financial stocks

Legg Mason Value Trust

July 16, 2008

Ever heard of Bill Miller? He runs the Legg Mason Value Trust (LVMTX). Miller is literally splattered all over CNBC and other media outlets. He’s a value manager, which means he likes to buy stocks at a discount, and then essentially sit on them, until they appreciate. He made a name for himself as he [...]

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Recession Worse than Expected?

March 25, 2008

There was an article distributed nationwide, written by the Associated Press, and carried locally in the Asbury Park Press on March 22, 2008. I’ve re-printed the article here, but dropped in my own comments after each paragraph. The main point to take away from this exercise is that by the time news reaches Main Street, [...]

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Goldman Stearns and Lehman Sachs

March 22, 2008

All these firms hold the same investments. There is STILL considerable risk in the group. Why did this happen to just Bear Stearns? One of the first things I learned about investments was when it comes to bonds, think chocolate and vanilla, super simple: when interest rates rise, bond prices (values) go down. And when [...]

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Bear Stearns, part II

March 16, 2008

UPDATE: Sunday evening, 03/16/2008: Bear Stearns to be acquired by JPMorgan Chase for $2.00 in stock swap deal. That is NOT a typo! The stock closed at $30 on Friday. On Thursday, it was $57.00. And yes, it was $150 last summer. This, essentially became a giant margin call on Bear Stearns. Apparently, cash — [...]

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Bear Stearns, part I

March 15, 2008

The news surrounding Bear Stearns on Friday morning was not good! There are several important elements to this story. The first element is the most important one: Bear Stearns appears to be out of cash. If you’ve ever traded on margin (or know someone that does), running out of cash happens from time to time. [...]

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Stock market yo-yo

February 26, 2008

Another Weird Day on Wall Street Today, Tuesday, February 26, 2008 we received some negative economic news. There were reports of surging inflation and declining consumer confidence, and the early indications were the stock market would be down nearly 100 points. Not helping matters either was a story circulated by comScore late Monday regarding Google’s [...]

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Cutting Losses Short

February 15, 2008

Most Wall Street recommendations to buy are based on projected future revenues and/or projected future earnings. Projected. Or you could say, “predicted”. Ever notice that a stock will begin to drop (many times without any news), and people will begin to ask “why is XYZ dropping?” Then rumors begin to swirl that something might be [...]

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How The Subprime And Mortgage Mess Affects You

November 23, 2007

I’ve labeled this *the yikes spiral* because typically this happens when certain markets are in free fall. The most often example occurs when a company runs into trouble and may need to contemplate bankruptcy. It’s a sad event, because people are losing money, and jobs may also be lost in the process, but it’s also [...]

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Federal Reserve Rate Cut?

October 29, 2007

The two big questions around my house these days are: 1. What kind of Halloween candy will we be giving out this year? 2. When EXACTLY do we change the clocks again? But the big question around the office is, “what will the Federal Reserve do on Halloween?” The Federal Reserve meets this week. At [...]

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Wall Street Brokers

September 16, 2007

The big reason why the market fell apart this summer was because the financial stocks — the brokerage firms in particular — really struggled. We’re just learning these firms held a LOT of mortgage loans in their portfolio. And there’s really no accurate way to value these assets. There have been reports where these mortgage [...]

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