By Lynn Shannon
If you thought the ultra-thin Motorola Razr (Motorola Mobility Holdings, NYSE:MMI) was cool but a little light on the battery life, then the Motorola Razr Maxx, available as of Thursday through Verizon Wireless (Verizon Communications, NYSE:VZ) may be the next phone for you. Read More
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By Jeremy Zhou
2011 was a difficult year for investing – especially so for small cap biotech investing. But hardship should breed adaptation, learning and survival, all of which are key to progress.
Below I list the top ten lessons I learned from managing money in 2011. They are not necessarily new to me, but I need to relearn them with the hope of internalizing them in my process by this time next year.
1. There is no investment methodology or signal that will always work. This is due to competition, behavioral shortcomings and evolving market dynamics.
2. When fear overwhelms greed, throw all valuation metrics into trash – they mean nothing. Read More
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By Amy Gilroy
For the specialist, and for any brick and mortar store, a concern is that consumers are using your shop as a showroom, only to leave empty-handed and price shop online. Read More
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Chris Rees, TenStocks
We recently had a chance to ask Covestor manager Chris Rees of TenStocks some questions about his model, his highest conviction holdings, and his outlook for 2012.
Q: Name one investment that exceeded your expectations in 2011, and one you had high hopes for that didn’t pan out.
A: I had a bad 2011 overall, and no investment exceeded my expectation. I had high hopes for Hutchinson Technology (NASDAQ:HTCH) as an early 2012 turnaround candidate but a flood at their new production facility in Thailand has set them back.
Q: What single position in your portfolio are you most confident in for 2012?
A: Usually I can easily answer this question. With a concentrated portfolio I can often have a single best idea. This year I have four positions I think have the possibility of making big upward moves in 2012. They are Hutchinson Technology (NASDAQ:HTCH), Aveo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVEO), ChipMOS Technologies (NASDAQ:IMOS) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC). If all four perform well in 2012, I could have a very good year. Read More
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By Robert Reich
Robert Reich
Republicans are worried sick about Newt Gingrich’s ascendance, while Democrats are tickled pink.
Yet no responsible Democrat should be pleased at the prospect that Gingrich could get the GOP nomination. The future of America is too important to accept even a small risk of a Gingrich presidency.
The Republican worry is understandable. “The possibility of Newt Gingrich being our nominee against Barack Obama I think is essentially handling the election over to Obama,” says former Minnesota Governor Tom Pawlenty, a leading GOP conservative. “I think that’s shared by a lot of folks in the Republican party.”
Pawlenty’s views are indeed widely shared in Republican circles. “He’s not a conservative – he’s an opportunist,” says pundit Joe Scarborough, a member of the Republican Class of 1994 who came to Washington under Gingrich’s banner. Gingrich doesn’t “have the temperament, intellectual discipline or ego control to be either a successful nominee or president,”says New York Republican representative Peter King, who hasn’t endorsed any candidate. “Basically, Newt can’t control himself.” Read More
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By Michael Arold
Looking at the last three stock market bottoms – including the most recent one- it feels like Mark Twain was wrong when he said: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Repetition of this pattern is simply amazing – click to enlarge:
Source: StockCharts.com
There are three characteristics which played out almost the exact same way: Read More
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By Amy Gilroy
Updated. Not long ago, it was a big deal if Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold 15 million iPhones over the holiday quarter. On Monday night, Apple announced it sold 37 million iPhones during its recent quarter ended December 31, 2011. Read More
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By Carter LeCraw
2011 was another year of high volatility. In spite of the political rhetoric and doomsday predictions for the Eurozone, both of which continue, the U.S. economy managed to plug along and domestic stock markets zoomed during the fourth quarter of 2011.
The American Hero Portfolios also finished the year well. Our Covestor model was up 4% for the year, outpacing the S&P 500’s flat performance (before dividends).
One strategy to deal with volatility is to take a tactical approach. Tactical approaches include trying to be in the market when it is going up and out when it is going down. In order to be consistent with American Values Investments’ approach, it seems appropriate to stick with a more fundamental strategy. A volatility metric (standard deviation) has been added to the regular stock analysis.
Historically, presidential election years have usually been good for stocks. Perhaps all the extra funds for marketing the various candidates helps explain those results, an argument for the tactical approach of being in the market. Read More
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By Robert Reich
Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino owner, is now the poster boy for what’s terribly wrong with our campaign-finance system. Adelson, you may recall, had, before the South Carolina Republican primary, donated $5 million to the pro-Gingrich Super Pac “Winning Our Future” – giving Newt a pile of money for negative advertising against Mitt Romney in South Carolina.
Adelson has done it again. He and his wife Marian have cut another $5 million check for Gingrich to go negative on Romney in Florida. The money won’t go as far as it did in South Carolina – TV ads cost a lot more in Florida – but it’s enough to give the Grinch a solid footing. Read More
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By Amour Gefen
Since my last update in November, I have been quite pleased with the performance of the model. As of end of day 1/19/12, over the past 90 days the model outperformed the S&P 500 by approximately 3%. Since inception on 3/10/11 the model is down about 9% versus the S&P 500.
We move into the New Year with momentum building in the equity markets. The latest jobs and manufacturing data have been steadily improving, and I’m optimistic that corporate earnings will impress in Q1. More importantly, I believe that the realignment of the model into 2012 should help position us to outperform the general market by being overweight healthcare and technology. Read More
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By Michael Arold
Market pundits have been dissecting the latest AAII reading, which has been very high for the bulls.
Contrarians such as Mark Hulbert don’t buy the rally for this reason. But if these “experts” would simply pull up a chart, they would quickly recognize, even without advanced quantitative analysis, that high bullish readings did not have any predictive value in the last two years.
AAII Sentiment Survey: Read More
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