The old saying that death and taxes are the only certainties in life should include a third certainty.  Eventually, every one of us is going to pay bank fees.  No matter how careful you are with your finances or how much effort you… Read More

In search of a second income after graduating from college, I started a small real estate publication that worked with local real estate agents to help promote their home listings.  By broad standards, my venture could be labeled… Read More

I love most aquatic sports. From fishing and kayaking to powerboating and waterskiing, if it’s warm out, I want to be near or on the water. I grew up near several major rivers where I often fished and boated as a youngster. Although these rivers were hundreds of yards wide, they were usually shallow. They were constantly becoming silted in from runoff, debris and assorted other factors. The same thing occurred in local reservoirs, where the water got continuously shallower as mud and silt piled up against the dam. If you have ever stepped… Read More

I love most aquatic sports. From fishing and kayaking to powerboating and waterskiing, if it’s warm out, I want to be near or on the water. I grew up near several major rivers where I often fished and boated as a youngster. Although these rivers were hundreds of yards wide, they were usually shallow. They were constantly becoming silted in from runoff, debris and assorted other factors. The same thing occurred in local reservoirs, where the water got continuously shallower as mud and silt piled up against the dam. If you have ever stepped into this muddy, silt-filled mess when boating or fishing, then you know it’s pretty disgusting. Not only is the silting of rivers and reservoirs a real issue for recreational users of waterways, but it can impede crucial transportation and navigation routes.  It’s a problem begging for a solution — and in a twist of fate, I discovered a company that provides one. Several weeks ago, when researching the Gold Trust ETF (NYSE: GLD), I inadvertently added an extra “D” to the GLD… Read More

Did you miss out on the recent hot IPOs for Noodles & Co. (Nasdaq: NDLS), Fairway Group Holdings (NYSE: FWM) and Stemline Therapeutics (Nasdaq: STML)?#-ad_banner-# Well, the hits keep on coming. Phillips 66 Partners (Nasdaq: PSXP), which was one of the looming initial public offerings that I profiled last week, surged a hefty 30% in its first day of trading. If you missed out on these fast starters, fret not. Many other recent IPOs haven’t fared nearly as well from their initial… Read More

Did you miss out on the recent hot IPOs for Noodles & Co. (Nasdaq: NDLS), Fairway Group Holdings (NYSE: FWM) and Stemline Therapeutics (Nasdaq: STML)?#-ad_banner-# Well, the hits keep on coming. Phillips 66 Partners (Nasdaq: PSXP), which was one of the looming initial public offerings that I profiled last week, surged a hefty 30% in its first day of trading. If you missed out on these fast starters, fret not. Many other recent IPOs haven’t fared nearly as well from their initial IPO price as these big gainers. IPOs sometimes need to simmer for a bit as investors only belatedly get around to checking them out.  Here’s a quick look at what the hot money may have initially missed but far-sighted investors may soon start snapping up. 1. Esperion Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ESPR) Thanks to the blockbuster success of Lipitor and other statins, the cholesterol-fighting market has always been seen as a great prize for drug companies. Billions in sales await any drug… Read More

A recent fit of virtuous (if misguided) housecleaning ended up costing me $600, but what I learned in the process could provide you with a chance to get in on a secondary play of a recovering sector. It started when I decided to clean under the refrigerator for the first time in quite a while. I took my time sweeping up the accumulated gunk, vacuuming the coils and disinfecting the unit from top to bottom. But when I plugged the fridge back in, the outside began warming up and the inside stopped being cold. Some 24 hours and a half-dozen… Read More

A recent fit of virtuous (if misguided) housecleaning ended up costing me $600, but what I learned in the process could provide you with a chance to get in on a secondary play of a recovering sector. It started when I decided to clean under the refrigerator for the first time in quite a while. I took my time sweeping up the accumulated gunk, vacuuming the coils and disinfecting the unit from top to bottom. But when I plugged the fridge back in, the outside began warming up and the inside stopped being cold. Some 24 hours and a half-dozen Web searches later, I realized my mistake. To get under the unit, I tilted it and rested it on a chair while I cleaned. I’m not strong enough to hold the fridge up with one hand and sweep with the other, but tilting it had burned out the compressor, which moves the refrigerant through all those now-clean metal coils. Whoops. I decided it was time to buy a new fridge. Shopping for a new unit took me to several home improvement stores — and to my surprise, they were all jammed. Appliances, tools, paint and lumber — every section was… Read More

How does a company worth $60 billion manage to completely shock investors and deliver a 25% one-day gain? That’s the question being asked at traders’ desks across the country after Facebook delivered a rock-solid second quarter that exceeded the most bullish of forecasts. The answer is simple. Facebook, despite its massive size, had largely been forgotten by most investors. Earlier this month, I noted how this once-hot IPO had been steadily falling this past spring, even as the rest of the… Read More

How does a company worth $60 billion manage to completely shock investors and deliver a 25% one-day gain? That’s the question being asked at traders’ desks across the country after Facebook delivered a rock-solid second quarter that exceeded the most bullish of forecasts. The answer is simple. Facebook, despite its massive size, had largely been forgotten by most investors. Earlier this month, I noted how this once-hot IPO had been steadily falling this past spring, even as the rest of the market was in party mode.  Suddenly, this stock is touching 52-week highs again, and if you were savvy enough to own this stock going into the quarter, then this is no time to be a seller. After a quick move to $33, this stock may be headed toward the $40 mark by year‘s end. The Great Second Quarter Facebook’s impressive second-quarter results have been discussed in many other forums, so I’ll only recap the key metrics here: Strong advertising… Read More

Innovation is the most powerful force an investor can harness. It supercharges companies and helps them deliver outsized results. By using a relatively small allocation of your equity portfolio’s assets, you can effectively capture these returns and have the potential to build greater… Read More

The death of cash is one of the hottest trends on the Street. With consumers fleeing cash in favor of the convenience of credit and debit cards, electronic financial transactions… Read More

Grocery stores don’t usually provoke thoughts of big gains from investors. And that’s for a good reason. The domestic grocery market is relatively mature, with analysts projecting annual sales growth of 1% in the next few years. But there is one segment of the domestic grocery market that continues to experience explosive growth. With consumers increasingly prioritizing health and wellness, annual organic food sales are on pace to reach $42 billion in 2014, an… Read More

Grocery stores don’t usually provoke thoughts of big gains from investors. And that’s for a good reason. The domestic grocery market is relatively mature, with analysts projecting annual sales growth of 1% in the next few years. But there is one segment of the domestic grocery market that continues to experience explosive growth. With consumers increasingly prioritizing health and wellness, annual organic food sales are on pace to reach $42 billion in 2014, an increase of 31% from $29 billion in 2010. That bullish trend has been fueling market-beating gains for leading organic grocer Whole Foods Market (NYSE: WFM). Although Whole Foods is a great company that will continue to profit from the bullish trend in organic food, its market cap of $20 billion and status as a large cap means it is probably past peak growth. That’s why… Read More

I’m going to show you a simple strategy that has never lost money in the market. A recent study by mega-investment firm Oppenheimer proved just as much. Don’t worry, it’s not some “too good to be true” story. But there are some caveats. First, I could tell 100 people about this strategy… and I’d guess 99 of them would flat ignore it. That’s despite the evidence I’ll show you backing it up. “That strategy is for suckers.” “Its time has passed.” “You have to be an idiot… Read More

I’m going to show you a simple strategy that has never lost money in the market. A recent study by mega-investment firm Oppenheimer proved just as much. Don’t worry, it’s not some “too good to be true” story. But there are some caveats. First, I could tell 100 people about this strategy… and I’d guess 99 of them would flat ignore it. That’s despite the evidence I’ll show you backing it up. “That strategy is for suckers.” “Its time has passed.” “You have to be an idiot to think that would work today.” I know some people will say this — because they already have. We asked some of our regular readers to give us their thoughts on this strategy. Those were the type of responses I heard from some people. I was shocked. Second, you can’t use this strategy for every stock. Use it on the wrong ideas, and you can still lose money. But across the market as a whole, it hasn’t failed once in the past 60 years. The truth is, you… Read More