When it comes to mutual funds, you could be looking for love in all the wrong places according to the renowned bond fund manager, Bill Gross. In his August 2009 Investment Outlook, Gross compared his own industry to Madame Rue, the gold-toothed gypsy in… Read More

We all know that Congress is only too happy to “invest” our money. But how are they when it comes to managing their own? Not so great, as it turns out. A review of the personal financial disclosures filed by members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives gives some insight into just how bad these politicians are at managing money. The table below shows the 15 most popular stocks held by members of Congress, with the number of owners to the right: If $1,000 had been invested in… Read More

We all know that Congress is only too happy to “invest” our money. But how are they when it comes to managing their own? Not so great, as it turns out. A review of the personal financial disclosures filed by members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives gives some insight into just how bad these politicians are at managing money. The table below shows the 15 most popular stocks held by members of Congress, with the number of owners to the right: If $1,000 had been invested in each of the 15 most popular stocks held by Congress on Jan. 1, 2008, the entire portfolio would be worth $10,148 today, a loss of -32.3%. This exceeds the total loss of the S&P 500 index, which has fallen -31.7% in the same period. In fact, only one of the companies, IBM, has shown a positive return, though nine companies posted smaller losses than the benchmark, losses that could have been made smaller still with reinvested dividends. As you… Read More

We all know that Congress is only too happy to “invest” our money. But how are they when it comes to managing their own? Not so great, as it turns out. A review of the personal financial disclosures filed by members of the… Read More

Wall Street bets on companies by buying their stock. It bets against them by shorting their shares. A short seller borrows shares, sells them and waits for the price to go down. When it does, the shares are repurchased at a… Read More

Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, once described his strategy as “buying dollars for 50 cents.” He would have loved this market. Graham had several tricks to determine whether a company was undervalued. One of them was assessing its book value, a figure… Read More

Talk about a rough ride: The nation’s nine major airlines lost -$671 million in the second quarter. We’ve all heard plenty of talk about how no one is flying anymore. Maybe it feels that way, but the airlines are still bringing in plenty of revenue. The total top line for… Read More

Stocks and bonds too dicey? Commodities out of reach? Options too complex? Then forget about all those investments. Right now, you can earn up to 4.5% with FDIC protection. Now, 4.5% isn’t too tough to beat with other investment classes, but each of them… Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new rules about short selling, a strategy investors employ when they think a security’s price is going to fall. The two new rules don’t restrict short selling and won’t affect individuals or “short” or “ultrashort” exchange traded funds, at least not yet. The SEC plans an industry roundtable in September to discuss other proposals that could limit the practice, which has come under scrutiny after criticism that it drives down stock prices. Short and ultrashort (read: “leveraged”) exchange-traded funds allow… Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new rules about short selling, a strategy investors employ when they think a security’s price is going to fall. The two new rules don’t restrict short selling and won’t affect individuals or “short” or “ultrashort” exchange traded funds, at least not yet. The SEC plans an industry roundtable in September to discuss other proposals that could limit the practice, which has come under scrutiny after criticism that it drives down stock prices. Short and ultrashort (read: “leveraged”) exchange-traded funds allow an investor to bet on a price drop. The funds are popular because they can be held in a typical brokerage account rather than transacted through a margin account, the vehicle through which short sales typically take place. One new rule calls for more reporting of short sales to increase the amount of information available to the public. Wall Street’s self-regulatory agencies will publish daily short-sale transaction reports that detail the total number of a company’s shares were shorted. After a month, the data would be… Read More

In a perfectly efficient market, we could never buy a stock at a discount or sell one at a premium. Every security would be perfectly priced, all the time. It’s only through irrational, emotion-driven selling that value investors will occasionally get the chance to pick up a $50 stock for… Read More

Yesterday’s earnings wrapup suggested three best bets, Caterpillar, Merck and UnitedHealth Group. All three companies exceeded expectations and posted strong gains. Caterpillar rose nearly 8%, Merck was up +6% and UnitedHealth gained 3%. The Dow and Nasdaq, by contrast, were flat for the… Read More