Having grown accustomed to the Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) near my hometown, I was amazed at the brightness, quality, price and choices available at a competing new-to-me retailer during my visit while on vacation.#-ad_banner-# A closer look at the merchandise revealed high-end designer fashions such as Missoni, Oscar de la Renta,… Read More

We are on the brink of a potentially epic economic change. Fortunately, this is unlikely to be a “black swan” event that rattles the markets from Main Street to Wall Street. It is also not likely to be a sudden shock that quickly dissipates, leaving everything about the same as before. I am talking about a fully controlled, incremental long-term shift that will forever change the economic landscape. To prop up the U.S. Read More

We are on the brink of a potentially epic economic change. Fortunately, this is unlikely to be a “black swan” event that rattles the markets from Main Street to Wall Street. It is also not likely to be a sudden shock that quickly dissipates, leaving everything about the same as before. I am talking about a fully controlled, incremental long-term shift that will forever change the economic landscape. To prop up the U.S. economy after the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve used monetary tools such as dropping interest rates to the lowest levels in history and flooding the markets with ready cash and quantitative easing measures. Now that the economy is back on track, the Fed has signaled its intention to throttle back on quantitative easing, likely to the point of elimination.  In addition, interest rates have started to spike.  This is a long-term change that is currently in its infancy: the economy’s reversion… Read More

Every profession has its buzzwords to create the illusion that things are more complex than they really are. Everything from the Latin terms used by medical doctors to the chatter of gearheads talking about the latest car engine, simple concepts are often clothed in complicated-sounding terms.#-ad_banner-# Investing professionals are no different in their use of complicated nomenclature to describe simple things and ideas.  I know I was intimidated when I first heard the term statistical… Read More

Every profession has its buzzwords to create the illusion that things are more complex than they really are. Everything from the Latin terms used by medical doctors to the chatter of gearheads talking about the latest car engine, simple concepts are often clothed in complicated-sounding terms.#-ad_banner-# Investing professionals are no different in their use of complicated nomenclature to describe simple things and ideas.  I know I was intimidated when I first heard the term statistical arbitrage. To me, it sounded like I would need a math Ph.D. or at least an advanced understanding of statistical theory to figure out what it meant. Not being an advanced math person, I was fortunate to have had a trading mentor who patiently explained to me what statistical arbitrage is and how to use it profitably.  Ever since I was made aware of this unique and profitable trading technique, I have used it in a variety of market conditions to capture profits that would otherwise be unavailable. This method’s not for… Read More

The old adage of risk equaling reward couldn’t have been truer in 2008, when the stock market was in chaos.#-ad_banner-# Great rewards went to investors who took the risk of stepping into the fray to buy the lows. But during the same time, many investors were practically wiped out because they failed to manage their risks wisely in the highly volatile environment. The stock market today isn’t as volatile as it was during the financial crisis. However, the same investing maxim… Read More

The old adage of risk equaling reward couldn’t have been truer in 2008, when the stock market was in chaos.#-ad_banner-# Great rewards went to investors who took the risk of stepping into the fray to buy the lows. But during the same time, many investors were practically wiped out because they failed to manage their risks wisely in the highly volatile environment. The stock market today isn’t as volatile as it was during the financial crisis. However, the same investing maxim still holds: The greater the risk, the greater the rewards.  Many investors shun risk. These risk-averse investors pile into the safest possible investments in an effort to preserve principal at all costs. This attitude will most likely preserve your portfolio, but it will also greatly decrease your potential for market-beating rewards.  Lessons Learned What I learned from the risk-embracing derivative culture of 2008 is that both the shunning of risk and the gunslinging embracing… Read More

It was September 2008, and the stock market was in chaos. The Dow Jones industrial average experienced its largest point decline, plunging 777 points in just one session. The support of the 50- and 200-period moving averages were slashed like a hot knife through butter, while the Volatility Index (VIX) rocketed through technical resistance as if it wasn’t even there. The… Read More

It was September 2008, and the stock market was in chaos. The Dow Jones industrial average experienced its largest point decline, plunging 777 points in just one session. The support of the 50- and 200-period moving averages were slashed like a hot knife through butter, while the Volatility Index (VIX) rocketed through technical resistance as if it wasn’t even there. The financial media was full of pundits declaring a complete technical breakdown in the stock market.#-ad_banner-# Many were left asking what it all meant. Part of what it meant was that the once esoteric quasi-science known as technical analysis had gone mainstream. In the days before the personal computer, practitioners of technical analysis used quotes out of the newspapers or quote books to draw charts and make projections. Intraday data were very difficult to obtain outside of… Read More

Everything was looking great with my new investment.  The stock had been steadily climbing higher since my purchase in early January. This company was among the original members of the S&P 500 and once ranked among… Read More

I learned the hard way not to rely purely on technical analysis to make investing decisions.  In the early 1990s, I had built up a decent trading stake by riding the momentum lifting high-tech… Read More

Supply and demand is what drives the global economic engine.#-ad_banner-# Imagine owning a company whose products and services have nearly guaranteed steady demand and government-regulated supply. Add in the beauty of government-supported monopoly-like power and steady dividend yields — and you’ve attained investor nirvana. Although these companies may be considered boring and overlooked by investors seeking rapid capital appreciation, they remain an ace in the hole for long-term stock investors. If you haven’t guessed, I’m talking about utility… Read More

Supply and demand is what drives the global economic engine.#-ad_banner-# Imagine owning a company whose products and services have nearly guaranteed steady demand and government-regulated supply. Add in the beauty of government-supported monopoly-like power and steady dividend yields — and you’ve attained investor nirvana. Although these companies may be considered boring and overlooked by investors seeking rapid capital appreciation, they remain an ace in the hole for long-term stock investors. If you haven’t guessed, I’m talking about utility stocks. Despite a recent pullback, these consistent and proven dividend machines are ideal “buy” candidates for any long-term portfolio. With this in mind, here are my two favorite utility stocks: Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) A leading U.S. provider of electricity, this large-cap public electric utility has a market capitalization of more than $38 billion and boasts a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of nearly 19. Southern has subsidiaries in four states, including Mississippi Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power and Alabama Power. The company’s… Read More

My investing career has come nearly full circle from where I started. Back in the early 1990s, day trading was just coming into vogue as a viable way to make a living. The advent of the personal computer, discount… Read More

The lessons I learned in college during the summer vacation months have proved more valuable than the hard-earned academic ones. While working in the evenings and Saturday mornings at my uncle’s small marketing company in Miami, my cousin and I were fortunate to spend the days at the beach. Having grown up with a very fiscally conservative family in the Pennsylvania countryside, the fast life and glamour of Miami really took me… Read More

The lessons I learned in college during the summer vacation months have proved more valuable than the hard-earned academic ones. While working in the evenings and Saturday mornings at my uncle’s small marketing company in Miami, my cousin and I were fortunate to spend the days at the beach. Having grown up with a very fiscally conservative family in the Pennsylvania countryside, the fast life and glamour of Miami really took me by surprise! Fancy cars, speedboats, yachts and massive homes immediately caught my attention. It was truly mad money, and to top it off, some of these folks never seemed to work. While some were my uncle’s friends who owned this or that company, some of the over-the-top lifestyles really seemed to have arisen from out of thin air — in other words, from dubious sources.#-ad_banner-#… Read More