When a recession hits, especially as hard as this one has, the last investment you want to make is in financial stocks. This would be true even if banks and mortgage companies hadn’t been at the center of the maelstrom. You want to increase… Read More

Anybody with a home theatre has known for some time that the DVD’s days are numbered. Eventually, streaming movies will be the standard. Eventually, films will also be streamed directly to a movie screen. There will be no front projection. Movie theatres will be nothing more than a choice between… Read More

The rumblings about a possible double-dip recession have begun. Investors are understandably worried about such a possibility, not only because it may happen, but because it would be unprecedented for the current generation of market participants. First, don’t panic. We aren’t there yet. What you can do,… Read More

It’s easy to trot out legendary investor Peter Lynch’s name every time you find an undervalued fast-growing company, but the truth is that Lynch had many different criteria that had to be met before he would purchase a stock. I always keep certain Peter Lynch criteria in… Read More

You and I drive 70% of economic activity in this country. We are consumers. If we lose our jobs or our confidence in the economy, we stop spending. Businesses make less money and pull back on production. They lay off workers, who spend less money, and the vicious cycle continues. Some companies survive recessions and prosper in good economies because they make things we can’t do without, like toilet paper, soap and food. Other companies serve folks who have extra money to spend on special things, like hotels, jewelry and air… Read More

You and I drive 70% of economic activity in this country. We are consumers. If we lose our jobs or our confidence in the economy, we stop spending. Businesses make less money and pull back on production. They lay off workers, who spend less money, and the vicious cycle continues. Some companies survive recessions and prosper in good economies because they make things we can’t do without, like toilet paper, soap and food. Other companies serve folks who have extra money to spend on special things, like hotels, jewelry and air travel. [Read: 3 Reasons Why this Small Cap Could Return +200%] There is, however, a further class of discretionary expense called the luxury item. If a company sells luxury items, then chances are it has been devastated in this recession and its stock has been destroyed. #-ad_banner-#But if that company can survive the recession, bargain hunters may find a multi-bagger investment that others totally miss. I found one such company that a lot of investors had written off, but has since rocketed +400% off its lows. But even… Read More

One of the prevailing theories about the economy is that it is consumer-driven, a postulation I happen to agree with, given that consumer spending accounts for 70% of all economic activity. Part of the reason this recession began is because credit… Read More

There are some stocks you just buy and hold forever. These stocks represent businesses so fundamental to the daily lives of so many people, they deserve to be at the core of any serious long-term investor’s portfolio. Buy them, never sell… Read More

I’ve been investigating fad stocks lately, and thought one article might be enough, until I came across such a perfect example, I thought investors absolutely had to know about it. [See: 3 “Fad” Stocks That Collapsed. . . and the Next One To Fall] We often learn… Read More

One might think that just because the economy stinks and consumers have cut back on spending that any stock described as being “retail” would be in trouble. For the most part, that would be right. However, there is a relatively unknown… Read More

Anytime Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is involved in something, investors take notice. Goldman has received plenty of bad press lately, but the fact remains that they are Wall Street’s most powerful name. They are among the largest global investment bank in… Read More