Archive
ETFs Aren’t Always the Way to Play Exotic Themes
With the S&P 500 building a base and the VIX receding once again to historically normal levels, I’m seeing hints of the new market status quo. Conventional investments have a lot of work ahead of them. For instance, half the members of the elite Dow industrials, including the mighty Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), are 10 percent depressed […]
After Apple Corrects, Look for Real Market Leadership
With the biggest stock on Wall Street down more than 10 percent in five weeks, it is time investors cut through the chatter and face a few simple facts. It’s getting icy out there. Out of the 5,000 stocks I track, 3,000 are already in formal bear market mode, down 20 percent or more from […]
Working Longer, Trading Smarter: Longevity Stocks Change the Retirement Game
I was struck to hear that the average retirement age is “only” 62 and that’s when Millennials — benchmark driven as always — expect to quit working themselves. Leaving savings rates and 401(k) contributions aside, that’s an ambitious goal, because some of the very stocks that can best fund their golden years are also working […]
Wake-up Call on the Sector Map
For years, sector-based investors have struggled to achieve diversified exposure to telecom stocks, given the relatively small number of competitors left in that space after decades of aggressive consolidation. There wasn’t even any point in maintaining a sector fund if it was only going to own concentrated positions in AT&T (NYSE:T), Verizon (NYSE:VZ), Sprint (NYSE:S) and, for the […]
Nike and Other Brand Bubbles: Don’t Buy the Controversy
Wall Street is the most demanding audience companies like Nike (NYSE:NKE) will ever need to satisfy. Investors generally aren’t interested in the sneakers. They want to participate in the cash flow those products create. And when the executives decide to pander to the customers in ways that put that cash flow at risk, it makes […]
After the Storm: Market Lessons for Hurricane Season
Last year’s tropical storms killed thousands of people, caused $280 billion in damage and left Wall Street numb as company after company warned that an aggregate $1 billion in profit had washed away between the flooding and the wider disruption. A lot of retail investors learned the wrong things from that summer. With Florence taking […]
Blog Post: Green Lights Through the Noise
Last week, all it took was an extra day to think. The Independence Day holiday created space for Wall Street to focus on the essentials. […]
Blog Post: A Zero-Sum Game
The first half of 2018 ended roughly where it started, with the broader market indices within 2% of breakeven after some wild action. […]
Blog Post: My Latest Market Thoughts
Last week was relatively quiet in terms of market-driven developments. […]
Blog Post: My Biotech Watch List
There is tremendous potential in smaller biotechs, but there’s also considerable risk. […]
