Stocks are enjoying a strong year. For example, if you were long the S&P 500 since the first trading day of 2012, you’d be sitting on a gain of about 14%. That’s far better than the historical norms, and though the path has been volatile, your patience would have been… Read More

An American tradition may soon follow the way of the horse buggy and oil-fired street lamps. In fact, this tradition is as American as baseball, apple pie and even Chevrolets. It will be sad to see it go, but in its place comes efficiency… Read More

When looking for “the next big thing,” it’s imperative to cast a wide net. Consider this: In 2011 the world’s growth domestic product (GDP) totaled $69.9 trillion. Of that only about $15.1 trillion came from the U.S… Read More

The launch of the iPhone 5 has created a media frenzy. Hailed by many consumers and critics as the best iPhone ever, this new iteration of Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) miracle product has kept all eyes focused on this once struggling computer company. The demand has been so high that more… Read More

Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) is one of those stocks just about every investor wishes they had from the beginning, since Oct. 1, 1970, when the company first went public. If you’d even been able to buy just 10 shares that historic day… Read More

The biggest winners in the past several decades have included “boring” companies like soda and energy drink maker Monster Beverage (Nasdaq: MNST), an 83,000% gainer, and UGG boot maker Deckers Outdoor (Nasdaq: DECK), which gained more than 10,000%. Studying these and other big winners, we can identify some simple characteristics that the greatest stocks share.#-ad_banner-# First and foremost is that the biggest winners are all real businesses. Small-cap stocks can include companies that are developing products or services, but have not yet generated any sales. As MNST and DECK demonstrate, there is no need to buy before sales confirm that… Read More

The biggest winners in the past several decades have included “boring” companies like soda and energy drink maker Monster Beverage (Nasdaq: MNST), an 83,000% gainer, and UGG boot maker Deckers Outdoor (Nasdaq: DECK), which gained more than 10,000%. Studying these and other big winners, we can identify some simple characteristics that the greatest stocks share.#-ad_banner-# First and foremost is that the biggest winners are all real businesses. Small-cap stocks can include companies that are developing products or services, but have not yet generated any sales. As MNST and DECK demonstrate, there is no need to buy before sales confirm that the company has a viable business opportunity. A record of sales is what distinguishes low-priced stocks with potential from the thousands of penny stocks that will never amount to anything. In addition to sales, the biggest winners also all started their quadruple-digit run-ups from a small market cap (less than $350 million) and a low stock price (less than $10 a share, and occasionally less than $1). We want to buy when they have positive momentum because that indicates that there are other buyers looking at the stock. One mistake many… Read More

While it’s fun to be aggressive with your investments in your working years, when you have time to ride out the rough patches, that same kind of investment flexibility may not be an option once you’re retired. Older investors simply have… Read More

When traders think about Black Swans, they tend to recall the big market declines like the one we lived through in 2008 when a housing market meltdown led to a steep drop in stock prices. Black Swans can also be seen in… Read More

Would you rather have a 60% or a 100% return on an investment? The obvious answer is 100%. But this answer ignores an important factor: How long will this investment take to reach this amazing return? That’s exactly what’s happening with financial services stocks… Read More

When a company misses earnings or lowers their revenue forecasts, the stock price tends to fall. Some traders invariably “buy the dip,” meaning that they buy after a decline thinking the pullback in price is simply a blip in the longer-term uptrend. This rarely works, and usually the first bit of bad news is followed by more bad news and even lower prices. Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is an example of how bad news can impact a stock’s price.   NFLX sits over 80% below its all-time high more… Read More

When a company misses earnings or lowers their revenue forecasts, the stock price tends to fall. Some traders invariably “buy the dip,” meaning that they buy after a decline thinking the pullback in price is simply a blip in the longer-term uptrend. This rarely works, and usually the first bit of bad news is followed by more bad news and even lower prices. Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is an example of how bad news can impact a stock’s price.   NFLX sits over 80% below its all-time high more than a year after the bad news started to flow. While hopeful buyers averaged down, the stock fell for months before it became oversold. Oversold is shown in the chart with the stochastics indicator. That indicator works well to show how markets reach extreme levels and tend to stay there for extended periods of time. This insight sets up a trade now in another former high-flyer, O’Reilly Automotive (Nasdaq: ORLY). ORLY was a market leader after the March 2009 bottom in stocks, soaring… Read More