At the end of World War II, G.Is. had a little time to linger in Europe before heading home, so they embarked on the all-American pastime: shopping. The U.S. dollar was so strong, these soldiers could buy small items like boxes of chocolate — and big items like British motorcycles… Read More

My wife used to make fun of my fondness for fantasy sports — until the day that changed her mind. Before I had a kid, I played in every type of league you can imagine — even a NASCAR league, despite the fact that I am neither a fan of nor knowledgeable about NASCAR. Many of these leagues were just for fun, but some had money involved — not a ton, maybe $20 or $25 for each league. In March 2000, my wife and I moved to the San Francisco Bay area. We didn’t… Read More

My wife used to make fun of my fondness for fantasy sports — until the day that changed her mind. Before I had a kid, I played in every type of league you can imagine — even a NASCAR league, despite the fact that I am neither a fan of nor knowledgeable about NASCAR. Many of these leagues were just for fun, but some had money involved — not a ton, maybe $20 or $25 for each league. In March 2000, my wife and I moved to the San Francisco Bay area. We didn’t know anyone there, so I decided to see if I could find a local fantasy baseball league to join — just to meet people. After perusing websites and message boards, I found one. It had a $50 buy-in, the largest I’d ever paid, but I did it. #-ad_banner-#Fast forward to late summer, and I was in the title chase. My team was clicking. My moves kept working. All was well. So I went to my wife.  “I think I’ve got a chance to win this thing,” I said.  “How much would you win?” she asked.  “Like $600.” That changed everything. Read More

At the end of World War II, G.Is. had a little time to linger in Europe before heading home, so they embarked on the all-American pastime: shopping. The U.S. dollar was so strong, these soldiers could buy small items like boxes of chocolate — and big items like British motorcycles — at shockingly low prices. #-ad_banner-#Fifty years later, U.S. consumers found out what happens when a super-strong currency loses its luster. The U.S. dollar no longer buys as much abroad as it once did, and a shopping spree in Paris or London… Read More

At the end of World War II, G.Is. had a little time to linger in Europe before heading home, so they embarked on the all-American pastime: shopping. The U.S. dollar was so strong, these soldiers could buy small items like boxes of chocolate — and big items like British motorcycles — at shockingly low prices. #-ad_banner-#Fifty years later, U.S. consumers found out what happens when a super-strong currency loses its luster. The U.S. dollar no longer buys as much abroad as it once did, and a shopping spree in Paris or London will cost a lot of dough. Of course, the investment world has been feeling similar effects as well. The long-term fall in the dollar means U.S. companies can no longer snap up foreign rivals for a cheap price. But a falling dollar also means that any foreign assets that companies and investors own have risen in value. (Note that since the Great Recession of 2008, the… Read More

Economic forecasting is known as “The Dismal Science”…and for good reason.  That’s because many economists look at a small slice of data and come up with bold forecasts. Sometimes they nail an economic forecast with dead-on accuracy, but they can also be profoundly wrong.#-ad_banner-# The only way to get it… Read More

Each week, one of our investing experts answers a reader’s question in the Q&A column from our sister site, InvestingAnswers.com. It’s all part of our mission to help consumers build and protect their wealth through education. If you’d like us to answer one of… Read More

A few weeks into the New Year, investors seem to be in a carefree mood. The traditional measures of volatility remain at extremely low levels. After all, the European economic crisis has calmed, budget negotiations in Washington aren’t front page news at the moment, and… Read More

The opening range breakout strategy is one of the first day trading strategies explained in detail for individual traders. In 1990, Toby Crabel wrote a book called Day Trading With Short Term Price Patterns and Opening Range Breakout. This book has been out of print for years and it is… Read More

Since bottoming out at just $6.50 a share in September, Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) has surged more than 150%. The rally came seemingly out of nowhere, as many simply assumed the maker of BlackBerry phones was heading for the technology industry’s graveyard.  In hindsight, it’s pretty clear most… Read More

Market breadth indicators are based on the number of stocks going up or down and the Advance-Decline (A-D) Line is the simplest way to measure breadth. Every day, the number of stocks that closed higher (advancing… Read More

Each week, one of our investing experts answers a reader’s question in the Q&A column from our sister site, InvestingAnswers.com. It’s all part of our mission to help consumers build and protect their wealth through education. If you’d like us to answer one of your… Read More