Plummeting oil prices may have grabbed the most headlines in 2014, but across the board, commodity prices declined. And commodity-related stocks followed suit to the detriment of many traders. #-ad_banner-#Today’s pick is positioned to exploit growing global food consumption no matter what happens to commodity prices. Shares rallied 18% in the final six months of 2014, as the price of corn, wheat and soybeans fell, but they still look cheap. With a powerful chart pattern and chances of an upcoming earnings beat high, I think we can leverage a bullish move into nearly 90% profits in the next two and… Read More

Plummeting oil prices may have grabbed the most headlines in 2014, but across the board, commodity prices declined. And commodity-related stocks followed suit to the detriment of many traders. #-ad_banner-#Today’s pick is positioned to exploit growing global food consumption no matter what happens to commodity prices. Shares rallied 18% in the final six months of 2014, as the price of corn, wheat and soybeans fell, but they still look cheap. With a powerful chart pattern and chances of an upcoming earnings beat high, I think we can leverage a bullish move into nearly 90% profits in the next two and a half months.   Often referred to as the “Supermarket to the World,” Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE: ADM) is one of the largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers. The company converts crops, including corn, oilseeds, wheat and cocoa, into food and animal feed. It also converts them into chemical and energy products for use in construction, household goods, mining and packaging materials. There’s a good chance you’ve touched something today that was processed by Archer-Daniels-Midland. This diversity helps the company weather price fluctuations in commodities.  Additionally, ADM is a commodities trading firm, which means it has influence in the commodities market. Read More

  It was a tricky year for social media stocks. The top players continued to generate robust growth in user statistics. Yet  many social media platforms have yet to translate traffic to real monetization and revenue growth.   Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) is the obvious exception. The company delivered a range of solid growth metrics, and its shares have risen  more than four-fold from 2012 lows.   The rest of the group hasn’t kept pace.  Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) were down roughly 20% last year and professional platform LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD), which continues to cement its industry… Read More

  It was a tricky year for social media stocks. The top players continued to generate robust growth in user statistics. Yet  many social media platforms have yet to translate traffic to real monetization and revenue growth.   Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) is the obvious exception. The company delivered a range of solid growth metrics, and its shares have risen  more than four-fold from 2012 lows.   The rest of the group hasn’t kept pace.  Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) were down roughly 20% last year and professional platform LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD), which continues to cement its industry leadership, was only able to squeak out a 7% gain.   In a moment, I’ll mention my favorite social media stock for the year ahead, even though its shares sank more than 40% in 2014.   Social Media: Growth Without Monetization Is Meaningless It’s important to remember that Facebook was a dud with investors — until it took off like a rocket.   The company went public in May 2012, opening to the biggest media hype in years before plunging 53% by year’s end. Huge growth and scale potential drew investors into the IPO, but shares tanked when growth started… Read More

Social media stocks are still a tough call for investors. Growth in the space is much stronger than offline advertising media, but investors have been largely disappointed by monetization. Even powerhouse Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) saw shares plunge more than 50% from its IPO in 2012 when enthusiasm waned… Read More

The early December market swoon created a lot of opportunities for short-term traders and value investors alike to pick up some nice bargains. While major market indices have already fully recovered and trade in all-time high territory, Santa has yet to visit every stock.  Casino stocks were hit particularly hard this month and still have a lot of room to go to recover their losses.  Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) is a good representative of the entire sector. On Dec. 17, it gapped down on the open and continued to slide, hitting yet another new low for the year. But midday,… Read More

The early December market swoon created a lot of opportunities for short-term traders and value investors alike to pick up some nice bargains. While major market indices have already fully recovered and trade in all-time high territory, Santa has yet to visit every stock.  Casino stocks were hit particularly hard this month and still have a lot of room to go to recover their losses.  Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) is a good representative of the entire sector. On Dec. 17, it gapped down on the open and continued to slide, hitting yet another new low for the year. But midday, the bulls suddenly woke up. The stock closed near its high for the day, and that left a bullish hammer candle. In Japanese charting lore, the market is said to be “hammering out a bottom.” Basically, something happened in the middle of the day to change the tide. What was an undesirable stock became desirable, and from a charting point of view, it does not matter what that something was. #-ad_banner-# The next day, WYNN jumped up at the open leaving… Read More

There is something refreshing about being awake while the rest of the world sleeps. As I walk to work, I breathe the purest air of the day, drink my morning coffee while gazing at the moon and enjoy the sound of… silence. Not even the birds are awake. Oh how I miss the days of getting to the office before sunrise and leaving after sunset. Some people surely curse this lifestyle. And, after living it, I understand how such a schedule can get tiring. But being young and ambitious has its perks — mainly being able to function off of… Read More

There is something refreshing about being awake while the rest of the world sleeps. As I walk to work, I breathe the purest air of the day, drink my morning coffee while gazing at the moon and enjoy the sound of… silence. Not even the birds are awake. Oh how I miss the days of getting to the office before sunrise and leaving after sunset. Some people surely curse this lifestyle. And, after living it, I understand how such a schedule can get tiring. But being young and ambitious has its perks — mainly being able to function off of a few hours of sleep. Enduring long hours is the norm for individuals in the money management industry. You see, I had the unique experience of working for a money-manager right out of college in the beautiful state of Colorado. This portfolio manager I worked for was spectacular. He doesn’t have an Ivy League degree — he didn’t need it. He’s one of those self-made guys that you hear stories about. What he has are decades of experience and, most importantly, a stellar reputation. He turned me on to the most interesting market sector I had ever… Read More

I used to hate filling up my car with gas. Every time I spent over $60, I thought of the new pair of shoes or a quality meal I could’ve treated myself to instead. But now, I’m almost excited to see how much lower my receipt is every week. I know I’m not the only one feeling this way. For the 90% of Americans who drive a car to work, gasoline is a necessity. Even when prices rise, many drivers have a limited ability to cut back on the amount of… Read More

I used to hate filling up my car with gas. Every time I spent over $60, I thought of the new pair of shoes or a quality meal I could’ve treated myself to instead. But now, I’m almost excited to see how much lower my receipt is every week. I know I’m not the only one feeling this way. For the 90% of Americans who drive a car to work, gasoline is a necessity. Even when prices rise, many drivers have a limited ability to cut back on the amount of gas they use. So when prices fall, as they have recently, many consumers will end the month with more money left over for discretionary purchases. Just think. If I can fill up my tank now for $40, how much do I save every year? $20 per tank…four times per month… twelve months in a year. I’ll save $960, and that’s just the gas to get me to and from work. Now, who knows if most people will use this extra cash to go on a shopping spree or just add it… Read More

As analysts debate over when oil prices will find a bottom, crude continues to plunge. While traders are chasing the sell-off in “Texas Tea,” there is a perfect bearish storm brewing in another popular commodity. Traders who get positioned now stand to make 32% in the next few months. While oil officially entered a bear market in October, precious metals have been in a bear market for the past three years. Gold is 38% off its all-time high of $1,923, made in September 2011, while silver has fared even worse. It is down 68% from its April 2011 high just… Read More

As analysts debate over when oil prices will find a bottom, crude continues to plunge. While traders are chasing the sell-off in “Texas Tea,” there is a perfect bearish storm brewing in another popular commodity. Traders who get positioned now stand to make 32% in the next few months. While oil officially entered a bear market in October, precious metals have been in a bear market for the past three years. Gold is 38% off its all-time high of $1,923, made in September 2011, while silver has fared even worse. It is down 68% from its April 2011 high just shy of $50. Given a confluence of factors, the slide in precious metals, and in particular silver, is set to continue through at least the first part of 2015. Silver Is Not A Safe Haven Precious metals have long been touted as a safe haven. And in previous decades, investors did move into gold when times got tough in the equity markets. However, over the past 10 years or so, the inverse correlation between gold and stocks has broken down, which was evidenced during the recession of 2008-2009, when investors largely sold gold along with stocks. Silver… Read More

Among his many investing maxims, Warren Buffett makes ample sense when he says “only buy something you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”                    It gives food for thought. If you had to buy and hold a specific stock, which would you choose?   My choice: Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE: LEG), which makes dozens of engineered products. It’s a mid-cap stock and not exactly a household name, but this dividend aristocrat has all the characteristics of an investment well worth buying and holding for the long-term.     #-ad_banner-#​Since… Read More

Among his many investing maxims, Warren Buffett makes ample sense when he says “only buy something you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”                    It gives food for thought. If you had to buy and hold a specific stock, which would you choose?   My choice: Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE: LEG), which makes dozens of engineered products. It’s a mid-cap stock and not exactly a household name, but this dividend aristocrat has all the characteristics of an investment well worth buying and holding for the long-term.     #-ad_banner-#​Since getting its start back in 1883 as a pioneer in steel-coil bedsprings, Leggett & Platt has evolved into a leading manufacturer of myriad consumer and commercial products. For many years, the firm has been organized into four main segments, each with its own specialized offerings.   Residential Furnishings: innersprings; adjustable beds; furniture hardware; carpet underlay. Commercial Fixturing & Components: standard and custom shelving, counters, showcases and garment racks for retailers; office furniture. Industrial Materials: wire products; steel rods; steel tubing; titanium and nickel tubing for aerospace applications. Specialized Products: car seat suspensions; automotive control… Read More

       Haste makes waste. That’s the possible view on the corner offices at software giant Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), which seems to have taken its sweet time in embracing cloud computing.   Now, management appears to have a clear vision of how it wants the firm to be positioned in the “cloud.” Cloud software is loosely defined as the migration of data storage and analytics to the public internet and away from private, local servers.   To be sure, the $38.5 billion (in revenue) behemoth is well behind cloud leaders like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:… Read More

       Haste makes waste. That’s the possible view on the corner offices at software giant Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), which seems to have taken its sweet time in embracing cloud computing.   Now, management appears to have a clear vision of how it wants the firm to be positioned in the “cloud.” Cloud software is loosely defined as the migration of data storage and analytics to the public internet and away from private, local servers.   To be sure, the $38.5 billion (in revenue) behemoth is well behind cloud leaders like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT); however, its vast resources and huge customer base make it a good bet to become a top player in what’s still an emerging industry.   What’s more, Oracle doesn’t have to make the transition overnight.   #-ad_banner-#What investors sometimes forget is the broader movement to the cloud is still relatively new and will be a multi-year process. So Oracle’s traditional business remains an enormous asset. In fact, the firm still has 310,000 database customers and about nine in 10 of these renew each year.   As a result, things like software… Read More

There is a classic conundrum facing dividend-focused investors: Income or capital appreciation?   The iShares Select Dividend ETF (NYSE: DVY) is a classic example. It delivers a 3% yield and relatively low volatility, but has underperformed the iShares S&P 500 Growth Fund (NYSE: IVW) by roughly 40 percentage points  over the past ten years on  a total return basis.      A decent yield is always nice, but a 40% gap is too large to ignore.   There is one way to get the best of both worlds. The secret is what type of income stocks you… Read More

There is a classic conundrum facing dividend-focused investors: Income or capital appreciation?   The iShares Select Dividend ETF (NYSE: DVY) is a classic example. It delivers a 3% yield and relatively low volatility, but has underperformed the iShares S&P 500 Growth Fund (NYSE: IVW) by roughly 40 percentage points  over the past ten years on  a total return basis.      A decent yield is always nice, but a 40% gap is too large to ignore.   There is one way to get the best of both worlds. The secret is what type of income stocks you focus on.   Many  dividend-paying companies operate in mature industries with slower sales growth and competitive environments. Such dynamics often generate solid cash flow, but high payout ratios and saturated markets mean little in the way of stock price appreciation.   Find one of these cash machines with new growth engines and you’ve got yourself a stock that could be the best of both worlds.   A Cash Machine With Nowhere To Go For years, the U.S. telecom sector has been the model of slow-growth dividend stocks. Despite fairly reliable cash yields, the iShares U.S. Telecommunications ETF (NYSE: IYZ), for… Read More