T. Boone Pickens has been around a long time. Born in 1928, the 85-year-old billionaire has amassed a fortune by investing in the industry he knows best: oil and gas. He came from an oil and gas pedigree. His father worked as a landman leasing oil and mineral rights in Oklahoma. Pickens’ first job out of college was with Phillips Petroleum. He later worked as a wildcatter. In 1956, he founded the company that would become Mesa Petroleum and helped it grow into one of the largest… Read More

T. Boone Pickens has been around a long time. Born in 1928, the 85-year-old billionaire has amassed a fortune by investing in the industry he knows best: oil and gas. He came from an oil and gas pedigree. His father worked as a landman leasing oil and mineral rights in Oklahoma. Pickens’ first job out of college was with Phillips Petroleum. He later worked as a wildcatter. In 1956, he founded the company that would become Mesa Petroleum and helped it grow into one of the largest independent oil companies in the world. During the 1980s, he became famous for his acquisition of other oil and gas companies, including Pioneer Petroleum and Gulf Oil. His newfound notoriety landed him on the cover of Time Magazine and prompted him to consider a presidential bid during the 1988 elections. When it comes to investing in the U.S. oil and gas sector, one would be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable or experienced person anywhere on the planet. According to 13F filings, Pickens opened five new… Read More

Markets moved quickly after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated the central bank‘s quantitative easing (QE) programs would end one day. That move left stocks oversold and ready to rebound. Bernanke Might Be Too Optimistic SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) fell from about $165 on Wednesday to close the week at $159.07. The down move began when the Fed chairman held a… Read More

Markets moved quickly after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated the central bank‘s quantitative easing (QE) programs would end one day. That move left stocks oversold and ready to rebound. Bernanke Might Be Too Optimistic SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) fell from about $165 on Wednesday to close the week at $159.07. The down move began when the Fed chairman held a press conference. Offering a hypothetical example, Bernanke said that the Fed could begin decreasing its monthly purchases of $85 billion in bonds later this year and stop buying next year if the economy improves.#-ad_banner-# Without any evidence that the economy is improving, SPY dropped more than 4% and the Dow Jones industrial average grabbed headlines with a fall of more than 500 points in two days. This drop occurred without any fundamental change in… Read More

Markets moved quickly after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated the central bank‘s quantitative easing (QE) programs would end one day. That move left stocks oversold and ready to rebound. Bernanke Might Be Too Optimistic SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) fell from about $165 on Wednesday to close the week at $159.07. The down move began when the Fed chairman held a… Read More

Markets moved quickly after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated the central bank‘s quantitative easing (QE) programs would end one day. That move left stocks oversold and ready to rebound. Bernanke Might Be Too Optimistic SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) fell from about $165 on Wednesday to close the week at $159.07. The down move began when the Fed chairman held a press conference. Offering a hypothetical example, Bernanke said that the Fed could begin decreasing its monthly purchases of $85 billion in bonds later this year and stop buying next year if the economy improves.#-ad_banner-# Without any evidence that the economy is improving, SPY dropped more than 4% and the Dow Jones industrial average grabbed headlines with a fall of more than 500 points in two days. This drop occurred without any fundamental change in… Read More

The old adage of risk equaling reward couldn’t have been truer in 2008, when the stock market was in chaos.#-ad_banner-# Great rewards went to investors who took the risk of stepping into the fray to buy the lows. But during the same time, many investors were practically wiped out because they failed to manage their risks wisely in the highly volatile environment. The stock market today isn’t as volatile as it was during the financial crisis. However, the same investing maxim… Read More

The old adage of risk equaling reward couldn’t have been truer in 2008, when the stock market was in chaos.#-ad_banner-# Great rewards went to investors who took the risk of stepping into the fray to buy the lows. But during the same time, many investors were practically wiped out because they failed to manage their risks wisely in the highly volatile environment. The stock market today isn’t as volatile as it was during the financial crisis. However, the same investing maxim still holds: The greater the risk, the greater the rewards.  Many investors shun risk. These risk-averse investors pile into the safest possible investments in an effort to preserve principal at all costs. This attitude will most likely preserve your portfolio, but it will also greatly decrease your potential for market-beating rewards.  Lessons Learned What I learned from the risk-embracing derivative culture of 2008 is that both the shunning of risk and the gunslinging embracing… Read More

Crop growing seasons are dictated by the weather. Farmers generally plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. Some countries in the Southern Hemisphere do the opposite because of their weather, but farmers — and traders — know in advance when crops should be planted and harvested.  This pattern has an impact on prices and results in a cycle that can be seen in the price of corn and other grains. The chart below shows the seasonal pattern for corn. Traders in the futures markets use charts like this to understand the… Read More

Crop growing seasons are dictated by the weather. Farmers generally plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. Some countries in the Southern Hemisphere do the opposite because of their weather, but farmers — and traders — know in advance when crops should be planted and harvested.  This pattern has an impact on prices and results in a cycle that can be seen in the price of corn and other grains. The chart below shows the seasonal pattern for corn. Traders in the futures markets use charts like this to understand the normal direction of the trend. Corn usually starts the year by moving higher. There are some smaller up and down moves, but the price generally peaks in August and then falls into November. Corn is planted mostly in May and June. Harvest can begin in September and is completed by November. This explains the November bottom in prices seen in the chart. That is the time when all of the crop will be out of the field. There will be no additions to… Read More

The CEO of the world’s largest copper mining company bought 1 million shares of his company’s stock at $31.16 per share on June 3.  At the time of this writing, shares are trading around $29.32.   Now, I don’t want to suggest blindly following the investment moves of every industry insider. But when a CEO makes a $31 million purchase of his company’s… Read More

The CEO of the world’s largest copper mining company bought 1 million shares of his company’s stock at $31.16 per share on June 3.  At the time of this writing, shares are trading around $29.32.   Now, I don’t want to suggest blindly following the investment moves of every industry insider. But when a CEO makes a $31 million purchase of his company’s stock, which is trading for the cheapest it’s been since 2008 — I think a closer look is in order. Regular readers may already know that mining stocks have not fared as well as the broader market so far this year. Commodity prices for precious metals have been lagging, which creates headwinds for producers and drives share prices down. In another example, Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) (which I covered two weeks ago),… Read More

The stock market has not made a decisive breakout yet, but gold has. Volatility Points to a Possible Decline in Stocks SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) closed down 1% last week. On Friday, the ETF fell 0.63%, the fourth day in a row with a move larger than 0.5% (in absolute value). On an average day, since 1928, the… Read More

The stock market has not made a decisive breakout yet, but gold has. Volatility Points to a Possible Decline in Stocks SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) closed down 1% last week. On Friday, the ETF fell 0.63%, the fourth day in a row with a move larger than 0.5% (in absolute value). On an average day, since 1928, the S&P 500 has moved an average of 0.02%. A 0.5% move is 25 times greater than average and four in a row is an unusual pattern. In the history of the S&P 500 index back to 1928, volatile periods like this have occurred about four times a year, on average. The index has a downward bias over the next week and the next month. Over those time frames, traders would have enjoyed a small profit, on average, from a… Read More

Last August, StreetAuthority analyst Nathan Slaughter made a bold prediction. At the time, the price of natural gas had reached decade-low prices just a few months before, falling below $2 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) in April of 2012. Nathan predicted that natural gas was due for a rebound. He also spotted a huge disconnect between the rising price of natural gas and the share prices of the companies that produce it. Since June 2012, the price of natural gas has doubled, reaching $4.40 in… Read More

Last August, StreetAuthority analyst Nathan Slaughter made a bold prediction. At the time, the price of natural gas had reached decade-low prices just a few months before, falling below $2 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) in April of 2012. Nathan predicted that natural gas was due for a rebound. He also spotted a huge disconnect between the rising price of natural gas and the share prices of the companies that produce it. Since June 2012, the price of natural gas has doubled, reaching $4.40 in April before tapering off. Now, if we were to take a look at the share price for the stock of a “pure play” natural gas company (as opposed to one that produces a combination of gas and oil), we might expect the share price to mirror the price of gas. After all, the spread between how much it costs for these companies to drill for gas and how much they are able to sell it for on the open… Read More

Stock markets jumped after the unemployment rate rose on hopes that the Fed will continue pumping up the… Read More

Stock markets jumped after the unemployment rate rose on hopes that the Fed will continue pumping up the… Read More