I must be getting very mature in annual lap counts. Even though I do not feel old at all, the New Year’s Day celebrations are clicking off with but a few days in between them. Seems like a couple of months ago that I was saying good riddance to 2015 [...]
During the first quarter of 2016, stock ownership provided a roller coaster ride. Last week I railed against the Fed’s free money policy and its consequences. This week we examine whose ox was gored and whose geese were golden. In the short term, I think Mr. Market will continue to [...]
I dislike complaining or whining. But if I were ever going to complain about something, it would be the lousy investing climate of 2015. On the whole, it was a great year for our family and it might still be finished fantastically with the birth of our seventh grandchild, our [...]
This year will probably go down in history as having decent returns in terms of the usual stock market indexes. In my prior market history lessons, you may have learned (and undoubtedly forgotten—no fault of your own) that the presidential pre-election year is most often a great year, the best [...]
I am not a huge fan or expert on basketball. However, I think the second most important factor next to scoring is rebounding after a failed shot. Not every shot is good, but the rebound allows an opportunity to keep the ball, shoot again, and deny the other team [...]
On this, the last day of an awful quarter for the equity markets, let’s put the present circumstances into context of a longer term perspective in case some of you are thinking of jumping out of the basement window or any floor higher. The older I get, the more important [...]
Hopefully by now, you are not tempted to jump out of your window, even a basement window, because of the financial markets. This looks to be a pretty normal correction, pullback or whatever else a temporarily falling stock market might be called. The most pronounced one of 2014 was seasonally [...]
(From 8/25/2015) About last week’s column, one of my friends said he agreed with me. Which parts thereof, I am not sure. I stressed the improving American household financial health and in particular, housing growth and debt reduction for everyone but the federal government. I also said I thought the [...]
There are two primary schools of thought about investing in modern markets. The first and dominant is what I call Live Long and Prosper with deference to the late Leonard Nimoy, Dr. Spock of Star Trek. It prescribes being fully invested at all times no matter what is occurring. If [...]
If you are a DIY kind of person in investing, you need to determine what criteria to use in evaluating choices. This is somewhat easier for individual stocks, but there are also yardsticks of various kinds for mutual funds. The Price to Earnings ratio (PE) is one of the most [...]
