“What will you do the first time your toddler gets swallowed by a tumbleweed?”  I actually ask people that question a couple times a year. It comes up in conversation when tourists cross my path here in Wyoming. That question is also my favorite example of unintended consequences.  —Recommended Link— SECRET: Add $8,760 Extra to Any Retirement Account​ Finally revealed! This “long lost” secret turns a quick 3-minute phone call into the opportunity to collect $8,760 checks. Every payment is backed by the full authority of the U.S. Government… and over $1.75 billion will be… Read More

“What will you do the first time your toddler gets swallowed by a tumbleweed?”  I actually ask people that question a couple times a year. It comes up in conversation when tourists cross my path here in Wyoming. That question is also my favorite example of unintended consequences.  —Recommended Link— SECRET: Add $8,760 Extra to Any Retirement Account​ Finally revealed! This “long lost” secret turns a quick 3-minute phone call into the opportunity to collect $8,760 checks. Every payment is backed by the full authority of the U.S. Government… and over $1.75 billion will be delivered to income-seeking Americans. But your action is required TODAY while the enrollment window is open. You must click here right now to get started. First of all, tumbleweed is big but it’s light. So, kids don’t get hurt when the wind blows tumbleweed into them, or when the wind blows the littlest kids into the tumbleweed. They just untangle themselves and keep playing.  But tumbleweed is an unintended consequence of living in the country. It’s a weed, so it cannot be stopped. It’s an excellent example of the annoyances that disrupt life in the country.  I… Read More

Investors are faced with a mountain of information, strategies and tactics to choose from. Value, growth, momentum, options, futures… which strategy is right for you? While every strategy has their pros and cons, one of the better-performing strategies has come from focusing on growth stocks. Growth stocks have certainly done well over the last decade, outpacing the popular value approach over that time period. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore value.  In fact, long-term studies still suggest that following a disciplined contrarian, value-driven strategy is the best path to success. Value investors argue that while the market may be… Read More

Investors are faced with a mountain of information, strategies and tactics to choose from. Value, growth, momentum, options, futures… which strategy is right for you? While every strategy has their pros and cons, one of the better-performing strategies has come from focusing on growth stocks. Growth stocks have certainly done well over the last decade, outpacing the popular value approach over that time period. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore value.  In fact, long-term studies still suggest that following a disciplined contrarian, value-driven strategy is the best path to success. Value investors argue that while the market may be efficient in the long term, emotions often dominate in the short run. These emotions can overtake rational analysis, pushing a stock’s price above its intrinsic value during periods of euphoria and below its true worth when reacting to bad news. Value screens, such as searching for stocks with a low price-earnings ratio, typically look for low prices relative to actual measures of company performance or assets. The price-earnings ratio, or multiple, is computed by dividing a stock’s price by its most recent 12 months’ earnings per share. The price-earnings ratio is followed closely because it embodies the market’s expectations of… Read More

If you’ve been reading ​my work for any length of time then you know that I talk a lot about emotions and how they can greatly impact whether you’re successful or not in investing… and really everyday life. But we’ll stick mostly to investing in this issue. Gaining a better understanding of the emotional behavior of investors — commonly referred to as behavioral economics — can not only help you avoid common pitfalls that plague average investors, but it can also help you better understand momentum investing. You see, when it comes to finance and money, humans don’t behave rationally (part of… Read More

If you’ve been reading ​my work for any length of time then you know that I talk a lot about emotions and how they can greatly impact whether you’re successful or not in investing… and really everyday life. But we’ll stick mostly to investing in this issue. Gaining a better understanding of the emotional behavior of investors — commonly referred to as behavioral economics — can not only help you avoid common pitfalls that plague average investors, but it can also help you better understand momentum investing. You see, when it comes to finance and money, humans don’t behave rationally (part of the reason why we have momentum investing at all). When it comes to profits and losses, the fear of losing money greatly outweighs the joy in achieving additional gains. It’s this very premise that has created the mantra, “Let your winners run, and cut your losers short.” How many times have you sold a winning stock just to see it keep climbing in the days and weeks that followed? And on the flip side of that, think about how many times you’ve held on to a loser just to see it keep falling. That’s a lesson I learned the hard… Read More

Investors are beginning to turn their attention back to corporate earnings. They might not like what they see. While actual results are still coming in, we are tracking toward a 3% decline. That would mark the second-straight negative quarter — the technical definition of an earnings recession. This slowdown follows ten straight quarters of uninterrupted growth, including an extended streak of double-digit increases.  By itself, this isn’t necessarily a reason to panic. Still, there are other troubling signs…  Business investment has been tepid. The boom in capital spending on new equipment and factories has stalled, the stimulative effects of corporate… Read More

Investors are beginning to turn their attention back to corporate earnings. They might not like what they see. While actual results are still coming in, we are tracking toward a 3% decline. That would mark the second-straight negative quarter — the technical definition of an earnings recession. This slowdown follows ten straight quarters of uninterrupted growth, including an extended streak of double-digit increases.  By itself, this isn’t necessarily a reason to panic. Still, there are other troubling signs…  Business investment has been tepid. The boom in capital spending on new equipment and factories has stalled, the stimulative effects of corporate tax overhaul wearing off… Meanwhile, the damaging trade war could reignite at any time. The hostilities may even spill over into the currency markets if the White House decided to weaponize the U.S. dollar, deliberately weakening it to put domestic exporters on a more level playing field. Meanwhile, the global economy continues to cool, particularly across Europe. Even more concerning, China (the world’s economic growth engine) is seeing the weakest economic output in 30 years.  The point is, any of these wild cards could trip up the market. And with the major averages having ascended to record heights, it’s a… Read More