Here we are again at the halfway point in another trading year. What’s happened? What’s going to happen? I’m not sure of what will happen going forward. But we can look in the rearview mirror and try to position our investments as prudently as we can based on what we already know. A lot of variables can affect the outcome: Interest rates, the economy, and geo-political events just to name a few. Let’s dive right in… Stocks Are Still Cruising In The Stratosphere Midway through 2017, U.S. equity markets seem to be in the optimism business. Year-to-date, the S&P… Read More

Here we are again at the halfway point in another trading year. What’s happened? What’s going to happen? I’m not sure of what will happen going forward. But we can look in the rearview mirror and try to position our investments as prudently as we can based on what we already know. A lot of variables can affect the outcome: Interest rates, the economy, and geo-political events just to name a few. Let’s dive right in… Stocks Are Still Cruising In The Stratosphere Midway through 2017, U.S. equity markets seem to be in the optimism business. Year-to-date, the S&P 500 index has climbed 7.6% on a price basis. Annualized, that puts us on track for better than 15% return. But will we get there? Good question! The forward P/E of the S&P 500 currently sits at 18.7 — not too terribly overvalued. If we can get through the summer doldrums without any surprises (more on that in a bit), we could at least get close. #-ad_banner-#The real story in stocks, though, is international. The MSCI EAFE index, one of the best measures of developed market performance, has turned in an impressive 12.3% year-to-date, leaving the S&P in the dust. Read More

During the June press conference of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen downplayed the recent slowdown in inflation. She even went so far as to call attention to cell phone service pricing as a temporary factor affecting inflation expectations.  Fed watchers had started to doubt whether the central bank would further increase rates this year as inflationary pressures ebbed. Yellen’s statements sent rates on the 10-year Treasury plunging as most see little evidence that the Fed will be able to reach its inflation target of 2% this year. But what if… Read More

During the June press conference of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen downplayed the recent slowdown in inflation. She even went so far as to call attention to cell phone service pricing as a temporary factor affecting inflation expectations.  Fed watchers had started to doubt whether the central bank would further increase rates this year as inflationary pressures ebbed. Yellen’s statements sent rates on the 10-year Treasury plunging as most see little evidence that the Fed will be able to reach its inflation target of 2% this year. But what if Yellen is right? What if pricing pressures are heading higher? A return to inflation after years of subdued pressure would have far-reaching effects on the economy and different assets. Not only would increased inflation send bonds reeling, but it could also derail the eight-year bull market by slowing price growth via higher interest rates. With the unemployment rate nearing 4% and economic growth pulling people back into the labor force, the Fed is firmly in disagreement with the market on the outlook for inflation.  Only one of them can be right. So Who Is Right? The markets do not… Read More

Around this time last year, shares of a little-known small-cap company — Fleetmatics (NYSE: FLTX) — jumped 40% in one day. Over the prior weekend, the company agreed to be bought by Verizon (NYSE: VZ) for $60 per share in cash — a massive premium to the previous day’s closing price. A 100-share stake that was worth $4,296 on one day was now worth $5,959. Only a month earlier, Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) bought HeartWare (Nasdaq: HTWR), a maker of surgical implants for the heart, for $1.1 billion, a 93% premium to the previous day’s closing price. #-ad_banner-#These deals signify… Read More

Around this time last year, shares of a little-known small-cap company — Fleetmatics (NYSE: FLTX) — jumped 40% in one day. Over the prior weekend, the company agreed to be bought by Verizon (NYSE: VZ) for $60 per share in cash — a massive premium to the previous day’s closing price. A 100-share stake that was worth $4,296 on one day was now worth $5,959. Only a month earlier, Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) bought HeartWare (Nasdaq: HTWR), a maker of surgical implants for the heart, for $1.1 billion, a 93% premium to the previous day’s closing price. #-ad_banner-#These deals signify a fact of life that corporate executives — and successful game-changing stock investors — know too well: it’s easier to buy something than to build it from scratch. In the case of Fleetmatics, for instance, Verizon was looking to instantly enhance its IoT (Internet of Things) portfolio. Instead of having to develop its own surgical implants that mimic the heart’s blood-pumping function, all Medtronic will have to do is sign the dotted line (and fork over the cash).  Companies that possess disruptive or proprietary technologies, or those that have made inroads into a new,… Read More

1000%, 2000%, 3000%, and higher returns are common in the emerging cryptocurrency market. Just last week, a trader posted screen shots showing him turning a $380 speculative bet into over $1 million in less than an hour. While this was a one-in-a-billion stroke of luck, other truly massive longer-term returns are easier to obtain and are making many investors wealthy.  And now there is a way for stock market investors like you to participate in this crazy market without leaving the comfort of your existing broker.  Once thought of as the province of hackers, cyber-pirates, and radical libertarians, cybercurrencies are… Read More

1000%, 2000%, 3000%, and higher returns are common in the emerging cryptocurrency market. Just last week, a trader posted screen shots showing him turning a $380 speculative bet into over $1 million in less than an hour. While this was a one-in-a-billion stroke of luck, other truly massive longer-term returns are easier to obtain and are making many investors wealthy.  And now there is a way for stock market investors like you to participate in this crazy market without leaving the comfort of your existing broker.  Once thought of as the province of hackers, cyber-pirates, and radical libertarians, cybercurrencies are quickly moving into the mainstream. Names like Bitcoin, Etherium, and Ripple are being bandied about, not only on the internet and financial press, but by major banks and financial institutions as they explore ways of utilizing these borderless forms of money. What Is Cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrency is a catchall term that refers to digital or virtual means of exchanging or storing money. Cryptocurrency functions under a decentralized model, meaning that it does not require a central bank or government entity to create or regulate it.  Instead, it is self-governing via a system known as the blockchain, which is a public… Read More

Entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, says that all closed systems will tend to greater disorder. It’s also a quickening process. The greater the disorder becomes, the faster the system breaks down completely. In a nutshell, things just tend to fall apart.  That systemic law may be just as true outside the world of physics, as several forces look to be ushering us to an age of disorder. Eurasia Group, the political think tank, has warned that the world is entering a year of geopolitical recession in 2017.  Strategists at Goldman Sachs… Read More

Entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, says that all closed systems will tend to greater disorder. It’s also a quickening process. The greater the disorder becomes, the faster the system breaks down completely. In a nutshell, things just tend to fall apart.  That systemic law may be just as true outside the world of physics, as several forces look to be ushering us to an age of disorder. Eurasia Group, the political think tank, has warned that the world is entering a year of geopolitical recession in 2017.  Strategists at Goldman Sachs told CNBC last week that it may take either a war or recession to shock the stock market out of its low-volatility range. While the investment bank estimates only a 25% chance of recession over the next two years, the risk of a geopolitical conflict could be just around the corner. The world seems to be turning to a more uncertain and hostile future, one where geopolitical and economic events may cause a spike in stock volatility. Instead of buying general protection or shifting money to safety assets, there are investments that can thrive in the environment. Are We Heading… Read More

As some of you may know, I write a newsletter called Maximum Profit. In this advisory, I employ a proprietary trading system that scours the universe of stocks to find ones that have the best potential of delivering exceptional returns in a short amount of time (my average holding period is six months).  While on the surface it might seem as if Maximum Profit and my other, long-term-focused newsletter Top Stock Advisor come from opposite ends of the investing spectrum, at their core they are quite similar… You see, in Maximum Profit, we take technical analysis (the study of charts… Read More

As some of you may know, I write a newsletter called Maximum Profit. In this advisory, I employ a proprietary trading system that scours the universe of stocks to find ones that have the best potential of delivering exceptional returns in a short amount of time (my average holding period is six months).  While on the surface it might seem as if Maximum Profit and my other, long-term-focused newsletter Top Stock Advisor come from opposite ends of the investing spectrum, at their core they are quite similar… You see, in Maximum Profit, we take technical analysis (the study of charts and graphs) and combine it with fundamental analysis, and in return we get an elite system that has the uncanny ability to find solid companies that deliver fantastic returns over a short amount of time. Before I get into the meat of today’s article, let me provide a quick refresher on exactly how my system finds and scores stocks that are then added to one of my Maximum Profit portfolios. —Sponsored Link— Over 4,218 Payouts Unclaimed ​In just the past 30 days, more than a dozen American companies issued huge one-day cash payouts. A small… Read More