Investment

Take a walk with me down Memory Lane:
1973: S&P down over 17%  (ouch)
1974: S&P down over 29%. (ouch again)
The bottom for the S&P was reached in October 1974. (…)

Like crossing the equator on a ship — should buy and hold investors get some kind of recognition (or have some celebration) for crossing the line?  The S&P 500 crossed 1100 in 1998 (twice), 2001 (3X!), 2002, 2004 and 2008.  Look, when I drive around the same block twice, even I ask for directions!  Oh, and today the S&P 500 is at 940.  Ready for 9 passes in ten years? (…)

The Treasury announced they will begin to inject capital (money) into banks, under terms created under the bailout bill.  This article will try to walk through, in English, what this all means. (…)

Quick history lesson: Mark-to-the-Market was a practice originally begun by futures and commodity traders in the 19th century.  Essentially, mark-to-the-market means your holdings must be "priced" every night…at the price they can be sold at. (…)

Lost in the bailout mess comes this bit of interesting news for the automakers. (…)

Recently, oil and commodities dropped 20 to 25% in four very fast weeks, catching nearly everyone off guard. But as fast as the drop took place, we start to see signs of a reversal back up. (…)

Exxon reported nearly $12 billion in profits for the previous quarter recently. $12 billion! More net profits in one quarter, than ever recorded in the history of mankind.
And what did the stock do? (…)

Bank Failures in Nevada and California
The headlines this past weekend showed that US regulators took over two banks Friday afternoon and sold them both to Mutual of Omaha bank. (…)

I'm going to paint a word picture for you.
Suppose you own a stock that gave three successive buy signals last summer — in 2007. The stock ran from $28 per share up to $34 a share. (…)

The period we're in now is not necessarily a "bull market" or a "bear market" but more like a structurally "fair market." I didn't make that up on my own — Tom Dorsey, from Dorsey Wright and Associates in Richmond coined that term. (…)

There was an article distributed nationwide, written by the Associated Press, and carried locally in the Asbury Park Press on March 22, 2008. (…)

Another Weird Day on Wall Street
Today, Tuesday, February 26, 2008 we received some negative economic news. (…)

It appears that nearly everything written or said on Wall Street has an agenda behind it.
This is just a casual observation I've made over the past few months. (…)

I've labeled this “the yikes spiral” because typically this happens when certain markets are in free fall. (…)

A "buy signal" occurs when there is demand for a stock.
You know from Economics 101, anything in demand will see its' price rise. (…)

Lots of people are buzzing because the Dow is at 13,000. Let me tell you, the return over the past six years from the Dow Jones is less than what you could have earned in a money market account. (…)