Savvy short sellers know to avoid crowds. The best of them will speak of “crowded shorts,” which refer to stocks that are so heavily shorted that they may become vulnerable to a short squeeze that instantly pushes them higher. A number of big-time short… Read More

When President Obama writes his memoirs, he will surely point to Nov. 14, 2011 as one of the worst days of his presidency. That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear legal challenges against the Administration’s sweeping overhaul of the United States’ health care system. Administration officials spent thousands of hours horse-trading with various members of Congress, ultimately producing a document which, according to one recent poll, roughly two-thirds of voters would like to see altered or overturned. #-ad_banner-#For more conservative voters, the legislation smacks of government overreach and a loss of personal liberty. For liberal voters, the… Read More

When President Obama writes his memoirs, he will surely point to Nov. 14, 2011 as one of the worst days of his presidency. That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear legal challenges against the Administration’s sweeping overhaul of the United States’ health care system. Administration officials spent thousands of hours horse-trading with various members of Congress, ultimately producing a document which, according to one recent poll, roughly two-thirds of voters would like to see altered or overturned. #-ad_banner-#For more conservative voters, the legislation smacks of government overreach and a loss of personal liberty. For liberal voters, the overhaul didn’t go far enough, leaving too many profits on the table for private insurers, as the “public option” component was negotiated out of existence. Of course the Supreme Court won’t simply hand down a ruling based on a poll of current voter  preferences. Instead, the justices will look at various aspects of the legislation and determine whether any or all aspects need to be rolled back.   With a ruling expected on or before June 25, it’s time to prep your portfolio for the various possible outcomes. (The Supreme Court holds its press conference on Thursday, June 14,… Read More

Has Bruce Berkowitz been exposed to kryptonite? His money-management firm, Fairholme Capital, is on a losing streak few could have anticipated. After all, this is a fund that handily outperformed the S&P 500 in 10 out of 11 years through 2010. That streak ended with a loud bang in 2011,… Read More

On Wednesday, June 6, at precisely 10:00 a.m. EDT, a major moment for the stock market may have been marked. That’s when shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) fell to $25.52 before turning up. For folks that bought into… Read More

I’d like to apologize right up front. This is an article that is heavy on numbers, focused on some mundane issues, and is really an academic exercise in how to analyze a turnaround. The good news: the company I am focusing on may be… Read More

To hear from Wall Street traders, the “machines are taking over the world.” These stock jockeys lament that computer-driven trading programs now account for 60%, 70% or even 80% of daily trading volume on the major markets,… Read More

Lost in all of the noise of a slumping, rebounding and slumping-again global economy is a remarkable success story. A wide range of U.S. manufacturers have been sharpening their game, and are now retaining or even taking… Read More

For the third straight year, the stock market is slumping badly as we head into summer. It’s as if every rally eventually hits a wall and is knocked back to the ground. And every time it happens, investors become further convinced that owning stocks… Read More

Whenever you see the markets slump badly, you need to look at the other side of the coin. You should ask yourself, “What investments can actually prosper from a darkening economic outlook?”  Well, we know that bonds rally sharply. For example, the iShares Barclays… Read More

The grand sum of $1.4 trillion is a remarkably large number, no matter how you slice it. It’s so large that it can single-handedly impact the direction of the stock market. And thanks to recent events, it is a number you should be thinking… Read More