This two-part series by Bryant Urstadt is some of the best investing writing I’ve ever read. Bryant gives a run down of exactly what-the-f happened this Summer 2007. After reading these two pieces, "it all makes sense, man". Part 1: The Blow Up Teaser: On Wednesday, August 8, not long after the markets closed, 200 (more…)
As we all saw on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve made equal 25 basis point cuts to the Federal Funds Rate and the Discount Rate. While we are happy that core inflation is not going to be a large problem with this rate cut, and that we are easing rates in a growing economy where we just saw the U.S. economy grow at an annualized growth rate of 3.9%, I believe that many other problems will arise.
While lowering rates will bring along a lower borrowing cost I do not think that our economy needs this. Doing this will only bring people to spend more money on things they do not need. As we saw already companies that sold necessities like The Procter & Gamble Company(NYSE:PG) and Johnson & Johnson(NYSE:JNJ) have both been doing well though the subprime market problems.
Lowering rates now will also…
You may notice a new widget in the right sidebar. There’s a little form for you to join our mailing list. Do it now, and then I’ll tell you why. What do we mail out over our mailing list? Nothing yet. We’re still figuring it out, but it will likely have to do with updates (more…)
While you wait for the rest of my Google analysis (it may be a while), you can read this article over at Forbes that closely matches my own thinking. Google Still Cheap Atop Tech Heap by Georges Yared. Peace out, Investor Geeks.
The consumer is tapped out. After consistent 25 basis point increases to the Federal Funds Rate, we are finally starting to see the effects on the stock market.
Yesterday morning we saw three headlines that caught my attention. The first detailed Sears’ guidance for this quarter – a reduction from $2.12 to from $1.06 to $1.32 per share. These revisions are, at best, a 30% reduction and, at worst, a 50% reduction from their previous optimistic estimates.
Notably, declines were across all categories. If you follow the theory that the consumer is on thin ice, then it is hardly surprising to find big ticket items are not being purchased. Sears is having trouble selling new stainless steel fridges and widescreen TVs because consumers do not feel confident about their financial situation. The only sector that wasn’t hit as hard was women’s apparel and footwear – suggesting stressed housewives may be engaging in retail therapy.
Steve, who blogs here and at UnderTrader.com, is looking for sponsors for the bike ride he will be doing in support of the Arthritis Foundation next Fall. We will be riding bicycles along the coast from San Francisco to Santa Monica, California. It takes 8 long, tiring days! All it takes for you guys is (more…)
Kristin Friedersdorf, from WallSt.net, has posted her interview with me. Goto her Financial Blog Watch page over there to hear me talk about the history of InvestorGeeks and my lessons learned in trying to start a blog network. I had a great (if brief) time on the phone with Kristin. Her other podcasts are worth (more…)
The iPhone is stirred up controversy and there are people on both sides of the fence. The iPhone nags at me as being a lesson in how you can fool people by marketing.
Now I found the reason why I had this nagging doubt. Nokia is about to launch the N95 which would be an iPod competitor. Let me line up the features of both devices:
Bellow are some screwy screenshots from my E*TRADE account (you’ll also get to see what my E*TRADE portfolio looks like). Early this week, I setup a trade in Lucent Technologies (LU). It was a complete chart play. I haven’t been monitoring the stock fundamentally lately, but I recall my last analysis of it was something like “undervalued because people are still scared of the name.” Feel free to ask me more about my rationale behind the trade (or any of the others), but this post will focus on the odd things that were happening with my account as the merger between Lucent and Alcatel (ALA) played out today.
TheBuyList.com is a nice, simple website with just one purpose: to show you if mutual funds are trading the stocks you’re tracking.
Just enter a ticker and click a button. You’ll be shown a table of “recent” transactions of that stock made by “the top rated mutual funds”. The table shows you how many shares were bought or sold, the name and ticker of the fund, and the general “family” of fund.
