In the Chairman’s letter written to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) in 1995, Warren Buffett explained why retailing can be a tough business. He likened it to a “shooting-star phenomenon,” where not taking care of day-to-day details can lead to failure. He also explained that consumers… Read More

Even as the market surged ever higher in 2009, 2010 and early 2011, an unpleasant development occurred. One of the world’s most appealing economies saw its stock market zoom ahead so quickly, that it became hard to justify putting any new investment dollars into it. But thanks to the recent… Read More

Prior to the recent market slump, you could find many companies with enough cash to equate to 10% or even 20% of their market value. Yet as stock prices have fallen and those cash balances have remained intact, a very unusual event has occurred. Read More

It might sound like heresy to be looking at emerging market exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from the long side right now. After all, emerging markets have been some of the hardest-hit during the past… Read More

The truth will make you sick. Technically it’s public knowledge, but I can tell you — it’s Congress’ dirty little secret. Insider trading laws don’t apply to Congress. I wish I were kidding. If… Read More

After a couple of weeks of steady losses, the stock market is now in all-out frenzy mode. Massive drops or eye-popping gains are the norm these days, creating havoc for anyone trying to establish a foothold with long or short-oriented investments. In fact, short sellers are the most exposed in this current era of high volatility, even with their potential of reaping huge gains, as they have recently. Short sellers need to watch out for sudden rallies. If they are targeting a heavily-shorted stock, then a short squeeze could push up… Read More

After a couple of weeks of steady losses, the stock market is now in all-out frenzy mode. Massive drops or eye-popping gains are the norm these days, creating havoc for anyone trying to establish a foothold with long or short-oriented investments. In fact, short sellers are the most exposed in this current era of high volatility, even with their potential of reaping huge gains, as they have recently. Short sellers need to watch out for sudden rallies. If they are targeting a heavily-shorted stock, then a short squeeze could push up the stock up faster than the broader market, creating potentially huge losses for shorts — yet equally large gains for investors who went long. With this in mind, I’ve been looking at the just-released short-interest data, which tallies the short-interest levels in stocks as of July 28. The size of these short positions may have changed since then, but almost all of the most heavily-shorted stocks are likely to remain near or atop the leader board when we get the next round of data that tracks short levels through Aug. 15. Make no mistake,… Read More

It’s a familiar dilemma for U.S. investors. With the U.S. economy being stuck in low gear, delivering a paltry 1.3% growth in the second quarter of the year, investors are looking elsewhere for great returns. A great place to start is China. China has been delivering… Read More

As many companies prepared to disclose second-quarter earnings, they noted a fundamental disconnect between their outlooks, their balance sheets and their lagging share price. In search of a remedy, these companies announced major stock buyback programs. Little did they know the stock market plunge of the past two weeks… Read More

For equity investors with a long time horizon, this summer’s big pullbacks in stocks have created some very exciting investment opportunities. A savvy stock picker should know the best opportunities arise when things are scariest and everyone else is scurrying for the exits. Now is one of… Read More

A sharp plunge on Monday, Aug.8, a stunning rebound on Tuesday, another pullback on Wednesday. When will it all end? It’s increasingly clear that very low price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios aren’t grounds enough to bring out value investors. Read More