One of the mistakes I’ve made in investing, especially starting out, was to try and live in a vacuum. What I mean is, I’d made my stock pick, buy my shares and then live [or die] with the results. As I’ve matured in my investing I’ve learned to do one very important thing…sell my picks.
As the bubble talk continues to prime economic meltdown scenarios, it would seem that vanilla stock options (American flavor, puts and calls, on standard expiration cycles) easily accessible to any US (or Internet) investment account holders provide a tidy way to short the market. But looks can be deceiving.
Assuming we all know our way […]
I get itchy and restless whenever some pop culture financial expert starts talking about “diversifying.” They’re talking about owning both stocks and bonds.
Equities and securities! Well, well that covers the whole gamut, doesn’t it? Maybe not.
If you think (please say you don’t) that stocks go up when bonds go down (and vice versa), you can […]
I ran into this excellent Frontline documentary a while ago and with Bernard Ebbers about to be sentenced for various counts I thought it may be worth another look…[more on site]
I have been a fellow traveler of the gloom-and-doom gold bug community off-and-on since about 1971. I really enjoy exercising my paranoia when I’m not floating on clouds of excess exuberance. That’s the kind of investor I am.
I mention this since it has pretty well been decided in pop culture that we are headed […]
The contrarian investor looks for indicators that the Common Wisdom has caught up with a Good Thing and therefore it is time to abandon that Good Thing.
For example when the popular financial press cannot stop frontpaging Bull Market excitement, the Bull Market may be saturated. The contrarian would sell stocks and sit on cash.
But what […]
Ponder these Google search results.
“Smart investment” - 77,400 indexed items
“Stupid investment” - 8,890
“Brilliant investment” - 869
“Dumb investment” - 350
Amazing how few dumb investment decisions make it to the web.
Via spam, this arrived today:
We are excited about our future and we want our investors to have the same zeal for [company] that we posses.
No passion for spelling, however. The email goes on to tell me specifically why I should invest in this company. Point number one (my emphasis added):
[Company] Will Skyrocket it […]
According to recent research in the U.K., women consistently outperform men when it comes to investing in shares. The research, undertaken by the finance website Digital Look, showed that the average female share portfolio grew by 17% in the year to May 27th, compared with an average of 11% for men. Research in previous years […]
If you read the financial media, you simply cannot get away from tips.
Here’s a specimen: “C**** is an extremely well-managed company run by a founder of the personal computing industry. The management team has depth, the CEO is a thought leader and marketing genius, and its command of market share guarantees a dominant position […]