Finance news - Original Signal

SeekingAlpha

A Different Way To Play ArcelorMittal: By The Financial Lexicon:If you are on the verge of taking a position in ArcelorMittals (MT) stock, before you do so, consider the following way of making an investment in the company.Rather than taking a position in the company by

Investigating The May Sell-Off In Clearwire: Who Or What Is Responsible?: By Helix Investment Management:Of all the companies we cover, none provides as much drama as Clearwire (CLWR). The wireless company is constantly in the news for some sort of reason, and its the attention it receives in the press often

5 Dividend Champions Undervalued By The Graham Number: By Kapitall:Do you prefer stocks that offer both income and growth? For a closer look at potentially undervalued dividend stocks, we ran a screen. We began with stocks considered dividend champions by DRiP Investing, stocks that have consistently increased their

National Bank Of Greece: It Ain't Over Until... No, It's Over: By Michael Terry:The situation in Greece is deteriorating so rapidly, it is hard to keep up with the situation. Between the countrys inability to form a government, its continuing inability to collect taxes (implement fiscal austerity) and a potential government

2 Defensive Plays For Increased Volatility: By Brad Prigmore:As an individual investor trying to navigate an increasingly volatile market, I tend to naturally gravitate towards wanting to own strong defensive companies with sustainable dividends and low valuations.I have also quickly come to the realization that selling

Dendreon Management Presents at Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2012 Health Care Conference (Tran(...): Dendreon Corporation (DNDN)Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2012 Health Care ConferenceMay 16, 2012 8:00 PM ET ExecutivesRachel McMinn – Bank of America Merrill LynchGreg Schiffman – EVP, CFO and Treasurer Presentation Rachel McMinnGood day. And thanks for sticking around for

How Will The Greek Drama End?: By Jeff Miller: I did not set out to write a trilogy about Europe, but the market is telling us that nothing else matters right now.My long-standing position is that Europe

Why We Think St. Jude Is Undervalued: By Valuentum:As part of our process, we perform a rigorous discounted cash-flow methodology that dives into the true intrinsic worth of companies. In St. Judes (STJ) case, we think the firm is undervalued. We think it is fairly valued at

Home Depot's U.S. Results Show Comp Growth Trends Not Achieved In 8 Years: By Valuentum:On Tuesday, Home Depot (HD) released first-quarter results that were mixed. Though its first-quarter performance was solid thanks to warm spring weather, its outlook for the remainder of 2012 was somewhat concerning. Still, were sticking with our fair value

Making Leverage Your Friend: By George Acs:Remember 1987? I do. Ah, 1987. Hated it!I was still young. Our first child was barely a year old, the Mets did not repeat their world championship season and Alan Greenspan was entering into his second year as

Rising Rates ETF Portfolio: By Brad Kenagy:For this article I will be writing about a portfolio of ETFs that is intended to outperform broad bond ETFs during a rising interest rate environment. The reason why I am writing this article is I believe that

Greece Continues To Weight On The Markets: By David Fry (ETF Digest): Fed Minutes revealed nothing new although some Fed members suggested more stimulus could be needed. Economic data in the U.S. was decent

This REIT Promises Yield And Growth Without Mortgage REIT Risk: By Brad Thomas:What if I told you that you could buy shares in a REIT that had a nice dividend yield, lower volatility than a mortgage REIT and forty-three year track record of performance? Sounds good? No, Im not talking

U.S. Equity CEF With Top 3 Year Risk-Adjusted Performance: By George Spritzer: Many retired investors are looking for high income. Because of this, many US equity CEFs tend to pay out high distributions. But these high distributions may come at the expense of reducing the funds net asset value

Is It Worth Getting Into General Electric?: By Sol Palha:Only stocks that fulfilled most of the suggested criteria were included on this list. The criteria used can be accessed here: Our suggested guidelines when searching for new investment ideas. These are not absolute rules but suggestions to

Questcor's CEO Presents at Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2012 Health Care Conference (Transcript): Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR)Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2012 Health Care Conference TranscriptMay 16, 2012 4:40 PM ET ExecutivesDon Bailey – Chief Executive OfficerMike Mulroy – Chief Financial Officer AnalystsSteve Byrne – Bank of America Merrill Lynch Presentation Steve Byrne

Endologix's CEO Presents at the 2012 Bank of America Merrill Lynch Health Care Conference (Tran(...): Endologix Inc (ELGX) 2012 Bank of America Merrill Lynch Health Care Conference May 16, 2012 6:00 PM EST ExecutivesJohn D. McDermott – President & CEO Presentation ModeratorEndologix. I’m pleased to introduce to you John McDermott, President and CEO. We’ll have

Today In Commodities: Europe And The Market: By Matthew Bradbard: Energy: Crude oil is down 3.2% this week and almost 13% in the last three weeks but I think were close to an inflection point. I am not calling a bottom as I think it is possible

Rambus' CEO Presents at JPMorgan TMT Conference (Transcript): Rambus Inc. (RMBS)JPMorgan TMT Conference CallMay 16, 2012 14:50 ET ExecutivesHarold Hughes – Chief Executive Officer AnalystsPaul Coster – JPMorgan Presentation Paul Coster – JPMorganThank you very much. Good afternoon. My name is Paul Coster. I’m the Senior Analyst covering

Vical's CEO Presents at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Health Care Conference Call (Transcript): Vical Inc. (VICL)Bank of America Merrill Lynch Health Care Conference CallMay 15, 2012 01:00 pm ET ExecutivesVijay B. Samant – President and Chief Executive Officer AnalystsRachel Mcminn – Bank of America Merrill Lynch Presentation Rachel Mcminn – Bank of America

DailyFinance

Think Your Mortgage Refi Rate is Great? IBM Pays Less Than 1%: Filed under: IBM, CreditThink youve got a good mortgage rate? Thanks to record-low interest rates, Bankrate.com says consumers with good credit can get 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for about 3.75% today. 15-year fixed

Weird-Mart: Tales of the Bizarre from the Walmart Aisles: Filed under: Wal-Mart Stores, Features, Secret ShopperA 47-year-old man was bitten by a rattlesnake in the outdoor garden department of a Walmart (WMT) store in Lewiston, Idaho, this week.

Solid Reasons for the Unbanked to Shun Chase's New 'Liquid Card': When bankers come up with a new wonder product, its rarely good news for consumers. JPMorgan Chases (JPM) new Liquid card is no exception.Unveiled last week, Liquid is touted as a

GM Had 1,999 Reasons to Crash Facebook's IPO Party: Filed under: Technology, Facebook, General MotorsGeneral Motors (GM) really knows how to time an exit.The automaker has announced that it will no longer advertise on Facebook, just days before the social

JCPenney's Ron Johnson: 'Customers Don't Get Our Pricing Strategy': Filed under: Earnings, JC Penney, RetailBy Aimee GrothOn Tuesday, JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson presented on the companys Q1 earnings and its ongoing strategy in New York City. This was right

Can't Get a Piece of the Facebook IPO? Lucky You!: Filed under: Technology, Investing, Facebook, Market NewsA lot of people have been scrambling for a piece of Facebooks IPO this week, but youre probably out of luck. Underwriters save their allotments

The Truth About JPMorgan Chase's $2 Billion Loss: It's No Big Whoop: Filed under: JP Morgan Chase, Market News, BankingHey, Wall Street? Chicken Little called. She says you need to stop overreacting to JPMorgan Chases $2 billion trading loss. I mean, its not

Hollywood, Homeland Security Double Up Video Piracy Warnings: Filed under: Media, Crime, EntertainmentIf you thought the unskippable FBI warning about piracy included on every DVD was annoying before, its about to get even worse.Soon, home entertainment customers will have

GM Kills $10 Million Facebook Ad Campaign Because It Didn't Work: Filed under: Company News, Technology, Facebook, General MotorsBy Jim EdwardsGeneral Motors has pulled $10 million in ads from Facebook because they just didnt work, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Dennis

Saver or Sensualist, Innocent or Vigilant: What's Your Money Type?: Filed under: Books, Personal FinanceJohn Robbins has lived an unusual life. Son of the founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain, John made a decision early in his adulthood to walk

ExxonMobil's Safety Obsession: Inside the Mind of an Oil Giant: Filed under: Energy, Exxon Mobil, BooksExxonMobil (XOM) is an easy company to hate. As the worlds largest publicly traded oil and gas company, its hard not to blame it for the

Best Buy Gets Worse: CEO Dunn May Be Done, but His Payday Isn't: Filed under: Company News, People, Best BuyIf you want to make an easy $6.6 million at Best Buy (BBY), find a way to be its next CEO and

As Investors Fawn Over Facebook, Poll Finds User Distrust, Apathy: Filed under: Investing, FacebookBy CNBCs Kayla Tausche and Jesse Bergman(Associated Press contributed to this post)Facebooks initial public offering will be the largest and perhaps the most highly anticipated Internet deal in history.Faced

Drink Up Savings From Your Water Filter -- Savings Experiment: Filed under: Savings Experiment, Lifestyle#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-372771{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-372771, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-372771{width:620px;height:439px;display:block;}View PollView PollRelated Savings Experiments Break Your Bottled

Shocking Way Electric Utilities Are Making Us Pay for the Smart Grid: Filed under: Energy, Consumer AllyAre you ready for the smart electricity revolution? On July 20, 2006, Californias Public Utilities Commission approved a proposal by Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG) to begin

A 5-Step Plan to Fill That Scary Retirement Income Gap: Filed under: RetirementThe average American will face a 28% income shortfall in retirement, according to a recent survey by Fidelity Investments. And thats just the broad percentage: In dollars-and-cents terms, Gen

How Low Interest Rates Could Push College Costs Even Higher: Filed under: College FinanceThe rise in student loan debt is rapidly becoming one of the most troubling trends in the economy. When graduates emerge into a weak workforce deep in debt,

4 Smart Steps to Stymie the Scammers and Snoopers: Filed under: Consumer AllyPrivacy has never been harder to keep. Its easier than ever for con artists to use publicly available information to get at your financially sensitive data -- and

Why Chicken Is Getting Safer to Eat, More Dangerous to Produce: Filed under: Consumer Ally, FoodNewly-drafted USDA regulations aimed at protecting public health may make poultry safer to eat, but theres a trade-off that puts worker health and safety on the line.The

The 10 Vital Documents Every Grown-Up Should Have: Filed under: Power of PlanningOdds are, theres an important document or two that you know you should have, but that you just havent gotten around to getting yet. Check out

The Kirk Report

How To Start Keeping A Journal: At some point you have probably already read somewhere about the importance of keeping a trading journal. In other words, taking time each and every day to write down and store your thoughts, observations and actions concerning the market and

Study & Practice: Here is a question recently received from a member… Q: I am a new trader with roughly nine months of experience. I work full-time and trading for me is very much a part-time hobby. For the past few months and since

Be A Market Survivalist: Have you ever seen the show Man vs. Wild? If you haven’t and you love as I do being outdoors and taking risky adventures, you are missing a real treat. A friend of mine turned me onto the show last

Move On: “The market doesn’t know your emotions or care about your portfolio. The market is moving on. And so should you.” – Terry Savage One of the most challenging aspects of trading is learning to understand and appreciate that our constant

Wisdom From Jason Zweig: Members often tell me about the books they find most helpful. As you know, there’s a lot out there to read if you so desire about just about every topic you can think about regarding investing, trading and the markets.

Think Less & Keep It Simple: Every once in awhile I read something from another trader who I respect that I really wish I wrote myself. Here’s one such example: “One of the most difficult things to get investors and traders to understand is that no

An Hour With Arnold Palmer: “It is deceptively simple, endlessly complicated, a child can play it well, and a grown man can never master it. Any single round of it is full of unexpected triumphs and perfect shots that end in disaster. It is almost

What Do You Really Want?: I frequently share inspirational quotes with my membership and one of my favorites has to be this: “First, you decide what you want specifically; and second, you decide if you’re willing to pay the price to make it happen, and

How To Maintain An Optimal State: No matter what the market conditions may be, especially in weeks like this, it is very good idea to do everything you can to stick to the normal trading routine. While none of us can control what the markets do,

Lessons From Irwin T. Yamamoto: One of the greatest privileges of my life was my friendship with Irwin T. Yamamoto who passed away two years ago today on July 15, 2009 at the age of 54. Our friendship began eight years ago after I wrote

How To Trade While Away: Many have asked me over the years how I trade while on vacation. Here are my two rules: 1) I don’t trade during vacation, and 2) I close out all positions no matter what their upside potential before I leave.

Dr. Bob’s 10 Rules: In looking for paths to improve myself and to help those who I’m privileged to mentor, I have been reading a number of books and articles regarding applied sports psychology. Many of these books can offer more perspective and guidance

Learn To Overcome Your Obstacles: When I look back and think about the things that make me the most proud of what I have accomplished over my life, each memory can be directly attached to some specific obstacle I had to first face and then

15 Fundamentals To Market Success: Gerald Loeb was a founding partner of E.F. Hutton, a renowned and successful Wall Street trader, and the author of the books The Battle For Investment Survival and The Battle For Stock Market Profits. Mr. Loeb promoted a contrarian view

Lessons From Nicolas Darvas: Nicolas Darvas has inspired traders for many generations. His book, “How I Made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market” is one that you’ll find on many recommended reading lists including my very own. While some have argued that much of Darvas’

Where Will You Meet Your Waterloo?: Every week I receive a handful of emails from other traders who send me a copy of their strategy to evaluate. While I rarely if ever have the time truly required to go through each one and properly backtest it

Don’t Be Like Me: Everyone in this business will tell you how to be and what to do, but the bottom line is that you’ve got to always be yourself – flaws, emotions, stupidity, and all. There’s a saying that the stock market is

12 Steps To Get Things Done: This week I discovered this gem of a post called 12 steps to get things done. I’m a sucker for stuff like this, especially those produced from some of the better websites out there. However, I found this list particularly

Lessons From 2010: At the end of every year, I ask members of The Kirk Report to offer their feedback not only about the site itself but also to share some personal perspectives. For example, in the annual membership survey I asked the

Mark Minervini: Establishing positive momentum in the new year is not to be underestimated. And, so I thought to help you and other traders start the new year off right, I would repost this special in-depth interview I had with market wizard

Footnoted.org

Las Vegas Sands exec gets a sure deal…: There is at least one thing that the powers-that-be at Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) aren’t willing to gamble on – the continued employment of Robert G. Goldstein, an Executive Vice President and the President of its Global Gaming Operations. Goldstein

Doughnut line keeps chugging at Krispy Kreme…: There’s plenty of news on the pay, performance and corporate governance front out there today, what with JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) annual meeting, the recent departure of Yahoo’s (YHOO) embattled chief executive, and more. Those are getting plenty of attention —

Does Abercrombie’s emperor have any clothes?: It’s probably best not to think too hard about how things work at Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) without plenty of coffee. Even then, good luck making sense of it all. The most obvious question, of course, is why a company

Putting lipstick on the pig at Chesapeake…: We were going to write about something else this morning, but then Chesapeake Energy (CHK), which as footnoted regulars know is something of a frequent flyer here, decided to file its proxy statement, so we quickly changed plans. While the

Island living at $34 an hour, from Axis Capital…: There are all kinds of tax, regulatory and other reasons that insurance companies like to operate off the coast of the U.S. But it’s also no coincidence that some of the most popular spots for their headquarters are island get-aways

Wendy’s pays big dough for move to Ohio…: In the ring of cities that orbits Columbus, Ohio, Dublin occupies the northwest corner, a short 25-minute drive from the state’s capital. Among its other claims to fame, it’s where The Wendy’s Co. (WEN) has its corporate headquarters. And there

Wal-Mart, Mexico, red flags and hindsight…: The initial buzz has faded when it comes to David Barstow’s stunning April 21 New York Times report on Wal-Mart and bribery allegations in Mexico, but from what we can tell, it still features prominently in the conversation whenever corporate-governance

J. C. Penney’s new multi-million-dollar man…: Today’s the first day of work for Kenneth H. Hannah, the new Executive Vice President and CFO at J. C. Penney, Inc. (JCP). Although an 8-K filed May 3 noted that the giant retailer and Hannah “have not entered into an employment agreement,”

A trifecta of Apple gadgets at Hyatt Hotels…: Try as we might, we can’t trick out three of the hottest products from Apple (AAPL) seriously enough to bring the total price tag over $5,000 (before taxes and shipping) — and that’s even after we throw in a gratuitous

The other Deepak Chopra is a busy man…: Early last month we footnoted about the other Deepak Chopra — chairman and chief executive of OSI Systems (OSIS), maker of airport X-ray machines and medical devices, not the doctor and self-help entrepreneur – and how he stood to collect $12.5

A look at Wynn’s winners…: The lucky streak for casino executives continues, as demonstrated by the 10-K/A that Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) filed yesterday. Now normally, as footnoted readers know, the most “entertaining” information about compensation and perks comes in the form of a proxy.

Living the suite life in Las Vegas….: Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson may be best known for funding Newt Gingrich’s presidential ambitions (he’s now being courted by Mitt Romney). But here at footnoted, we’re less interested in politics than we are in the fun details in the filings.

Masimo CEO’s family comes along for the ride…: It wouldn’t surprise us if the people holding the strongest opinions about Masimo Corporation (MASI) – a medical technology company with a $1.3 billion market cap based in Irvine, California – fall into one of two camps. Those who hold

Where perks are always very limited…: It’s the tail-end of proxy season with a Monday deadline for many companies (at least those on a calendar year). And one of the things we’ve noticed is the large number of companies that describe the perks that they hand

Hidden perks at MGM Resorts…: One of the perks of reading company filings during proxy season is, well, perks: We get to read firsthand about all the lavish, bizarre and absurd goodies that companies shower on their directors and executives. But every now and then,

Monster Beverage execs get bulging stock awards…: The energy drink business is a big one, and for the top executives at the Monster Beverage Corp. (MNST), that led to some monster-sized rewards last year, according to the proxy filed yesterday. Specifically, Rodney Sacks, Monster’s Chairman, CEO, and

Chesapeake: Still a gusher…: Some footnoted frequent fliers are gifts that keep on giving, and probably none more so than Chesapeake Energy (CHK). Chesapeake and its chief executive, Aubrey K. McClendon, won our 2009 Footnote of the Year contest (no great honor, trust us) with

The many paychecks of Barry Diller…: No one can accuse Barry Diller of putting all his eggs in one basket. Indeed, the busy septuagenarian just got a few new “eggs,” thanks to the 8-K that TripAdvisor, Inc. (TRIP) filed late last Friday afternoon. Filed at 4:02 p.m. on

Too busy to read SEC filings…: For the past few days, I’ve been down in Florida, a place I once called home, driving between St. Pete, Winter Park, Sarasota and Venice to speak to local chapters of the American Association of Individual Investors. Since I (and

Aon sweeps jet-ride errors under the rug…: We took Aon (AON) to task in a recent post for splashing out a bunch of money to move its top brass to the U.K. after relocating the company’s headquarters. Now, eagle-eyed footnoted researcher Bhattiprolu Murti has spotted another doozy in

TraderFeed

Decision Point and the Value of Market Overview

What New Traders Need to Learn: Kudos to John Forman, who has assembled an edited volume specific to the questions most asked by developing traders. A variety of experienced traders and market bloggers have participated in the volume, offering a mix of viewpoints. It is often

Minding Our Selves: How Body Becomes Soul: In the past, Ive written about how life experiences serve as mirrors: they reflect to us something of who we are, which we then internalize as part of our identities. This is particularly true of relationships: we continually experience ourselves

Readings to Kick Off the New Week: * The thought process behind trading success;* Im proud to have had some small impact upon the excellent Market Rewind site; many thanks to Jeff for his post;* Much thanks to MarketSci for quant insights and this kind post;* A

The Four-Leaf Clover Principle: This morning, I went for a jog in the forest preserve park down the street from our home. Winding down the run, I cut through a section of the park and noticed to my surprise that, after the recent rain,

The TraderFeed Home Page: Trading and Market Psychology Resources: Welcome to the TraderFeed blog. TraderFeed began in December, 2005 as a project to help me think aloud about trading

Best of TraderFeed 2010 - Volume Two: Trading and Market Psychology: Here is the second and final installment of TraderFeeds Best of 2010 posts. You can find the first group of best posts here. The links below cover March - May, 2010. * Suggestions for Your Trading Journal* Why I Am

Best of TraderFeed 2010 - Volume One: Trading and Market Psychology: In anticipation of winding down the blog, I assembled highlight posts from January and February, 2010, covering trading psychology and market topics:* Building Motivation Through Optimism* Changing How We Think* The Trading Process and Generating Trade Ideas* Finding Your Solutions*

Core Ideas in Trading Psychology: Trading and Self Development: This is the final post in the series summarizing core themes running through the TraderFeed blog. The other posts in the series are:Introduction to Trading PsychologyTrading as a Performance ActivityChanging Problem PatternsSolution-Focused ChangeMirrors and Corrective Emotional ExperiencesImplicit Learning and Somatic

Core Ideas in Trading Psychology: Reading Market Psychology Through Intermarket Themes: Previous Posts in This Series:Reading Market Psychology Through Volume and PriceIdentifying Historical Patterns in MarketsMarket Structure and Adapting to ChangeImplicit Learning and Somatic PatternsMirrors and Corrective Emotional ExperiencesSolution-Focused ChangeChanging Problem PatternsTrading as a Performance ActivityIntroduction to Trading PsychologyOne of the

Core Ideas in Trading Psychology: Reading Market Psychology With Volume and Price: Previous Posts in This Series:Identifying Historical Patterns in MarketsMarket Structure and Adapting to ChangeImplicit Learning and Somatic MarkersMirrors and Corrective Emotional ExperiencesSolution-Focused ChangeChanging Problem PatternsTrading as a Performance ActivityIntroduction to Trading PsychologyAn important theme throughout the TraderFeed blog is that

Core Ideas in Trading Psychology: Identifying Historical Patterns in Markets: Previous Posts in This Series:Market Structure and Adapting to Market ChangeImplicit Learning and Somatic MarkersMirrors and Corrective Emotional ExperiencesSolution Focused ChangeChanging Problem PatternsTrading as a Performance ActivityIntroduction to Trading PsychologyOne of the core themes that runs through the TraderFeed blog

Oil Price in Euros: Yet Another Economic Challenge for Europe: Here I used a pair of ETFs: the oil ETF USO and the euro ETF FXE to estimate the movement

Trading and Poker: Reaching the Next Level of Success: Well, thats another way poker might be like trading: Its easy to participate, difficult to sustain success. Many just play

Core Ideas in Trading Psychology: Market Structure and Adapting to Market Change: Previous Posts in This Series:Implicit Learning and Somatic MarkersMirrors and Corrective Emotional ExperiencesSolution Focused ChangeChanging Problem PatternsTrading as a Performance ActivityIntroduction to Trading PsychologyA key idea running through the TraderFeed blog as well as my books on trading psychology is

Core Ideas in Trading Psychology: Implicit Learning and Somatic Markers: Previous Posts in This Series:Mirrors and Corrective Emotional ExperiencesSolution-Focused ChangeChanging Problem Patterns BrieflyTrading as a Performance ActivityIntroduction to Trading PsychologyPerhaps the most common psychological change that traders need to make is the ability to quiet their minds and focus their

Using Twitter for Reader Updates: As noted a little while ago, I am in the process of winding down the TraderFeed blog. My continued thanks to supportive readers; I do intend to keep the blog up as an archive for future reference. In addition, before

Core Ideas in Trading Psychology: Creating Change Through Mirrors and Corrective Emotional Exp(...): Previous Posts in This Series:Solution-Focused ChangeChanging Problem PatternsTrading as a Performance ActivityIntroduction to Trading PsychologyWhen people find themselves locked into repetitive patterns of thought, feeling, and/or behavior that interfere with their lives, how do they escape? As all too many

Core Ideas in Trading Psychology: Solution-Focused Change: Previous Posts in This Series:Changing Problem PatternsTrading as a Performance ActivityIntroduction to Trading PsychologyOne of the key themes running through the TraderFeed blog, as well as the books that Ive written on trading psychology, is that effective change comes from

End of the Week Readings: * What distinguishes successful traders;* Investors not pricing in risks in muni market;* ECB may face dilemma re: raising rates;* Strategies for hedging inflation risk;* Making the case for transparency in financial reform;* More Americans counting on Social Security for

Random Roger's Big Picture

Black Swan Alert--Financial Stocks Still Stink: Before anyone gets worked up, the title of this post is meant to be sarcastic, I realize a decline in bank stocks is not a black swan. If anything it is a white swan as I have been saying from

Sunday Morning Coffee: Just a brief comment or two about the upcoming Facebook (FB) IPO. According to Barrons, FB has a user base of 901 million, or 58% of the globes Internet users (not including China, where the site is restricted). Barrons quoted

The Big Picture for the Week of May 13: The other day I stumbled across an article about the dividend yields for four gold mining stocks including Anglo Gold Ashanti (AU). Before the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) came along we used AU for our gold exposure. It did ok

Individuals Have No Business Picking Stocks? Really?: Yesterday on CNBC Steven Rattner made a lot of noise by noting that individuals have no business picking stocks, that they should instead only use index funds. Later in the day the network picked up the ball to try to

How Bad Is Europe?: The chart tracks the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) against what I believe are all of the Eurozone ETFs; iShares France (EWQ), iShares Spain (EWP), iShares Germany (EWG), iShares Italy (EWI), iShares Belgium, iShares Netherlands (EWN), iShares Finland (EFNL) and Global

What Does Long Term Actually Mean?: There was a post at Seeking Alpha about client holding Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) with the title JNJ Is Not A Good Long Term Investment For 2012. This was a pretty funny headline. The author made a bearish case mostly

Social Security Statements Now Online: Smart Money mentioned that Social Security statements are now online. The statements always make for interesting viewing so I took a look at mine. My benefit at 67 is slated to be $2459 per month and at 70 it would

Sunday Morning Coffee: A client asked what I thought was coming next for the stock market as we had a bad week and there is some level of concern over the election in France.The market has had relatively mild declines over the last

The Big Picture for the Week of May 6, 2012: One of my favorite blog posts was from 2009 and titled The Five Best Places To Retire. It was a tongue in cheek post about what long time reader SD later dubbed as tax arbitrage. The basic concept was to

A Followup To The CNBC Freakout: A couple of days ago I wrote about whether or not CNBC was freaking out about ratings and what the ratings may or may not say about the sentiment of Americans toward capital markets. The original Daily News article has

How To Minimize Fixed Income Portfolio Risks: A reader left the following questions;At this point in the cycle, when everyone is hammering that bonds are expensive, if ones stock/bond allocation is tilted too highly towards stocks due to the recent uptrend, how should new money be allocated?

Freaking Out Because There's Nothing to Freak Out About: Barry Ritholtz linked to an article with a sensationalized headline that CNBC is freaking out over a decline in ratings. No doubt that a TV network would be concerned over a drop in ratings but who knows if anyone at

Stock Rover: Barrons Electronic Investor column reviewed a site called Stock Rover. The review was compelling enough that I checked it out and registered. The interface is more like a software program than a website interface that you might be familiar with

Sunday Morning Coffee: A reader left a comment on a post from earlier in the week that I think ties in with something that came up in my Thursday call with AdvisorShares. In his comment the reader noted that weve been in a

The Big Picture For the Week of April 29, 2012: I stumbled across a very important quote from Jeremy Grantham;The cardinal rule is to not underperform in bear markets.Confirmation bias being what it is I take this as a validation for some sort of objective trigger point for taking defensive

Holding Stocks Long Term: Yesterday I did a conference call with AdvisorShares that covered a lot of ground including a reason or two to try to hold stocks (or funds) for the long term. In related news client holding Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) hiked

Deep (Portfolio) Thoughts With Marc Faber: Marc Fabers latest thoughts are making the rounds including in this blog post from the WSJ. The big picture view is that Faber thinks inflation will erode the assets of the wealthiest among us. More interesting was Fabers idea of

Apple Does All the Heavy Lifting?: This weeks Barrons Technology Trader column made an interesting point about Apple (AAPL). The focus of the article was the extent to which Apples results, by virtue of the companys massive market cap, have contributed to the top down results

Real Life Retirement Example: One of the Fire Department training objectives for this year that I came up with is hazardous materials. Weve never had it before and given all of the old mines in the area it seems like a good idea (beyond

Sunday Morning Coffee: A more accurate title to this post would be 4% of what? as that was the nature of a discussion in the comments of this article at Seeking Alpha. There were varying opinions on how to determine where the 4%

Ticker Sense

Netscape & Google: With Facebook set to price Thursday and begin trading Friday we have been digging around in our databases on IPOs, looking for insight, ideas, etc. While there are no close (or even really remotely close) comparisons for Facebook, two names...

May 14th Blogger Sentiment Poll: Blogger Sentiment Poll Participants: 24/7 Wall St (N) The Aleph Blog (+) Biiwii (N) Bruce Krasting BullBear Trading (-) Carl Futia (+) Dash of Insight (N) Dividend Growth Investor Elliot Wave Lives On (+) Expected Returns Fallond Stock Picks (+)...

Newsletter Porfolios Outperforming in May: Our portfolios from Reminiscences, are outperforming this month despite a difficult market. The star this month is our Trading portfolio which is ahead of the market by over 4%. Disney (DIS) and Macys (M) were two of the trading names...

Energy Sector Enters a 10% Correction: The S&P 500 energy sector (S5ENRS) entered a 10% decline. Closing down 10.5% from its high on 4/24. Since 1962 on average, the sector continues down an additional 6.9% before bottoming.

Cisco's Earnings After the Bell: Cisco (CSCO) is scheduled to report their 3Q12 earnings after the market close today. Analysts’ are currently looking for $0.47 in EPS on $11.57B in revenue. This accounts to 11.0% gain in EPS and 6.5% gain in revenue from the...

"Difference Between the US and Europe ...": We came across two interesting and entertaining articles today on the European crisis from Derek Thompson at The Atlantic. The Key Difference Between the US and Europe in One Simple Graph The Funneist Graph Ive Ever Seen About Why the...

May 7th Blogger Sentiment Poll: Blogger Sentiment Poll Participants: 24/7 Wall St (-) The Aleph Blog (+) Biiwii (-) Bruce Krasting BullBear Trading (-) Carl Futia (+) Dash of Insight (N) Dividend Growth Investor (+) Elliot Wave Lives On (+) Expected Returns Fallond Stock Picks...

"Birinyi Bullish as Bears With Deja Vu Can’t Wait to Sell": Read Laszlo Birinyis comments in todays Bloomberg story here. Also for some figures we ran on Sell in May... see the previous post.

"_____ in May and ____": It is that time of year again as we have begun hearing the old market adage: “sell in May and go away” (two articles today alone).1 There are may different versions of this tale: sell before Memorial Day then buy...

MasterCard's Earnings Report Tomorrow Morning...: MasterCard (MA) was a name we highlighted in our Earnings Cheat Sheet as a stock that consistently reported higher than estimated earnings and better than expected revenues.1 Since its IPO in 2006, MA has reported both better than expected EPS...

April 30th Blogger Sentiment Poll: Blogger Sentiment Poll Participants: 24/7 Wall St (N) The Aleph Blog (+) Biiwii (-) Bruce Krasting BullBear Trading Carl Futia (+) Dash of Insight Dividend Growth Investor Elliot Wave Lives On (+) Expected Returns (-) Fallond Stock Picks (+) Global...

Conservative and Growth Portfolios Continue to Outperform: We published the May issue of Reminiscences last night and both our conservative and growth portfolios are outperforming the S&P 500. Year-to-date the conservative up 12.9% and growth is up 17.2% vs the S&P 500s gain of 11.3%. We added...

S&P 500 Money Flows Still Positive: Money flows are most useful when in the context of individual stocks, but it is interesting to aggregate all the money flows into S&P 500 members to get an idea of the big picture. Despite the market pull-back, money flow...

April 23rd Blogger Sentiment Poll: Blogger Sentiment Poll Participants: 24/7 Wall St (N) The Aleph Blog Biiwii (-) Bruce Krasting BullBear Trading Carl Futia (+) Dash of Insight (N) Dividend Growth Investor (+) Elliot Wave Lives On (+) Expected Returns (-) Fallond Stock Picks (+)...

Copper vs the Market: We dont usually delve into commodity analysis, but recently some Wall Street strategists and technicians have suggested that the decline in copper (referring to it as Dr. Copper) is an ominous sign for the economy and the market. The thinking...

Largest Share Buybacks YTD: Below are the largest authorizations year-to-date. JPM and AAPL both have authorized over $10B in repurchases. The top ten authorizations year-to-date have returned, on average, 2.4% on a one day basis and were up 80% of the time.

April 16th Blogger Sentiment Poll: Blogger Sentiment Poll Participants: 24/7 Wall St (N) The Aleph Blog (+) Biiwii (-) Bruce Krasting BullBear Trading (-) Carl Futia (+) Dash of Insight (-) Dividend Growth Investor (+) Elliot Wave Lives On (+) Expected Returns (-) Fallond Stock...

A Correction?: Just two days ago Wall Street was telling us that we were in a correction (they could still be right). The S&P 500 traded down 4.4% from its 4/2 peak. But the key point to remember is that on average...

Apple vs Spain, Greece and Portugal: Great chart compiled by Bloomberg this morning: AAPLs market cap is about to overtake the total market capitalization of all the public companies in Spain, Greece and Portugal combined.

Market & Sector 10% Filter: Examining our Market & Sector 10% Filter from the Pre-Market Report this morning a few things catch our eye. Financials and technology have both risen above their average rally without a 10% pullback. Financials have risen 36.8% since their bottom...

Gannon On Investing

Japanese Net-Nets: Report: Someone I regularly trade emails with sent me this report on 5 Japanese net-nets he researched. And he said I could share it on the blog: Gurpreet Narangs Report on 5 Japanese Net-Nets (PDF) Talk to Geoff about Japanese Net-NetsRead Geoffs Articles

Notes on Warren Buffett's 2011 Letter to Shareholders: You can read my thoughts here.Talk to Geoff about Warren Buffetts 2011 Letter to Shareholders

Working for GuruFocus: I finally made the move to Texas. And am now working full-time for GuruFocus.Here are the articles Ive written since joining them last week:Can You Build a Liquid Portfolio with Illiquid Stocks?Free Cash Flow: Adjusting for Acquisitions, Capital Allocation, And

What to Look for in Japanese Net-Nets: Someone who reads the blog sent me an email asking about a specific Japanese net-net. Rather than trying to choose the best net-nets from among the entire hoard in Japan, I would suggest doing one of two things:Bigger investors can

Variation: Someone who reads my blog sent me this email:Geoff, Reading your articles. I am confused between standard deviation and coefficient of variation. Standard deviation itself shows how much variation exists from the average then what does coefficient of variation tells us? GurpreetStandard

Investor Questions Podcast: All Interviews and Episodes: Someone who reads the blog sent me this email:Hey Geoff,Thanks for posting up your old podcast episodes! Any chance you can put up the interview series episodes as well? Thanks!-DrewSure. Here are links to all the interviews and episodes. Remember,

Faith in Net-Nets: My latest net-net article over at GuruFocus includes my clearest explanation of what to look for in net-nets – and more importantly – what it takes to make money investing in net-nets:If the balance sheet is very liquid and insider

3 Net-Net Articles: Here are the 3 net-net articles Ive written over at GuruFocus:When Is a Bad Business a Good Net-Net?Risk in Net-NetsHow Many Net-Nets Are There?Expect a new net-net article each Friday. The net-net newsletter comes out once a month. The next

Net-Net Series Starts at GuruFocus: Today, I wrote the first of what will be a weekly series of net-net articles over at GuruFocus. The article is called How Many Net-Nets Are There?And the answer is 142.By the way, a new issue of GuruFocuss net-net newsletter comes

Investor Questions Podcast Episodes: Some people have asked where they can find episodes of my defunct podcast.Here they are:Episode 1Episode 2Episode 3Episode 4Episode 5Episode 6Episode 7Episode 8Episode 9Episode 10Episode 11Episode 12Episode 13Episode 14Episode 15Episode 16Episode 17Episode 18Episode 19Episode 20Talk to Geoff About the Investor

Japanese Net-Nets: 6 Months Later: It’s been about 6 months since I bought a basket of 5 Japanese net-nets.A couple people have asked about how my Japanese net-nets have done. I started making these investments around April of this year. I wrote the “Buy Japan”

Mr. Market’s Predictive Power – June 1914: On June 30th 1914 the New York Times ran the headline:Trading Very Dull, with Prices a Little LowerThe article had this to say about Europe:The assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne was an event whose consequences were closely

How Should You Value Journal Communications (JRN)?: Someone who reads the blog sent me this email:Hi Geoff, The thing I have been pondering is what are the tools in valuing a shrinking / dying business. The one I have been looking through is Journal Communications (JRN). They

12 Stocks I’d Consider Buying: Someone who reads the blog sent me this email:Hi Geoff, My question for you is about the recent market correction. I know you might not be comfortable talking about any stocks you bought, but Id love to hear anything you

The 4 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Stock: Someone who reads the blog wrote me this email:In your recent article you wrote: Intrinsic value is a guess. Buying is the belief. You don’t need to use a lot of math to prove exactly what something is worth. You

Some Good Stock Analysis For You: Here’s some good stock analysis for you.Whopper Investments and Oddball Stocks spar over net-net ADDvantage (AEY). Whopper Investments owns the stock. Oddball Stocks explains why it’s a pass.And Andrew August at The Frog’s Kiss writes about Dreamworks (DWA). It’s a

Valuing Financial Companies: ROIC, ROE, or ROA?: Someone who reads my blog sent me this email:All else being equal, which measure is preferred for financial firms such as banks: ROIC or ROE? I am using ROIC for non-financial firms but I didnt know if it gave a

Ted Weschler’s Portfolio: Yesterday, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) announced it hired Ted Weschler as an investment manager. Weschler will manage between $1 billion and $3 billion of Berkshire’s money. He starts next year.Weschler currently runs a hedge fund.Here is his latest portfolio:DirecTV

Recent Articles at GuruFocus: Barnes & Noble (BKS): Anatomy of a Screw UpInvest with StyleAdapt!: Trial and Error InvestingIve gotten a lot of good email questions lately. Usually, my GuruFocus articles are based on questions sent in by people who read the blog.So if

Interviews - Street Capitalist, Fat Pitch Financials, SINLetter, Cheap Stocks, and Greenbackd: InterviewsTariq Ali of Street CapitalistGeorge of Fat Pitch FinancialsAsif Suria of SINLetter.comJon Heller of Cheap StocksToby Carlisle of Greenbackd Talk to Geoff about the Interviews

Value Discipline

The Developing Compensation Philosophy of the Treasury Department: Here is a link to Gene Sperlings opening statement: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg166.htm#_ftnref3There are some very interesting quotes that help to frame Treasurys philosophy re systematic risk and executive compensation in this statement.Compensation structures that permitted key executives and other financial actors to

Executive Compensation-Government is Not Going Away: Corporate governance is a topic that many of us tend to ignore, leaving it to the institutions or corporate raiders that are looking to influence the strategic direction, the capital allocation, the corporate structures or the compensation structures of business.Yet,

Tiffany & Co-Valuation Seems Generous to Me: On Monday, Tiffany & Co reported what seemed to be somewhat disappointing earnings of $1.09 versus a street consensus of $1.13. TIF actually has had a fairly good history of positive earnings surprises in recent quarters (data courtesy of Reuters):Quarter

Traits of the Successful Investor and the Changing Nature of Brand Loyalty: The year 2010 seems to be progressing as a positive experience following the shaky start in January. The subsequent rally that has transpired since that time has caught many people flat-footed, but that is the price of erratic trading. Most

Book Review-"Even Buffett Isn't Perfect": I am a complete sucker for investment books. My wife accuses me of owning several thousand books that have essentially the same title, usually some variant of Value Investing, valuation, or intrinsic value, or securities analysis. Of course, I have

John Templeton- The Triumph of Optimism: Sir John Templeton passed away yesterday. He died, much as he spent his life, peacefully.Geoff Gannon (and it is great to have him back in the blogosphere) has an extensive list of articles outlining Templetons life as well as a

An Interesting Screen-Deteriorating Operating Margins and Increasing Capital Intensity: As one would expect, deterioration in operating margins will occur in economic slowdowns. Marginal competitors frequently will try to clear inventories at ever lower margins in order to generate cash flow. I am particularly interested concerned if a company exhibits

Recurring Revenues and Financial Services- The Competitive Moat of Fiserv: In our last post, we discussed the notion of recurring revenues as it pertains to companies in the industrial sector. The genesis of this idea was a reaction to the prevailing wisdom of many investment strategists to find recurring revenue

Recurring Revenues and Industrials: Economic uncertainty generally steers investors toward steady eddy businesses such as foods, consumer staples, healthcare and utilities. But what investors should be seeking is recurring revenues, predictable and stable revenues with a high degree of certainty.Recurring revenues are highly desirable

A Lemons Market- Information Asymmetry and Bear Stearns: Asymmetric information gets to the root of todays market problem in Bear Stearns. George Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Joseph Stiglitz won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics for their work in this area.Akerlof, who wrote the earliest paper in this

Pantry Gets a Heads-Up from the Globe: The Pantry just received a mention in a blog that is part of Torontos Globe and Mail, essentially Canadas version of the Wall Street Journal.The article, On the Hunt for the king of value factors highlights price to sale ratios.

Is "The Pantry" Bare?-Piotroski Says No: You cant buy what is popular and do well is one of the great Warren Buffett quotes. Though over time, I have learned to be far more comfortable investing in quality businesses that throw off lots of free cash flow

A Report from Today's Citigroup Meeting re Governance: Corporate governance has always been an important part of value investing. Obviously, most of us hate waste when precious company resources are squandered to build executive dreams rather than shareholder capital. Misallocation of capital and failure to optimize returns on

NCR versus Diebold: Courtesy of Seeking Alpha, I have been privileged to have been introduced to an exciting new research product called Gridstone Research. Gridstone is a new research platform that combines financial data, operational data, and unstructured textual information about a company

Techonomics and the ATM: “By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.”- Christopher ColumbusNeedless to say, it has been an incredibly tumultuous environment. The economic outlook, despite a few specks of light in a dark

Happy New Year!: What can be said in New Year rhymes,Thats not been said a thousand times?The new years come, the old years go,We know we dream, we dream we know.We rise up laughing with the light,We lie down weeping with the night.We

Fair Value, Mark-To-Market and Financial Reporting-Another Revision?: Less than a week to go for 2008, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has a proposal which it has thrown into the arena to address the problem of fair value.Mark to market accounting has stirred up a very

Happy Holidays!: A simple and sincere message to all. Heres wishing you the best of holidays in this blessed season.Wishing all of you a Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas, and peace!Looking forward to 2009, a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Year for all!Rick

Stocking Stuffers: It has been a remarkable year. It has been year that many of us would just as soon forget. The cascading effects of deleveraging have been rampant across all markets.The financial turmoil of 2007-08-09? has deeply affected households as well

The Commodity Investment World Conference-Some Observations on Commodities as a Diversifier: For two days last week, it was my privilege to attend the Commodity Investment World conference through the courtesy of Seeking Alpha. A broad spectrum of commodities markets, their economics and approaches to these markets were discussed.Commodities conferences historically have

NO DooDahs!

Automotive Annoyances: A few things that bothered me yesterday about the news coverage of the pending bailout for domestic auto(loan)makers.“GM makes cars nobody wants” Vs. “GM sold __ million cars in the U.S. in the last __ years”“Nobody wants” is an exaggeration,

Buy-A-Bank Bailouts: The Hartford (HIG), a.k.a. “The Neutered Stag,” has pulled a fast one! They bought a bank, just in order to get bailed out.In some bizarre way, this multi-national, multi-billion-dollar insurer can buy some tiny, eleven-branch-having, single state bank off of

Busy With Other Projects, Back Again Soon: No description.

Updates at The Rempel Report: Still no Timing signalValue Portfolio updatePersonal returns for October 2008

Piece of the Rock Randomosity: Get it, baby! Get a piece of the rock! Prudential Financial (PRU) reported yesterday. Lots of ways to put lipstick on this pig, and turn a loss per share into a “

ModernGraham.com

Updated Valuations – Week of 2/22/10: You can view more company valuations by visiting the valuations database in the navbar. There are 145 companies in the database including all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average!Due to the increasing number of companies in the database

Updated Valuations – Week of 2/15/10: You can view more company valuations by visiting the valuations database in the navbar. There are 145 companies in the database including all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average!Due to the increasing number of companies in the database

Updated Valuations – Week of 1/4/2010: You can view more company valuations by visiting the valuations database in the navbar. There are 145 companies in the database including all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average!Due to the increasing number of companies in the database

A Look Back on 2009 for Modern Graham: 2009 was a record year for Modern Graham. With over 40,000 visits from over 28,000 unique visitors, more people visited the site than any year before. Now that the year is over, it is time to look back on what

Added and Updated Valuations – 12/29/09: I didn’t have time to add any new companies to the database due to the holidays, but you can view more by visiting the valuations database in the navbar. There are 145 companies in the database including all 30 components

Added and Updated Valuations – 12/21/09: This is a day late, and it includes a few companies that were scheduled to be updated last week. For those readers who don’t know, I’m currently in law school – and had exams the last couple of weeks. As

Festival of Stocks #172: This week we have the honor of hosting the 172nd edition of the Festival of Stocks. According to the festival’s original sponsor, ValueInvestingNews, “The Festival of Stocks is a blog carnival dedicated to highlighting bloggers’ best articles on stock market

Added and Updated Valuations – 12/7/09: Here are the new valuations added to our site in the past week. To view more, click on browse valuations in our navbar. We now have 145 in the database including all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average!A

Dividend Portfolio – November 2009 Update: On the first Friday of every month, we will screen our database for the 10 companies with the highest dividend yield that are suitable for the enterprising investor. These 10 companies will be placed in a mock portfolio and rebalanced

Festival of Stocks #168: This week we have the honor of hosting the 168th edition of the Festival of Stocks. According to the festival’s original sponsor, ValueInvestingNews, “The Festival of Stocks is a blog carnival dedicated to highlighting bloggers’ best articles on stock market

Added and Updated Valuations – 11/16/09: Here are the new valuations added to our site in the past week. To view more, click on browse valuations in our navbar. We now have 130 in the database including all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average!RF

Enterprising Value Portfolio – October 2009 Update: On the second Thursday of every month (I know, I’m a day late…), we will screen our database for the 10 companies trading at the lowest ratio to their intrinsic value, as determined by our formula, and that are suitable

10 Dividend Companies for the Enterprising Investor – December Update: The following screen is the basis of the Dividend Portfolio. The screen is of the 140 companies in the Modern Graham valuation database’s for the top dividend payouts from companies suitable for the enterprising investor. Later today I will have

Updating Ben’s Portfolio – November 2009: On the first Thursday of every month, I plan on reviewing the portfolio and making any changes that seem necessary.You can see the portfolio in this google spreadsheet.Here’s a snippet from the construction:When constructing the portfolio, I began by deciding

Low PE Portfolio – November 2009 Update: On the first Tuesday (sorry, day late this month!) of every month, we will screen our database for the 10 companies with the lowest price to earnings ratio (ModernGraham-style) that are suitable for the enterprising investor. These 10 companies will

10 Low PE Companies for the Enterprising Investor: The bears are active even though the bulls seem to be ruling this market. The following screen is the basis of the Low PE Portfolio. I complete this screen once a month. The screen is of the valuation database’s 140

Added and Updated Valuations – 11/30/09: Here are the new valuations added to our site in the past week. To view more, click on browse valuations in our navbar. We now have 140 in the database including all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average!ATI

7 Great Amazon Deals to Give to Intelligent Investors: Today is Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Many stores have great deals available in an attempt to get a good start on the holiday shopping season. If you are looking for some gift ideas

Added and Updated Valuations – 11/23/09: Here are the new valuations added to our site in the past week. To view more, click on browse valuations in our navbar. We now have 135 in the database including all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average!AES

Stock Market Beat

Truck Tonnage Index: Truckline.com ArticleCompared with October 2008, SA tonnage fell 5.2 percent, which was the best year-over-year showing since November 2008. In September, the index was down 7.3 percent from a year earlier.

Corporate Cash Flow: St. Louis Fed: FRED Graph

Corporate Profits: No description.

Capacity Utilization: St. Louis Fed: Series: TCU, Capacity Utilization: Total Industry

Capacity Utilization: St. Louis Fed: FRED Graph

Corporate Profits: St. Louis Fed: FRED Graph

Capacity Utilization: St. Louis Fed: Series: TCU, Capacity Utilization: Total Industry

Another Record: Capacity Utilization: St. Louis Fed: Series: TCU, Capacity Utilization: Total Industry

Record Territory: St. Louis Fed: FRED GRAPH

Employment: Employment Situation Summary Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall sharply in February (-651,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employ- ment has

Capacity Utilization: St. Louis Fed: Series: TCU, Capacity Utilization: Total Industry

Gross Domestic Product: BEA: News Release: Gross Domestic ProductReal gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — decreased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of

St. Louis Fed: Series: TCU, Capacity Utilization: Total Industry: St. Louis Fed: Series: TCU, Capacity Utilization: Total Industry

Who Madoff With My Money?: You can’t make this stuff up.On Wall Street, his name is legendary. With money he had made as a lifeguard on the beaches of Long Island, he built a trading powerhouse that had prospered for more than four decades. At

Corporate Profits: St. Louis Fed: FRED GRAPH

Capacity Utilization: Total Industry: St. Louis Fed: Series: TCU, Capacity Utilization: Total Industry

Personal Income and Outlays: Econoday Report: Personal Income and Outlays 31, 2008Personal income in September 2008 rose 0.2% from August. Real personal consumption expenditures (PCE) fell 0.4% and nominal PCE fell 0.3%. Real disposable personal income (DPI) rose 0.1% and nominal DPI increased 0.2%. The

Retail Sales: Economic Indicators.gov

Interest Rate Spreads: St. Louis Fed: Series: WBAA, Moody’s Seasoned Baa Corporate Bond Yield Series: WGS10YR, 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity RateAccording to the latest data from the Federal Reserve, Baa corporate bonds are yielding 4.56% more than 10-year Treasuries. The chart below shows

Berkshire Ruminations

Moneyball for Investing: Baseball salaries exploded in the 1990s, forcing owners and managers to completely reevaluate how their teams were run. Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A’s believed he had found a solution. Rather than trying to buy the best players,

Empirical Finance Research Blog: If you are interested in financial research you may want to check out a new project I am starting with a friend of mine who is a PhD student at the University of Chicago. It is called Empirical Finance Research:http://empiricalfinanceresearch.blogspot.com/Our

Bullish on TMA: I captured the following screenshot from Yahoo Finance shortly after the market closed today:This was kind of surprising to me given the performance of

To Whom it May Concern:: This blog is not dead. I am just taking a break. Lots of personal stuff going on, including the recent birth of my first son. I had hoped to work out a combination of names such that his initials would

Buffett Videoconference at MU on Friday: I thought I might help publicize the University of Missouri Trulaske College of Business 2008 Forum on Emerging Issues & Trends in Real Estate. That is mouthful. What it means is that on Friday as part of a symposium on

A few thoughts on the Bear Stearns situation: The first lesson that came to my mind when I heard about this debacle was straight from Buffett: Don’t buy what you can’t understand. Was Bear a simple and understandable business? Of course not. Their investments were so complex that

Wrigley Deal and the Annual Meeting: I have been hesitant to jump to many conclusions about the Wrigley deal because I think there are still a lot of unanswered questions about Berkshires involvement in it. Hopefully many of the details will be explained this weekend at

Another Hilarious Screen Capture: Could someone tell me how this headline ended up on Google Finance?

Buffett's Politics: I am beginning to think Mr. Buffett needs to just keep his mouth shut and run the company. His opining on tax policy and government bailouts is just making him look foolish.

There Are too Many Bureaucrats and They Are Paid too Much: If youre sick of working hard and being productive, perhaps a job with the government is the solution. Hell, if the country is going bankrupt anyway, enjoy the gravy train while it lasts!!

Of Permanent Value - the Trilogy!: Just thought Id do my part to promote Andy Kilpatricks latest magnum opus, the 2010 edition of Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett: A trilogy. This three-volume, 2000 page, behemoth replaces the two-volume 2008 cosmic edition that weighed

Cash For Clunkers: Here’s an idea for wealth creation that can’t fail:Let’s encourage everybody with a particular asset that has value - namely a car worth less than $4500 - to sell it to the government so the government can then destroy it.

No title: Since there is no such entity as the public, since the public is merely a number of individuals, the idea that the public interest supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of

Berkshire History in the Making!: I don’t maintain this blog much anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t follow Berkshire Hathaway. And I would be remiss not to comment on the news I awoke to this morning. Today is likely the most historic day in

Big Government, Small Growth: I am an empiricist and leery of any economic assertion that isnt backed by sound data. And so I was pleased to see Dan Mitchells latest video because towards the ends it gives a brief bibliography of work published in

Apparently a no-brainer. Who knew?: I thought it was interesting that yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that economists are nearly unanimous that Ben Bernanke should be reappointed to another term and that the majority also say the recession is over. Who exactly are these

100% Insanity: To me, this is proof the mainstream media has absolutely no clue about economic reality.CNN proudly boasts today that Cash For Clunkers program is “Real Stimulus,” claiming that “The boost to auto sales caused by the government trade-in program should

GM - What a joke: Let’s face it. General Motors is in terrible shape. It sells an unpopular line of vehicles and is completely captive to its inflexible cost structure. Despite what political pundits would like to suggest, the company’s troubles are not the result

A dual-class arbitrage in Berkshire stock?: Hat tip to Ray for pointing this out to me. A few days ago BRK.B was trading at a level significantly lower than 1/30 of BRK.A. In fact the spread represented 7% of the value of BRK.B.This was a decent

No title

Original Signal - Transmitting Web 2.0