Investment Advisor

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. (…)

A client called me today, curious about buying shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  He said, "I'm sitting at home, watching the stock market channel and I'm amazed.  I am seeing all of the shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac changing hands.  The stock prices are so cheap.  But, Tom, I thought these two companies were gone?  Can I still buy them — and maybe make a few bucks on them? (…)

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. (…)

In one of my most recent posts I discussed the "ready to explode" product issued by brokerage firms called "auction rate preferred securities."
Well, that didn't take long. (…)

The line heard in every economic recession, and every single stock market pullback is: this time it's different. (…)

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. (…)

Another theme I'm surprised hasn't been discussed more often will be more foreign firms trying to make acquisitions of US-based companies in the next few years. (…)

Let's talk about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
How could these two companies be "OK" a week ago — and now this week they seem on the brink of disaster? (…)

 Looking at relative strength changes really helps to drive home underlying themes in the market. (…)

This article could be titled: Can (fill in the blank) go any lower? I'm not picking on Merck.
The reality is you could drop in Merck, Citibank, General Motors, Ford, J.P. (…)

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is the youngest governor in Alaskan history — and — the first woman governor of Alaska. (…)

OK, no names are used in this post! But holy cow!
In the midst of the sell off this week, Bloomberg Radio interviewed a money manager about the current condition of the market. (…)

Oh boy, these kinds of headlines are never good.
Two former Bear Stearns portfolio managers were arrested this week, not because they did a poor job of managing money. (…)

Frequent readers have seen earlier posts where I have discussed option expiration week and the volatility that comes with it.  But there was scant mention of option expiration at all this week.  Options expired on Friday and the Dow Jones dropped 220 points. (…)

In just the last month, assets in exchange traded funds increased $17 billion. Total assets in ETF's now total over $600 billion, according to State Street Global Advisors of Boston. (…)

The indicators flipped to defense this past week.
What does that mean?
Well for many of us, we have a LOT of money already in cash. so we're properly positioned. But now what? (…)

Have you seen the Bruce Willis movie, "Die Hard"?
When the police officer starts to drive away, Willis sends him a message…throwing one of the bad guys on the hood of the car. (…)

Just about the time Mr. & Mrs. (…)