Jeff and I want to wish all of you a healthy and prosperous New Year. We ventured into the world of blogging in 2007 and will be looking for ways to improve our content and make it more useful to you, our readers, ...read more
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Over the Hill
I thought our readers would like to know that Doug is out of the office today "celebrating" his 40th birthday. How's that for a Christmas present? I think I'd rather get coal (especially given where coal stocks are...read more
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Coal, The Day After
The top two performers in the portfolio today -- the day after Christmas -- were a coal mining company and a coal mining machinery company. Each gained more than 3%. Coal stocks have actually been stellar performer...read more
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Quiet
It will likely be a quiet day on Wall Street, as is usually the case. Other than some news from Target this morning, the headlines have been pretty quiet. Target indicated that its same store sales results for Dece...read more
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Random Thoughts
Typically, we prefer addressing a single issue in our blog entries. But on some rare occasions, several thoughts cross our mind, and we're not quite sure which idea deserves our focus. In today's blog, we'll switch...read more
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Milk and Cookies
While the markets aren't selling off too strongly today, the stocks of several recent leaders are. What is interesting to note is that the declines in these names aren't related to any fundamental disappointments. ...read more
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A Reader Asks...
In response to today's earlier post, Milk and Cookies, a reader asks... "Where do you look to buy if a recession is on the horizon? How do you protect yourself in a recession and still make some money versus hiding...read more
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Naughty and Nice
We've been busy checking our list once, checking it twice, trying to figure out which sectors have been naughty and which have been nice. And in spite of two continued lumps of coal in the housing and banking secto...read more
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Monsters and Muck
The market is just on fire today. I can't say that any one piece of news has sparked the rally, but it is a monster rally all the same. At this moment in time, the S&P 500 and Russell 1000 Growth indices are up 1.8...read more
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Abu Dhabi, Citigroup Convertibles, and Trotter Treadmills
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority invested $7.5 billion of much needed capital into Citigroup through the purchase of convertible bonds today. The bonds must be converted to Citigroup equity at $32 to $37 per shar...read more
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Stuffed
The last three months of each year follows the same pattern. Trick or Treat, Stuffed Turkey, and then Santa Claus. A crescendo of gluttony beckons and then drowns us in a boat of commercial gravy. Today’s Cleveland...read more
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Clear as Mud
Over time, energy stocks tend to follow the price of oil quite closely. The price of oil has climbed from $20 a barrel five years ago to $97 a barrel today. Over the same time, one of the most popular Energy Exchan...read more
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A Commemorative Sell Off
The market is undergoing a healthy 2% sell-off today. In addition to a renewed plunge in short term treasury rates (likely related to a flight to quality following renewed credit concerns associated with several ba...read more
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Oil, Ken Burns, Putin, & Iran
Oil prices have spiked in recent days. Some are concerned that these higher oil prices will hurt the consumer. I'm not so sure I agree. Oil prices have been "higher" for quite some time now and the consumer has con...read more
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Planting for a Bigger Harvest
Some interesting data came across my desk this morning, confirming what we've suspected in our blog musings and economic updates over the past few days and weeks. According to TrimTabs data released this morning, t...read more
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Trick or Treat!!!
By the time Halloween rolls around, we should be pretty well through earnings season. While I suspect we'll have more treats than tricks, this time of the year is always just a little bit spooky. A few materials an...read more
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Up, Up and Away!
We own a company that reported solid results last night. The numbers were outstanding year over year, but generally inline with expectations. The stock is up 10% this morning. I only point this out because merely "...read more
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Got Dividend? Make One!
Over the last few years, investors have been clamoring for more companies to start paying dividends. While I applaud these efforts, I also believe it has been motivated to some degree by the underperformance of man...read more
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A Question on Future Investment Bubbles, Answer Part II
Over the past few days, we've been addressing the following question posed to us by one of our blog's readers. "We had the tech bubble - marked by people buying stocks that had no earnings. We had a housing bubble ...read more
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Feedback, Fadeaways, and Baby
Our last blog post, Remembering 9/11, really struck a nerve with our readers. George's story moved us as well and we thank you for your feedback. The markets have been relatively uneventful today, fading into the c...read more
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Daddy Bernanke
The markets are in a joyful mood. They opened strongly on comments from President George Bush and have rallied further following remarks from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke this morning. I found Bernanke's speech partic...read more
