This could be one of the greatest investing setups I have ever seen… Back in November, I added shares of a popular athletic footwear and clothing company to my Stock of the Month portfolio. #-ad_banner-#At the time, I only bought half of my intended… Read More

When Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) announced plans to file for bankruptcy, investors should not have been surprised. After all, shares had fallen from $20 to $2 in the past year, signaling potential financial distress in the days and weeks ahead. In fact, expectations that… Read More

It’s rare to find a double-digit yield from a preferred stock. It’s especially rare to find this sort of yield from one of the world’s largest companies. Here in the United States, you’d be lucky to get… Read More

For subscribers to my $100,000 Real-Money Portfolio, you’ll notice a clear set of rules I live by: Every pick has to have solid downside support, potentially robust upside and clear catalysts in place. Having just two of three investment merits isn’t good enough. You need all three to preserve capital… Read More

Emerging-market stocks are notorious for two things: growth and extreme volatility. But while that strong growth has padded many portfolios in the past few years, extreme bouts of volatility have also left more than a few investors searching for a more stable method to tap into the emerging-market growth story. Read More

After being in the investment business for longer than I care to admit, surviving two nasty bear markets, experiencing the advent of the Internet, seeing more corporate scandals than I care to remember, and more, I’ve decided there are only two basic kinds investment… Read More

If you’re an executive at a struggling retailer, then you’ve been warned. Either come up with a way to turn the ship around, or get ready for investors to make life quite difficult. In this tough economic climate, investors are in no mood to hold on to any retail stock… Read More

I live in hurricane country and have personally witnessed my share of Category 3s, as well as a handful of tropical storms. One main point safety officials stress is concerning the eye of the storm. Although it brings a relative period of calm, depending on how big the eye of… Read More

The old cliche of cash being king is actually quite accurate. This is particularly true in times of economic uncertainty. Cash enables companies to act quickly on opportunity, to avoid debt and to continue to maintain a high level of operation during slow periods. It is the lubricant that keeps… Read More

Just a few weeks ago, I was looking at a group of stocks that — on the surface at least — looked like they had solid potential upside, perhaps as much as 100%.  Well, one of those stocks stuck in my craw.  #-ad_banner-#I decided to look more deeply at the… Read More