The banking industry still has a rocky road ahead of it as it struggles to shake the hangover headache from the financial meltdown that tipped the U.S. economy into recession. A quick check of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s website paints… Read More

Every few years, demographers raise their estimate for human longevity. Whereas 70 years old once signified a rapidly aging body and the early signs of mortal illness, now 70 year-olds run marathons, chop wood and settle for long retirements. Ninety is the new 70. And who could complain about that?… Read More

I attended an investment conference last week and listened to a number of business updates from leading financial institutions. The vast majority are staying extremely conservative with their lending activities and are waiting for more tangible signs of an economic recovery before they start shifting gears from surviving the credit… Read More

Can you name the oldest stock index still in use? Here’s a clue: it’s even older than the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Ten points if you guessed the Dow Jones Transportation Average (also known as the Dow Transports). Charles Dow dreamed up the index nearly 130 years ago, as he presumed that the share price movements of transportation-related companies would provide a clear read on the amount of goods being sold (and trafficked) across the country. (As a side note, Dow… Read More

Can you name the oldest stock index still in use? Here’s a clue: it’s even older than the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Ten points if you guessed the Dow Jones Transportation Average (also known as the Dow Transports). Charles Dow dreamed up the index nearly 130 years ago, as he presumed that the share price movements of transportation-related companies would provide a clear read on the amount of goods being sold (and trafficked) across the country. (As a side note, Dow also noted the importance of the Dow Transports and the DJIA moving in tandem. If only one was rallying, you shouldn’t trust it. This is one of the six tenets of the Dow Theory, which is best left for another day). Had Dow been around today, he might have stopped focusing on the Dow Transports and simply watched FedEx (NYSE: FDX), the world’s largest shipper. As you look at FedEx’s stock chart in the last year, you can get a clear read on investor expectations about the… Read More

As income investors, we can get caught up in yields… almost to a fault. But there is something else you should be studying that could make just as big a difference to your long-term returns: dividend growth. That’s because dividend… Read More

A 10% yield is high in any market. In today’s market, it’s stratospheric. The S&P 500 is only yielding 2% and a three-year CD currently pays about 1.77% on average. Is a 10% yield too good to be true? Often it is. A… Read More

Everywhere I turn, I see headlines about the “bond bubble.” “The Great American Bond Bubble” — August 18, 2010, The Wall Street Journal “The Unstoppable Bond Bubble” — August 16, 2010, Fortune Clearly, the demand… Read More

Investors have got the fever. After seeing 3PAR (NYSE: PAR) jump from $10 to $30 a share and ArcSight (Nasdaq: ARST) zoom ahead from $25 to $43 in the last month, they are pushing up shares of any name they think might be the… Read More

At the end of this year, a series of tax cuts implemented by George W. Bush and his administration between 2001 and 2003 are set to expire. In what now seems like an entirely different era, the cuts were approved at a time when the U.S. government budget was in… Read More

In 1998, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) lost $4.6 billion in less than four months. Although the hedge fund was led by Nobel Prize winners, noted professors, a Federal Reserve Vice Chairman and well-known Wall Street arbitrage experts, it made two basic, but costly, investment mistakes. Read More