This market is almost as fickle as the weather: If you don’t like the way it’s going, just wait a day. At least, this is how it has been as the month of June started. Stocks, already jolted by rising trade tensions, traded sharply lower on Monday on new antitrust fears — only to jump on Tuesday on the promise of lower rates. Not that the month of May was a walk in the park. Trade concerns and worries about slowing worldwide growth sent the Dow Industrials on the longest losing streak — six weeks — since 2011; the S&P… Read More

This market is almost as fickle as the weather: If you don’t like the way it’s going, just wait a day. At least, this is how it has been as the month of June started. Stocks, already jolted by rising trade tensions, traded sharply lower on Monday on new antitrust fears — only to jump on Tuesday on the promise of lower rates. Not that the month of May was a walk in the park. Trade concerns and worries about slowing worldwide growth sent the Dow Industrials on the longest losing streak — six weeks — since 2011; the S&P 500 declined 6.6% — the worst May performance in seven years. #-ad_banner-#If you watch the news, you know the reason: the market’s optimism about trade-war resolution has been shattered, with the possibility of new, accelerating tariffs on Mexico now coming into play — and that’s on top of already-imposed 25% tariffs on roughly $250 billion of Chinese imports (as of last Friday).  This market reaction is rational: if existing trade relationships get truly disturbed, both corporate profits and consumer incomes (and spending, too) will be impacted. This can easily translate into the end of the record-setting economic growth in the… Read More

Investors face multiple dilemmas every day. Do I sell a stock that has declined? Do I book my gain after a rally? Is the market flashing an “All Clear” or “Stay Clear” sign? How do I make sure to stay invested despite the volatility?  None of these questions has a clear-cut answer. That’s because the market represents many influencers, from global to local to company-specific, and investors, each of whom has her own set of goals and constraints, must measure these factors daily, a near-impossible task.  What we do know from more than a century of data is that the… Read More

Investors face multiple dilemmas every day. Do I sell a stock that has declined? Do I book my gain after a rally? Is the market flashing an “All Clear” or “Stay Clear” sign? How do I make sure to stay invested despite the volatility?  None of these questions has a clear-cut answer. That’s because the market represents many influencers, from global to local to company-specific, and investors, each of whom has her own set of goals and constraints, must measure these factors daily, a near-impossible task.  What we do know from more than a century of data is that the market as a whole tends to move higher over the long term. Staying invested, through thick and thin, is, therefore, a good long-term strategy. But what about the short-term? One possible answer is to focus on stocks that are firmly on their own path, have a compelling story to tell and are leveraged to long-term, not short-term, trends.  Digimarc (Nasdaq: DMRC), one of our holdings over at Game-Changing Stocks, is a prime example. —Recommended Link— I’ve Never Been More Excited About An Opportunity Pot stocks are dominating the headlines. But I’m not biting. Because I’ve… Read More

Just as with many simplified strategies, the “Sell in May and go away” maxim often rings true.  But investors who follow this kind of advice could be setting themselves up for failure. Take this past May, for example. The market became more difficult as stocks began to slide. As of Friday, May 31, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index that measures the performance of blue-chip stocks, declined for the entire month, about 6.5% total. The broader market, as measured by the S&P 500 index, which set a record on April 30, declined by 6% or so as well.  And… Read More

Just as with many simplified strategies, the “Sell in May and go away” maxim often rings true.  But investors who follow this kind of advice could be setting themselves up for failure. Take this past May, for example. The market became more difficult as stocks began to slide. As of Friday, May 31, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index that measures the performance of blue-chip stocks, declined for the entire month, about 6.5% total. The broader market, as measured by the S&P 500 index, which set a record on April 30, declined by 6% or so as well.  And the CBOE Volatility Index, also known as the “fear index,” traded above the three-year average for nearly the entire month.  In all honesty, though, we’ve been spoiled.  While we are still in bull-market territory (notwithstanding the recent pullback, which has not broken the uptrend), investors are less accustomed to volatility, having had 11 years of a bull market without meaningful corrections. And the market still trades near its all-time highs, despite the headlines. That’s a good sign. Strength, after all, begets strength.  But the higher the market goes, the more it feels — to individual investors and to professionals –… Read More

If you stop to think about it, it’s fairly clear that many of us take our internet access for granted: We shop online… play online… listen to music online… and even date online. And these days, our refrigerators and toasters, not to mention smart TVs and entire staffs of virtual assistants (like Amazon’s Alexa), are connected to the internet as well. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You may be missing out on the most effective retirement strategy… Read More

If you stop to think about it, it’s fairly clear that many of us take our internet access for granted: We shop online… play online… listen to music online… and even date online. And these days, our refrigerators and toasters, not to mention smart TVs and entire staffs of virtual assistants (like Amazon’s Alexa), are connected to the internet as well. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You may be missing out on the most effective retirement strategy today. Here’s all you need to know to retire as early as this year. No wonder the need — as well as urgency — to secure our personal data and protect our privacy has grown more and more important in recent years. But the business of internet security extends beyond the need to protect our data. As an example of what I’m talking about, let’s go back in time to October 21, 2016. #-ad_banner-#On what seemed like just another fine October Friday, many of us suddenly realized that our favorite websites weren’t working. Whether you were… Read More

Investors often have a preference for “inexpensive” stocks.  No, this time I’m not talking about valuations. Rather, it’s the sheer price level that sometimes keeps investors away from an otherwise perfectly strong business and good investment opportunity.  Most investors prefer dealing in “round lots” of a stock — that is, share amounts that are measured in hundreds. This simplifies the order-filling and accounting processes. But it’s also a psychological thing… many investors see a triple-digit price for a stock and immediately assume it’s “expensive,” i.e. overvalued.  #-ad_banner-#Typically, a company does not set its initial public offering (IPO) price in hundreds… Read More

Investors often have a preference for “inexpensive” stocks.  No, this time I’m not talking about valuations. Rather, it’s the sheer price level that sometimes keeps investors away from an otherwise perfectly strong business and good investment opportunity.  Most investors prefer dealing in “round lots” of a stock — that is, share amounts that are measured in hundreds. This simplifies the order-filling and accounting processes. But it’s also a psychological thing… many investors see a triple-digit price for a stock and immediately assume it’s “expensive,” i.e. overvalued.  #-ad_banner-#Typically, a company does not set its initial public offering (IPO) price in hundreds of dollars — that would negatively impact the new shares’ overall liquidity and investors’ appetite. So whenever you see a stock trading in the triple digits per share it’s usually an indication of strength and how much investors like it.  Of course, not everything is so clear-cut (it would be too simplistic to measure a stock’s success by the dollar price of its shares). That’s because most companies, when their share prices rise to a certain level, execute a stock split to keep the nominal price from getting out of whack compared with similar companies, and to keep shares liquid… Read More

Up one day, down the next. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting dizzy. Investors just can’t make up their minds about whether the huge rally of the past 11 years still has room to run, or if it’s the time to head to the sidelines. A convincing argument can be made for either decision. Here are three thoughts I have about what’s going on in the market right now — and what you can do about it…  1) Massive Buybacks Are Bolstering The Market (For Now…)  On the plus side is the strong economy, strong (albeit slowing)… Read More

Up one day, down the next. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting dizzy. Investors just can’t make up their minds about whether the huge rally of the past 11 years still has room to run, or if it’s the time to head to the sidelines. A convincing argument can be made for either decision. Here are three thoughts I have about what’s going on in the market right now — and what you can do about it…  1) Massive Buybacks Are Bolstering The Market (For Now…)  On the plus side is the strong economy, strong (albeit slowing) corporate profit growth, and the unabating wave of companies buying back their own shares. As reported by The Wall Street Journal a few days ago, more than 80% of firms in the S&P 500 have reported results for the first quarter. Of that number, those firms have repurchased $180 billion worth of their own shares during that time. This pace, according to the article, is lining up to become the second-highest amount on record (with data on corporate buybacks going back more than 20 years, to 1998). When was the record buyback quarter? According to the… Read More