Remember the good ‘ole days, when you could buy a can of soda for less than 75 cents? Now, you pay nearly triple this price at most convenience stores. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an alternative? Thanks to a growing Israeli company called Soda Stream International (Nasdaq: SODA),… Read More

We all know we have been in a tough economy during the past several years. A look across Wall Street or maybe within your own family shows difficult times: Downsizing, reduced hours, layoffs and reduced income. Many Americans… Read More

You may have noticed a pattern with my trades during the past few weeks: I’ve been picking “underdog” stocks with great success. My latest pick, Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), has gained more than 10% in a week. And my previous pick, Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA), is up more than 8% in two weeks.#-ad_banner-# This week, I’m bullish on the underdog stock of the smartphone world: Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM). As a Canuck, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Canadian wireless device maker. Read More

You may have noticed a pattern with my trades during the past few weeks: I’ve been picking “underdog” stocks with great success. My latest pick, Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), has gained more than 10% in a week. And my previous pick, Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA), is up more than 8% in two weeks.#-ad_banner-# This week, I’m bullish on the underdog stock of the smartphone world: Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM). As a Canuck, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Canadian wireless device maker. But what I really like about the stock is its current bullish technical outlook. On the heels of recent analyst upgrades — from the National Bank, CIBC World Markets and Jefferies — RIMM appears to be sparking renewed trader enthusiasm. The upgrades are based on bets that RIMM’s new mobile device, the Blackberry 10 (BB10) — likely to be released in late January — will be so good it will steal users away from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), bringing them back to their Blackberry roots. Conservative estimates are that BB10 sales will be… Read More

Contrary to clothing companies, which tend to have a steady flow of customers, footwear companies come in and out of vogue. Far too many companies place their efforts on trying to attract the highly profitable teen niche. Yet trying to appease a capricious teenager’s taste is an uphill battle. While… Read More

Hedge fund billionaires are known for two things: Making highly profitable investments that frequently outperform market averages and pushing stocks higher behind huge trading size and… Read More

“Black Friday” is considered the most important day of the year for many retailers. But if the current trend continues, then it’s only a matter of time before a new champion sits atop the throne.#-ad_banner-# In the past few years, consumers have increasingly turned to online shopping so they can avoid the madness of deal-thirsty shoppers lining up outside traditional brick-and-mortar operations. That was on full display recently, with e-retail sales jumping 29.3% on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, while store sales were virtually unchanged, according to Internet intelligence firm comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR) and payment processor Chase Paymentech. And… Read More

“Black Friday” is considered the most important day of the year for many retailers. But if the current trend continues, then it’s only a matter of time before a new champion sits atop the throne.#-ad_banner-# In the past few years, consumers have increasingly turned to online shopping so they can avoid the madness of deal-thirsty shoppers lining up outside traditional brick-and-mortar operations. That was on full display recently, with e-retail sales jumping 29.3% on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, while store sales were virtually unchanged, according to Internet intelligence firm comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR) and payment processor Chase Paymentech. And that’s not including Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, which many online retailers use to unleash great deals and drive sales growth. Total sales on Cyber Monday reached $1.98 billion, a 17% increase from last year, according to a report from Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE).  But bullish online sales on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just a glimpse of a larger trend changing the way consumers shop. About 66% of consumers prefer Web retailers while 73% of survey participants complete almost 50% of their shopping online, according to a recent survey conducted… Read More

Many traders now understand that buy-and-hold strategies can suffer from steep losses for years at a time. This knowledge was probably acquired from expensive first-hand experience. In a strong bull market that lasts for… Read More

Third-quarter earnings season was an unmitigated disaster. With the economy stumbling along due to weakness in Europe and China, and margins reaching a multi-year cyclical high, more than a few companies disappointed the Street with… Read More

With the United States in the edge of a fiscal cliff and Europe now officially in a recession, investors are jumping into more defensive stocks that can hold up in this hostile investment environment. Read More

It’s no secret Wall Street was, for the most part, rooting for Mitt Romney to win the presidential election. After all, Republican candidates are generally viewed as more business friendly, and Romney was no exception. But even if you believe President Barack Obama’s… Read More