Investing in little-known micro-cap stocks can be frustrating — but it can also be rewarding. Even if a company appears to be making substantial progress with product design or customer orders,… Read More
Value Investing
As companies emerge from a rough stretch, their shares can quickly move back into favor with investors. Trouble is, the rebounding share price can often overshoot the mark and move into overvalued territory, especially… Read More
Can you name the gambling capital of the world? If your answer is “Las Vegas,” you’re wrong. Macau is the world’s leading destination for betting, having passed Vegas back in 2006 in terms of gambling… Read More
Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer… Read More
Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is only up 11% year to date, lagging behind the broader market and sharply behind its peers. On the chart below, we can see that the January breakout above $27 held on the June and July pullbacks, forming a key support level. The $4 range between the $27 breakout level and the $31 yearly highs targets a breakout move to $35. The $35 target is about 22% higher than current prices, but traders who use a capital-preserving stock-substitution strategy could more than double their… Read More
Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer… Read More
Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is only up 11% year to date, lagging behind the broader market and sharply behind its peers. On the chart below, we can see that the January breakout above $27 held on the June and July pullbacks, forming a key support level. The $4 range between the $27 breakout level and the $31 yearly highs targets a breakout move to $35. The $35 target is about 22% higher than current prices, but traders who use a capital-preserving stock-substitution strategy could more than double their… Read More
Buying on weakness and selling on strength is the hallmark of the professional trader. While the average Joe Investor attempts to buy stocks as they are climbing higher, the professional quietly waits for prices to drop in order to enter positions. Obviously, not… Read More
One hundred seventy thousand dollars. That’s roughly how much one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE: BRK-A) stock is selling for these days. Imagine if you had been one of the fortunate few to invest in Warren Buffett‘s young company back in 1967, when shares were trading for $20.50. Right now, you would be sitting on a total nominal gain of 829,460%. But nowadays, Berkshire has, to some degree, become a victim… Read More
One hundred seventy thousand dollars. That’s roughly how much one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE: BRK-A) stock is selling for these days. Imagine if you had been one of the fortunate few to invest in Warren Buffett‘s young company back in 1967, when shares were trading for $20.50. Right now, you would be sitting on a total nominal gain of 829,460%. But nowadays, Berkshire has, to some degree, become a victim of its own success. Buffett has often said that the company’s current size ($278 billion market cap) has made future growth more difficult. “Size is the anchor of performance. There is no question about it,” Buffett has said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t do better than average as you get larger, but the margin shrinks.” Of course, having too much money is a problem most of us would like to have. And I certainly don’t mean… Read More
One hundred seventy thousand dollars. That’s roughly how much one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE: BRK-A) stock is selling for these days. Imagine if you had been one of the fortunate few to invest in Warren Buffett‘s young company back in 1967, when shares were trading for $20.50. Right now, you would be sitting on a total nominal gain of 829,460%. But nowadays, Berkshire has, to some degree, become a victim… Read More
One hundred seventy thousand dollars. That’s roughly how much one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE: BRK-A) stock is selling for these days. Imagine if you had been one of the fortunate few to invest in Warren Buffett‘s young company back in 1967, when shares were trading for $20.50. Right now, you would be sitting on a total nominal gain of 829,460%. But nowadays, Berkshire has, to some degree, become a victim of its own success. Buffett has often said that the company’s current size ($278 billion market cap) has made future growth more difficult. “Size is the anchor of performance. There is no question about it,” Buffett has said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t do better than average as you get larger, but the margin shrinks.” Of course, having too much money is a problem most of us would like to have. And I certainly don’t mean… Read More
One of the biggest investment stories of 2013 has surely been the ongoing slump in shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which have fallen 21% this year after falling by a similar amount in the final months of 2012. Surprisingly, Apple doesn’t have much company. Only eight companies in the S&P 500 have by 20% or more in the first half of 2013, which is an unusually small percentage. A rising tide has surely lifted (almost all boats) in this extended… Read More
One of the biggest investment stories of 2013 has surely been the ongoing slump in shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which have fallen 21% this year after falling by a similar amount in the final months of 2012. Surprisingly, Apple doesn’t have much company. Only eight companies in the S&P 500 have by 20% or more in the first half of 2013, which is an unusually small percentage. A rising tide has surely lifted (almost all boats) in this extended bull rally. Still, it’s helpful to focus on companies with broken stock charts, because a few of them have so badly underperformed the broader market, and now sell at such severely low valuations, that they’ve become compelling bargains. Of course they are only compelling bargains if the key drivers are in place to help deliver improving results. I looked at these eight market laggards, and two of them caught… Read More
One of the biggest investment stories of 2013 has surely been the ongoing slump in shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which have fallen 21% this year after falling by a similar amount in the final months of 2012. Surprisingly, Apple doesn’t have much company. Only eight companies in the S&P 500 have by 20% or more in the first half of 2013, which is an unusually small percentage. A rising tide has surely lifted (almost all boats) in this extended… Read More
One of the biggest investment stories of 2013 has surely been the ongoing slump in shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which have fallen 21% this year after falling by a similar amount in the final months of 2012. Surprisingly, Apple doesn’t have much company. Only eight companies in the S&P 500 have by 20% or more in the first half of 2013, which is an unusually small percentage. A rising tide has surely lifted (almost all boats) in this extended bull rally. Still, it’s helpful to focus on companies with broken stock charts, because a few of them have so badly underperformed the broader market, and now sell at such severely low valuations, that they’ve become compelling bargains. Of course they are only compelling bargains if the key drivers are in place to help deliver improving results. I looked at these eight market laggards, and two of them caught… Read More