In 1975, a young man named Ray Dalio founded, out of his apartment, investment management firm Bridgewater Associates. Today, it is the largest hedge fund in the world with about $160 billion in assets under management (larger than No. 2 and No. 3 combined).   Bridgewater has consistently outperformed its peers. The hedge fund’s flagship Pure Alpha fund has reportedly delivered an average annual return of 13% after fees since its inception in 1991. He even made money during the last financial crisis.  —Recommended Link— Wall Street Elites Collude With Media To Cover Up Breakthrough Discovery​… Read More

In 1975, a young man named Ray Dalio founded, out of his apartment, investment management firm Bridgewater Associates. Today, it is the largest hedge fund in the world with about $160 billion in assets under management (larger than No. 2 and No. 3 combined).   Bridgewater has consistently outperformed its peers. The hedge fund’s flagship Pure Alpha fund has reportedly delivered an average annual return of 13% after fees since its inception in 1991. He even made money during the last financial crisis.  —Recommended Link— Wall Street Elites Collude With Media To Cover Up Breakthrough Discovery​ Scientists just uncovered a “test tube miracle” that will revolutionize the marijuana industry. But the media has been strangely silent about it. Don’t let Wall Street insiders step on you again. Every $1,000 stake could turn into $61,770… but only if you take action before this discovery hits the evening news. Click here for details. Worried about the enormous amount of debt on many of the large institutions’ balance sheets, Dalio decided to take his findings — and warnings — to the Treasury Department, where he presented his research in December 2007. He later went to… Read More

The clock has ticked over, and we're at the beginning of a new year. And we all know what that means… It's resolution time. One of my resolutions for 2020 is to reduce risk. Not that we've ignored risk previously… But risk should always be at the forefront — the primary consideration when implementing any strategy.  Over the next few weeks, I want to answer some questions about risk, including how I think about risk and how it affects the way we trade. Today, I want to make you aware of the risks of winning. In my Income Trader service,… Read More

The clock has ticked over, and we're at the beginning of a new year. And we all know what that means… It's resolution time. One of my resolutions for 2020 is to reduce risk. Not that we've ignored risk previously… But risk should always be at the forefront — the primary consideration when implementing any strategy.  Over the next few weeks, I want to answer some questions about risk, including how I think about risk and how it affects the way we trade. Today, I want to make you aware of the risks of winning. In my Income Trader service, we consistently win on more than 90% of our trades. If you've been with me for some time, you know we've maintained that level of performance for more than six years. Now, I will never be complacent. My followers place their trust in me, and I take that very seriously. I spend a great deal of time looking for ways to reduce risk even more, which is why I'm doing that now. This brings me to an important point. The market just wrapped up an impressive year. And if you were in it, chances are you made some good money. Read More

If you're like most people, then you have probably received a box (or several) on your front door this month courtesy of Amazon Prime's free two-day shipping. Or perhaps it was sent by Wal-Mart or another online retailer. Wherever the source, there are countless packages whizzing from warehouse to doorstep during the Christmas shopping season. It has been estimated that FedEx (NYSE: FDX) made 510 million deliveries between Black Friday and New Year's Eve. The firm's hectic Memphis hub processes 2 million packages per day during the peak holiday season – about 500,000 per hour. Keep in mind,… Read More

If you're like most people, then you have probably received a box (or several) on your front door this month courtesy of Amazon Prime's free two-day shipping. Or perhaps it was sent by Wal-Mart or another online retailer. Wherever the source, there are countless packages whizzing from warehouse to doorstep during the Christmas shopping season. It has been estimated that FedEx (NYSE: FDX) made 510 million deliveries between Black Friday and New Year's Eve. The firm's hectic Memphis hub processes 2 million packages per day during the peak holiday season – about 500,000 per hour. Keep in mind, FedEx and Amazon have a testy relationship at best. Otherwise, that number would be even higher. The e-commerce king does quite a bit of shipping on its own and is becoming a real threat in that regard. Amazon even dictates how the 5 million independent third-party sellers on its website can and can't fulfill their orders. According to Business Insider, Amazon employs 75,000 private courier drivers who will deliver 3.5 billion packages this year. For context, UPS (NYSE: UPS) drops off 5.2 billion parcels annually. UPS estimates it will deliver 32 million packages per day globally this holiday… Read More

What a difference a year makes. The week leading up to Christmas 2018 was the worst for U.S. stocks since the 2008 crash. The market was already in turmoil when Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin sent out a bizarre tweet on Christmas Eve to say that he had spoken with the CEOs of the nation's six largest banks and was reassured that there were "no liquidity problems or margin issues." The statement was meant to pacify jittery investors but instead had the exact opposite effect. In what is normally a quiet day for the market, traders fled and sent the Dow… Read More

What a difference a year makes. The week leading up to Christmas 2018 was the worst for U.S. stocks since the 2008 crash. The market was already in turmoil when Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin sent out a bizarre tweet on Christmas Eve to say that he had spoken with the CEOs of the nation's six largest banks and was reassured that there were "no liquidity problems or margin issues." The statement was meant to pacify jittery investors but instead had the exact opposite effect. In what is normally a quiet day for the market, traders fled and sent the Dow tumbling 650 points. It was the worst Christmas Eve selloff on record. There was a nice bounce two days later, but the damage had been done. The Dow Jones finished the month with a painful 9% decline, the worst December performance since 1931 when the country was in the grip of the Great Depression. I didn't buy into the doom and gloom. Unlike in 1931, the underlying macro backdrop at the time was quite positive. The following week, I said that "this crisis feels more manufactured than real" and predicted we'd see "a recovery on the horizon once confidence returns."… Read More

I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t aware of what I’m about to tell you. After all, the headlines lately have been dominated by trade wars, domestic politics, and then the holiday season, of course.  But there is a political upheaval taking place thousands of miles from us that is going practically ignored. (And no, I’m not talking about Hong Kong.) And while what’s happening is being ignored by the mainstream media, it could prove to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for savvy investors. I’m talking about the political crisis in Argentina. I’ll touch on this more in a moment. But… Read More

I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t aware of what I’m about to tell you. After all, the headlines lately have been dominated by trade wars, domestic politics, and then the holiday season, of course.  But there is a political upheaval taking place thousands of miles from us that is going practically ignored. (And no, I’m not talking about Hong Kong.) And while what’s happening is being ignored by the mainstream media, it could prove to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for savvy investors. I’m talking about the political crisis in Argentina. I’ll touch on this more in a moment. But first, a little background…  What Business (And Life) Is Like In Argentina For those who aren’t aware, I have some personal experience with Argentina. In fact, I lived there for a time many years ago. And while my Spanish isn’t what it used to be, I still remember the stories I was told by the locals. And I experienced a few things myself, of course…  ​In the brief time I lived in Argentina, I had friends and colleagues who were raped, beaten, bitten, robbed, and held at gunpoint. I once witnessed a police car speed down our neighborhood street and literally… Read More

The stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, gained nearly 30% this year. It was truly an incredible run. The last time we saw this sort of return was 2013, when the market ended the year up 29.6%. Here’s a bar chart of S&P 500 returns over the last 30 years so you can see how 2019 stacks up to past performances. However you look at it, this has been quite a year. But you might be surprised to learn that this wonderful year for the stock market has been “hated” by investors… You see, typically when we have… Read More

The stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, gained nearly 30% this year. It was truly an incredible run. The last time we saw this sort of return was 2013, when the market ended the year up 29.6%. Here’s a bar chart of S&P 500 returns over the last 30 years so you can see how 2019 stacks up to past performances. However you look at it, this has been quite a year. But you might be surprised to learn that this wonderful year for the stock market has been “hated” by investors… You see, typically when we have a good month or year investors pour more money into the stock market. For instance, in 2017 stocks returned a superb 19%. Investors, not wanting to miss out on future returns, poured $54.2 billion into stocks in the first month of 2018. That’s the largest monthly inflow in years. The same holds true when the market is falling… You might recall that this time last year the S&P 500 was in freefall. It fell as much as 15% in the month of December alone. Investors were scared. They yanked $57.4 billion from equities during that last month of 2018. In… Read More

Marijuana stocks are breaking out, right on schedule.  Stocks in the sector got ahead of the fundamentals earlier this year. One reason for that is that the impact of regulations are difficult to determine in advance. Legalization, for example, seems bullish. And it generally is — but if taxes are too high, then the illegal market will thrive alongside the legal market.  This is what happened in many parts of the country, and it is being addressed. So as we head into 2020, I have some thoughts on how the industry will take shape. In short, I’m predicting that the… Read More

Marijuana stocks are breaking out, right on schedule.  Stocks in the sector got ahead of the fundamentals earlier this year. One reason for that is that the impact of regulations are difficult to determine in advance. Legalization, for example, seems bullish. And it generally is — but if taxes are too high, then the illegal market will thrive alongside the legal market.  This is what happened in many parts of the country, and it is being addressed. So as we head into 2020, I have some thoughts on how the industry will take shape. In short, I’m predicting that the legal cannabis industry is likely to flourish as concerns about safety increase. You read that right. NPR recently explained the safety problem the industry is poised to address: As of Dec. 17, there were 2,506 hospitalized cases of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury, which is now referred to as EVALI by the CDC. The incidents were reported in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, since the summer. Fifty-four deaths have been confirmed in 27 states and the District of Columbia. The CDC’s data… Read More

Einstein called it “the most powerful force in the universe.” But you don’t need to be Einstein to understand why it’s has also been called an investor’s best friend — or to see how you can profit from it. The modern world’s most celebrated intellect was referring to the concept of compounding — the practice of earning money on what you have already earned. Fortunately, you don’t need to be an Einstein to understand why compounding has also been called an investor’s best friend — or to see how you can profit from it.  Stop me if you’ve heard this… Read More

Einstein called it “the most powerful force in the universe.” But you don’t need to be Einstein to understand why it’s has also been called an investor’s best friend — or to see how you can profit from it. The modern world’s most celebrated intellect was referring to the concept of compounding — the practice of earning money on what you have already earned. Fortunately, you don’t need to be an Einstein to understand why compounding has also been called an investor’s best friend — or to see how you can profit from it.  Stop me if you’ve heard this one: In ancient Greece there was a merchant — let’s call him Demetrios — who had a reputation as a savvy money-handler. An acquaintance brought over a wagon-load of drachmas (coins variously estimated to be worth about $0.19 apiece) and asked Demetrios to put the money in a trust and invest it for 2,000 years. Demetrios kept all of his acquaintance’s money as commission, save for a single 19-cent drachma, which he invested in an Athenian bond paying 3% annually. After 2,000 years of reinvesting the returns from the 3% payout, according to the math, that drachma would have grown… Read More