You can be the best stock-picker in the world, but still lose money if you fail to monitor your portfolio for signs of stocks in trouble. So I’m always looking for signs that a company’s performance is deteriorating. I also don’t put much faith in a company’s… Read More

In many third-quarter conference calls this earnings season, a key question kept popping up: “How are European sales holding up in light of the budding economic crisis?” A wide range of companies noted that sales are starting to slow and things could get worse in coming quarters. GM… Read More

As economists grapple with the ongoing global crises, they’re asking themselves a pair of important questions. First, why have European policies let problems fester for so long? And second, whatever happened to the notion that trade and budget deficits impact currency values? The… Read More

Score one for David Einhorn. The high-profile short-seller recently gave a series of speeches outlining concerns about one of the top-gaining stocks in 2011: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR). I recently looked at whether the stock might head to $120, as one sell-side analyst predicted, or would fall from… Read More

If you haven’t heard about the “North Dakota phenomenon” yet, you will soon. The state is quickly becoming known as a modern-day version of California during the gold rush. People are flocking to the state, seeking their fortune (or at least a decent-paying job), and formerly sleepy farming towns are… Read More

With the market showing no clear direction at this point, it pays to stay focused on long and short ideas for your portfolio. In recent weeks, I’ve been trying to generate more short-oriented ideas for readers, and it pays to stay abreast of… Read More

Circle your calendars for Nov. 23. That’s the deadline for Congress to pass — and the President to sign — major budget changes being drawn up by a bipartisan “super-committee.” Recall that the last agreement, struck in early August, tasked this group with a huge challenge: Come up with a… Read More

Do you want to become a millionaire? This is obviously a rhetorical question… the majority of us would love it. But what’s your plan for achieving this goal? If your plan is to make this sort of wealth in the stock… Read More

Energy stocks are often wickedly volatile, especially now with all the uncertainty about the economy. Still, long-term returns may be enormous for those with enough patience to ride out the rough patches. A fine example of this is the stock of oil giant Chevron Corp. (NYSE:… Read More

Gold has been on a decade-long hot streak; that’s something everyone knows. But what is interesting is how great and sustained the increase has been. Since its inception at the end of 2004, the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE: GLD) has… Read More