Conventional wisdom holds that magazine cover stories are contrarian indicators - by the time a company’s success or failure reaches the cover page of a major publication the story is so well known as to be completely reflected in the stock price. Therefore, all good news is priced in and the stock can only underperform
June, 2007
The watch lists all managed to beat their respective benchmarks in the last week before yesterday’s rebalance.The Small Cap Watch List lost one basis point, compared to a 10 basis point loss for the S&P 600 and a 13 basis point loss for the Russell 2000.
Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Apple Inc (AAPL), AT and T (T), iPhoneWhile the lines weren't as long as in New York City and San Francisco, in other cities around the country the faithful waited patiently all day long to buy an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. We visited a few stores and found that the wait, while long, brought happiness to geeks everywhere.%Gallery-4425%Permalink | Email this | Comments
The dichotomy in the closed positions is enormous. Both my biggest mistake and my biggest success were stocks that I “doubled down” into adversity, Jones Soda and Everlast. Jones was a disaster; Everlast announced an acquisition offer and I sold out to use the cash elsewhere.My SPY position hold, which was really a
I was wrong in my statement about the homeys bottoming in mid-June. However, there’s a good chance they’re bottoming here, as they seem to have found some supporting bids with the $HGX and XHB still above their 2006 lows. We shall see … no money on this for the kid, my positions, as
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT), Sears Holdings (SHLD)I'm just old enough to remember the Sears Catalog: A tome that arrived with great fanfare once or twice a year. From its pages, my mother would pick out all our school clothes for the year, plus any appliances she needed. I recall my father spending a great deal of time perusing the vaunted tool section. When it was time to buy any kind of large appliance, new washing machine, or new refrigerator, Sears was the obvious place to go. And everybody went. Sears was known for its quality, selection, and customer service. What happened?Sears isn't about retail anymore, that's what happened. I'm no fly on the wall. I can't opine about the back-room financial deals going down at ...
Is there really resistance in the $COMPQ dating back to 1999? The chart doesn’t have a mind of its own, does it? To believe that the $COMPQ has resistance at 2632, not the 2630 area, but 2632 exactly, mind you, dating back to 1999, no less, you would have to be pretty ignorant
Filed under: International markets, Industry, Consumer experience, Exxon Mobil (XOM), Russia, Middle East, Scandals, Chevron Corp (CVX), Politics, OilWe have been expecting to see this for a few days now, and today oil was finally able to close the session above the psychological $70 mark at $70.55, gaining $0.98 on the session. Earlier in the day prices were able to trade as high as $71.06 before settling down a bit to head into the weekend.Today's close above $70 marks the first time in almost a year that prices have been at this level, with the last time oil was above $70 being back in August '06. The primary reasons behind the move today were more of the same that we have seen lately... concerns over gasoline surprises and ...
Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, ColumnsETFs should be great for investors. They're easy to trade, allow you to make very specific bets that were once impossible, and make it so anyone can go short the market. Most have low expenses, which make them superior to the vast majority of actively traded mutual funds. They can even have some tax advantages!But as The Wall Street Journal's John Spence wrote recently, "Critics of the ETF business, meanwhile, decry what they see as a land grab. As more ETFs target narrow sectors or use more arcane structures, it could be argued that a dubious new product category is evolving: the "I-don't-understand-this" ETF."New ETFs tend to sprout up to track sectors that have been on a short-term tear, leading in retail investors at ...
Filed under: Internet, Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), eBay (EBAY), Marketing and advertisingYou probably wouldn't believe just how much I think about eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY). You could say I'm obsessed with the company and you'd be right but it's more than just a fixation for me. It's as if eBay has taken up a part of my very being. I spend several hours a day thinking about ways to improve that company. People think I hate eBay because I express disdain for the current management profile over there. I don't hate eBay. I dislike the way it's being run, all the while maintaining that eBay is my baby.There are some wild and outlandish things that I think eBay could do in pursuit of reestablishing its ...
