From the category archives:

Investing

Mourning Losses of 2008

July 21, 2010

Here is an article written by Eileen Ambrose of the Baltimore Sun that features some comments from me. Essentially, Eileen talked with Andrew Lo, a professor at MIT, where he compared investors’ behavior with the five stages of grief. He believes we are in the fourth stage of depression. Next, he believes acceptance will follow.
While [...]

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Another Article on Fiduciary Standard

May 16, 2010

I have been following the debate in Congress about a fiduciary standard.  Here is another article from the Wall Street Journal discussing this very topic. The article begins describing the standard, which essentially means a legal requirement to put your client’s interest first, above all others, including your own.
At issue is whether a financial adviser—which [...]

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Interesting Focus on Banking Profits

April 16, 2010

Bank of America released their earnings report today, and Street seems to like them. What catches my eye about BofA and JP Morgan, who released yesterday, is the profits come from non-banking activities. Aren’t banks suppose to make money by lending to consumers? Most of the profits are coming from trading activities and investment banking [...]

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1907 vs. 2009

April 5, 2010

Interesting chart from the Chartstore (tip of the hat to Ritholz) comparing the markets of 1907 to 2009. In 1907, the market faced a panic led by a bank run. This was the panic where JP Morgan (the man, not the bank) led the banks out of the crisis. He did so by letting the [...]

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Battle of the Bond Gurus – Excellent Video

April 4, 2010

Here is a clip to a debate between Jim Grant and David Rosenberg; two of the best economic prognosticators in the business today. I read everything I can from these two guys, and it has a material impact on my investment choices for me and clients. What scares me is these two mentors from afar [...]

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What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know About Fiduciaries

March 15, 2010

Great article from Minyanville discussing the fiduciary standard, which I have been hyping for weeks now. Here is the meat from the article:
The distinction between a fiduciary and a broker is simple. The broker mainly owes his allegiance to the company and is generally compensated by selling you financial products. A fiduciary’s model [...]

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Stocks and Government Interference

February 25, 2010

Interesting exchange on Tech Ticker with Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak.

The interesting part isn’t so much the debate about deflation or inflation – although that is a huge factor in where the markets head from here (I suspect deflation for longer than most anticipate) – but about how government intervention makes it [...]

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Thain Takes Over at CIT

February 8, 2010

Another sign that there is no such thing as accountability on Wall Street, John Thain takes over the reins as the CEO of CIT. This is the same Thain that led Merrill Lynch down the toilet as well as spent $1 Million remodeling his office after receiving government assistance to make the Bank of America [...]

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A Bubble In Search of a Pin

February 6, 2010

Here is a Letter from John Mauldin. As usual, a thoughtful piece that focuses on the headwinds the economy faces. I agree with John, and those he quotes, in many respects about how Greenspan, Bernanke, and the powers that be missed the bubble. However, we are naive to think that the Fed would ever prick [...]

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ProShares Adds New Leveraged ETFs

January 25, 2010

ProShares launched two new Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) that short U.S. Treasuries. The ProShares Ultra 20+ Year Treasury (NYSEArca: UBT) is obviously based on the twenty year Treasury while the ProShares Ultra 7-10 Year Treasury (NYSEArca: UST) focuses on intermediate Treasuries. Both funds are structured to provide double the movement of the underlying index on a [...]

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