a momentum study is best applied to the four major Forex currency pairs by simply checking whether the weekly close is above or below the weekly close 13 weeks…
You will see the words ‘long-run’ or ‘long-term’ often on Sure Dividend. It’s no secret, the Sure Dividend system advocates buying and holding for long periods of time. But, how long is ‘a long time’? The average life expectancy in the United States is 78.8 years according to the Center for Disease Control. The image below shows how life…
