A funny thing happened on the way to disaster… nothing. In fact, nothing has happened on the way to disaster twice now — once in the middle of 2011, and then again in early 2012.  The so-called disaster I’m talking about was the demise of the transportation industry. When things… Read More

It was probably one of the last industries anybody was expecting great things from as we headed into and out of the 2008 recession.  But numbers don’t lie.  #-ad_banner-#This industry has proven to be practically bulletproof in terms of… Read More

What a difference five months can make. Back in January, McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) was trading at $102, thanks to 2011’s strong 34% rally, and more and more investors were excited to step into what looked like a well-established ride up.  Looks can be deceiving…  Not only did the rally not… Read More

You can laugh at water utility stocks (and their presumed lack of potency) all you want. Just know that the people who have owned them since late April have been laughing too — all the way to the bank.  #-ad_banner-#See, while the rest of the… Read More

My, how quickly the market‘s tide can turn. By the end of March, we were sitting on a 17% rally. Since then, the S&P 500 has fallen more than 8%, and the future looks troubled at best.  The 180-degree… Read More

It’s that time of year again, when investment managers are required to disclose their fund’s holdings to the SEC, and by extension, to all investors. And for most investment companies and hedge funds, it’s a pretty straight-forward process… just make a list of all the stocks you own, and how much of them you own. If you’re Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn, however, it’s not quite that simple. With Einhorn’s willingness to hold short as well as long positions (not to mention his willingness to speak out about them) in the $7 billion hedge fund,… Read More

It’s that time of year again, when investment managers are required to disclose their fund’s holdings to the SEC, and by extension, to all investors. And for most investment companies and hedge funds, it’s a pretty straight-forward process… just make a list of all the stocks you own, and how much of them you own. If you’re Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn, however, it’s not quite that simple. With Einhorn’s willingness to hold short as well as long positions (not to mention his willingness to speak out about them) in the $7 billion hedge fund, it’s a bit of a process to truly figure out what he’s thinking, or trading. On the other hand, considering his fund has returned an average of 21% per year for the past 15 years, sifting through the data is worth the effort. What Einhorn likes Of course, closed trades are history and don’t offer investors any new specific coattails to ride. The best clues traders can glean from Greenlight’s exits last quarter are to look at what he bought. There were only three new positions added in the first quarter, in addition to only three existing… Read More

If you’re a fan of investment genius Warren Buffett or a shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B), then by now you’ve certainly heard his investment management company started accumulating stakes in General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Viacom (Nasdaq: VIAB) last quarter. And it makes sense. One is an old-school auto manufacturer getting back on its feet, while the other owns some of TV viewers’ favorite cable channels. Both businesses are easy to understand and both are based on relatively reliable business models. These qualities are right up… Read More

If you’re a fan of investment genius Warren Buffett or a shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B), then by now you’ve certainly heard his investment management company started accumulating stakes in General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Viacom (Nasdaq: VIAB) last quarter. And it makes sense. One is an old-school auto manufacturer getting back on its feet, while the other owns some of TV viewers’ favorite cable channels. Both businesses are easy to understand and both are based on relatively reliable business models. These qualities are right up Buffett’s alley, even though one or both of the two new illustrious members of his investment team — Todd Combs or Ted Weschler — likely made the picks. Yet, for investors looking to glean a stock pick, GM and Viacom may not be the best Berkshire coat-tails to ride — they’re just the highest-profile names being added to the $75 billion equity portfolio. Your best Buffett-based picks may actually be a trio of companies whose stakes he increased during the first quarter of the year. Here’s a closer look at them…… Read More

A couple of weeks ago I talked about finding bargains among blue-chip stocks, pointing out how all of the stocks I mentioned had reached bargain-basement levels in terms of their price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios. And while I’m sticking to my guns and affirming that — for those three stocks — a… Read More

I’ll confess. I’m not a huge fan of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). I can fully appreciate what they offer, but there’s just not enough upside with them most of the time. See, though diversification is usually the goal, more… Read More

As investors have become more and more sophisticated, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has begun to be viewed as a less-sophisticated, overly-simplistic tool. But sometimes, there’s power in simplicity. The fact of the matter is, the P/E ratio is still the ultimate “… Read More