Over the course of two decades in the professional investment business, I’ve stumbled onto stock ideas purely by accident maybe a couple dozen times. Sometimes I’m looking for one thing and find another. More than once, I’ve typed in the wrong symbol. That happened again recently. And after some digging, I decided that I had had to write about my find. There’s a better than decent chance that at some point, while growing up in the United States, your mom probably used Scott’s Liquid Gold furniture polish at least once. Here’s a television commercial from the… Read More

Over the course of two decades in the professional investment business, I’ve stumbled onto stock ideas purely by accident maybe a couple dozen times. Sometimes I’m looking for one thing and find another. More than once, I’ve typed in the wrong symbol. That happened again recently. And after some digging, I decided that I had had to write about my find. There’s a better than decent chance that at some point, while growing up in the United States, your mom probably used Scott’s Liquid Gold furniture polish at least once. Here’s a television commercial from the 1970s to jog your memory.  Think the brand is dead? Nope. Owned by some gigantic consumer products mega-cap like Procter and Gamble (NYSE: PG)? Nope. It’s still made in Denver, CO where it was invented at the turn of the 20th century. The company is still owned by the family that bought the original formula from inventor Lee Scott for $350 (not a misprint) in 1951.  #-ad_banner-#Even more remarkable, the company, Scott’s Liquid Gold, Inc. is publicly traded (OTC: SLGD). It’s a tiny company with a consolidated market cap of barely $25 million. Typically, I don’t dive into the extremely… Read More

Guns, cash and his entire coin collection — including his Indian Head Gold Quarter Eagle — were gone. Stolen. The perpetrator had taken an oxygen-acetylene torch to the door of his Fort Knox safe and snatched his precious belongings.  Of course, my grandfather was bummed that his stuff was taken, but what unsettled him most about the entire ordeal was the feeling of intrusion — someone invading his privacy.  New guns can be bought, Fort Knox replaced the vault for free, but what can’t be restored is that feeling that your privacy has been violated — knowing that a stranger… Read More

Guns, cash and his entire coin collection — including his Indian Head Gold Quarter Eagle — were gone. Stolen. The perpetrator had taken an oxygen-acetylene torch to the door of his Fort Knox safe and snatched his precious belongings.  Of course, my grandfather was bummed that his stuff was taken, but what unsettled him most about the entire ordeal was the feeling of intrusion — someone invading his privacy.  New guns can be bought, Fort Knox replaced the vault for free, but what can’t be restored is that feeling that your privacy has been violated — knowing that a stranger forced his way into your home and stole your property.  These sorts of intrusions, however, are happening more frequently than ever. But not in the traditional sense… #-ad_banner-#These new perps aren’t coming through your window or your back door and they’re not stealing cash or rare coins. You see, there is something more valuable to these new thieves than the things in your home. Instead of cash, collectibles and jewelry these thieves want your name, date of birth, Social Security number, credit card information and your driver’s license…  They want your identity.  By now, you’ve likely heard about the massive… Read More

The next big thing… It’s the holy grail for investors. I mean how many investors wish they had bought Microsoft in 1986? Or Apple in the 1990s?    If you were prudent enough to take a chance on either of these companies, a relatively small investment a few years back would have made any investor fabulously wealthy today. And it’s that kind of wealth creation that drives investors to seek the next big thing.   But too many investors make the process of finding the next big thing too complicated. After all, if it’s the next big thing, it shouldn’t… Read More

The next big thing… It’s the holy grail for investors. I mean how many investors wish they had bought Microsoft in 1986? Or Apple in the 1990s?    If you were prudent enough to take a chance on either of these companies, a relatively small investment a few years back would have made any investor fabulously wealthy today. And it’s that kind of wealth creation that drives investors to seek the next big thing.   But too many investors make the process of finding the next big thing too complicated. After all, if it’s the next big thing, it shouldn’t be impossibly hard to identify early on, right?   So what if you were told that more than 500,000 cars, capable of driving themselves, are going to come off the assembly line in 2018? Better yet, these cars will come off the assembly line at a cost of $35,000 — about the average price of a new car in America.   #-ad_banner-#But that’s not even the remarkable part…   You see, experience tells me that self-driving technology will not just drive itself — it will also be electric.    Even The Wall Street Journal agrees, saying, “The electric powertrain, unlike… Read More

The historic impact of two category 4 hurricanes from the Atlantic in the same year is a hard reminder that weather is playing an increasingly bigger role on our lives. 2016 was the warmest year on record globally, and 2017 is already in a close second place. While day-to-day temperatures can be unpredictable, larger weather patterns are no longer something investors can ignore. One of the harshest weather patterns could be returning soon, bringing with it bone-chilling temperatures in some regions and droughts in others. If it does return, then it could mean big moves in one commodity in particular,… Read More

The historic impact of two category 4 hurricanes from the Atlantic in the same year is a hard reminder that weather is playing an increasingly bigger role on our lives. 2016 was the warmest year on record globally, and 2017 is already in a close second place. While day-to-day temperatures can be unpredictable, larger weather patterns are no longer something investors can ignore. One of the harshest weather patterns could be returning soon, bringing with it bone-chilling temperatures in some regions and droughts in others. If it does return, then it could mean big moves in one commodity in particular, causing a select group of shares to jump. How Does La Niña Affect The Weather And Asset Prices? A cooling in the Pacific Ocean has prompted the U.S. Climate Prediction Center to upgrade its odds for the La Niña weather phenomenon to 62% from just 26% last month. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology also recently said that two of its eight models are forecasting La Niña conditions by year-end. #-ad_banner-#La Niña is caused by colder ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific and their effect on the wind currents over the Pacific. The weather pattern generally… Read More

As a lifelong resident of a hurricane-prone area, and having sat through more than a handful of them, I feel a little guilty promoting what some people refer to as “disaster capitalism”. At the same time, one of the greatest investors of all time, Baron Rothschild, proffered that one should “buy when you hear the cannon, sell when you hear violins.” I’ve referenced that quote multiple times in my writing and will continue to do so because it’s some of the best investing advice ever. After unloading an estimated 33 trillion gallons of water on the United States, mostly on… Read More

As a lifelong resident of a hurricane-prone area, and having sat through more than a handful of them, I feel a little guilty promoting what some people refer to as “disaster capitalism”. At the same time, one of the greatest investors of all time, Baron Rothschild, proffered that one should “buy when you hear the cannon, sell when you hear violins.” I’ve referenced that quote multiple times in my writing and will continue to do so because it’s some of the best investing advice ever. After unloading an estimated 33 trillion gallons of water on the United States, mostly on coastal Texas, Hurricane Harvey could be responsible for damage exceeding $180 billion. In the Houston area alone, it’s estimated that nearly 40,000 homes have been completely destroyed. Even more remarkable was the projected number of cars completely ruined by the floodwaters. Again, in just the Houston area, which is heavily auto-dependent, the total could be over 1 million vehicles. The number is much higher if the entire affected area is included. According to auto researcher Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price for a new car in the United States is currently $33,560. That means that replacing the lost cars… Read More