For American companies, China is a lot like the Holy Grail. With a population of 1.4 billion, more than three times the size of the United States, making a big splash with Chinese consumers is a quick way to pump up the bottom line. #-ad_banner-#But while China offers great opportunity, winning in this far away land requires great skill and experience. Many top-shelf companies have tried and failed. Transportation heavyweight Uber is one recent example. Uber swept across the planet conquering country after country — until it met China. In 2016, the company basically conceded the Chinese market to local… Read More

For American companies, China is a lot like the Holy Grail. With a population of 1.4 billion, more than three times the size of the United States, making a big splash with Chinese consumers is a quick way to pump up the bottom line. #-ad_banner-#But while China offers great opportunity, winning in this far away land requires great skill and experience. Many top-shelf companies have tried and failed. Transportation heavyweight Uber is one recent example. Uber swept across the planet conquering country after country — until it met China. In 2016, the company basically conceded the Chinese market to local players. Today, I want to share an S&P 500 company and global leader that has cracked the code to succeeding in China. In the next five years, this company will open one new location in China every day – a total of more than 2,500. I expect that to produce record revenue and lift shares to a new all-time high. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) is one of the most recognized brands in the world. In most major cities across the world, it’s hard to walk a few blocks without seeing the familiar Starbucks logo pasted across a green awning. That global… Read More

Since last year, a new opportunity to create amazing amounts of wealth has been available to everyday investors. The passage of Regulation CF (crowdfunding) last May gave everyone the right to invest in equity crowdfunding. In short, equity crowdfunding gives you the ability to buy shares of the next Facebook or Snapchat well before they go public through an initial public offering (IPO). This means that you can experience first-hand the fortune-creating growth that these companies undergo in their early stages. Since last October, my team and I at Pre-IPO Millionaire have been analyzing the newest startups to find companies… Read More

Since last year, a new opportunity to create amazing amounts of wealth has been available to everyday investors. The passage of Regulation CF (crowdfunding) last May gave everyone the right to invest in equity crowdfunding. In short, equity crowdfunding gives you the ability to buy shares of the next Facebook or Snapchat well before they go public through an initial public offering (IPO). This means that you can experience first-hand the fortune-creating growth that these companies undergo in their early stages. Since last October, my team and I at Pre-IPO Millionaire have been analyzing the newest startups to find companies with industry-disrupting potential — then passing those picks on to our subscribers. This involves an attempt to forecast the future success of a company from its earliest days, which is no easy task. But while no two startups are alike, there are common themes that lead to bad pre-IPO investments. In my ten years of working with venture capital and angel investors, I’ve seen three problems resurface time and again that cause investors to invest in bad companies that sink portfolio returns. These failings in startup investing are the reason more than half of angel investments return less than the… Read More

Insurance is the best business in the world. It’s not just one of the best, but the very best. After all, insurance is the only business in the world that routinely enjoys a positive cost of capital. Every other business on earth is required to pay for its capital. And the cost of capital is always a consideration when starting or growing a business. But not for insurance. A good insurance company gets all the capital it needs for free. Not only that, but it is actually paid to take it. Simply put, insurance is in a class of its… Read More

Insurance is the best business in the world. It’s not just one of the best, but the very best. After all, insurance is the only business in the world that routinely enjoys a positive cost of capital. Every other business on earth is required to pay for its capital. And the cost of capital is always a consideration when starting or growing a business. But not for insurance. A good insurance company gets all the capital it needs for free. Not only that, but it is actually paid to take it. Simply put, insurance is in a class of its own. But that doesn’t mean the industry isn’t without risks. After all, insurance contracts are set up such that the insurer keeps the premiums even if no loss occurs. But it also means that losses could exceed the amount of a customer’s premiums. And if too many large losses occur, an insurer could face a financial nightmare. That’s the reason insurers are so heavily regulated by governments around the world. The Key To The Insurance Business Thankfully, the best insurance companies mitigate these risks. They ensure the fees they charge for investing a customer’s capital exceed the risks they… Read More

For the last few years, there’s been lots of talk about how this bull market is getting long in the tooth and is ripe for a major correction. After all, this run began in 2009 — eight long years ago. But the truth is stock-market booms don’t die of old age. And the bull market in the 1990s is proof of this. #-ad_banner-#Stocks went up — without a losing year — for nearly the entire decade of the 1990s. As the bull market got older, it didn’t waver or falter. Instead, it ramped up… the S&P 500 returned 33%, 28%… Read More

For the last few years, there’s been lots of talk about how this bull market is getting long in the tooth and is ripe for a major correction. After all, this run began in 2009 — eight long years ago. But the truth is stock-market booms don’t die of old age. And the bull market in the 1990s is proof of this. #-ad_banner-#Stocks went up — without a losing year — for nearly the entire decade of the 1990s. As the bull market got older, it didn’t waver or falter. Instead, it ramped up… the S&P 500 returned 33%, 28% and 21% in 1997, 1998 and 1999, respectively. The Nasdaq went up 40% in 1998 and then 86% in 1999. If you got out of the market in 1997, or even earlier, on the simple premise that the boom was getting long in the tooth… you missed out on the best profits. I’m sure there are people thinking this bull market is getting old and that it is therefore a good time to start avoiding stocks. Of course, they could be correct. But the simple fact is that there’s always a reason to avoid the stock market. Pick your favorite:… Read More

This is BIG… For the first time since 1933, the SEC is now allowing regular people like you and me to invest in brand-new explosive-growth companies BEFORE THEY GO PUBLIC. Imagine getting in on the next Facebook for 33 cents a share or the next Apple at 78 cents. In StreetAuthority’s Pre-IPO Millionaire, I vet six to eight deals like this one, and offer my exclusive in-depth analysis of a single opportunity that I believe could return 1,000% or more. Click here for more information. — Joseph Hogue, CFA The modern shaving razor hasn’t changed much since American inventor King… Read More

This is BIG… For the first time since 1933, the SEC is now allowing regular people like you and me to invest in brand-new explosive-growth companies BEFORE THEY GO PUBLIC. Imagine getting in on the next Facebook for 33 cents a share or the next Apple at 78 cents. In StreetAuthority’s Pre-IPO Millionaire, I vet six to eight deals like this one, and offer my exclusive in-depth analysis of a single opportunity that I believe could return 1,000% or more. Click here for more information. — Joseph Hogue, CFA The modern shaving razor hasn’t changed much since American inventor King Camp Gillette patented a new type of razor in 1901. That was fine for most people. Shaving is just one of those daily activities you don’t think much about, if you even think about it at all. That changed in 2012 when Dollar Shave Club launched its now legendary viral marketing video. The one-minute promo introduced viewers to a new way of getting their razors. As of mid-2016, the video had been viewed more than 22 million times and helped the company grow to 1.1 million subscribers. #-ad_banner-#Dollar Shave Club raised $163.5 million from early investors and accepted an acquisition… Read More

To comfortably live in an online world, we need to make sure our actions and devices are secure. When dealing with our bank, for instance, we want to know the transactions are secure. We want to rest assured that information in our smartphones is safe, and that we can login quickly and securely into our tablets and laptops. One obvious and widely used means of protecting data is by locking your device, thereby restricting unauthorized access. And modern “locks” are increasingly using our unique human features to establish our identification, a technology known as biometrics.   #-ad_banner-#And when it comes… Read More

To comfortably live in an online world, we need to make sure our actions and devices are secure. When dealing with our bank, for instance, we want to know the transactions are secure. We want to rest assured that information in our smartphones is safe, and that we can login quickly and securely into our tablets and laptops. One obvious and widely used means of protecting data is by locking your device, thereby restricting unauthorized access. And modern “locks” are increasingly using our unique human features to establish our identification, a technology known as biometrics.   #-ad_banner-#And when it comes to utilizing unique human features, what is easier and more convenient than your own fingerprints?   Many iPhone owners would agree that their feeling of security significantly improved after Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) introduced a fingerprint recognition feature in 2013. The adoption of Touch ID has proceeded smoothly, and improvements in the technology itself have proceeded apace —  today’s second-generation sensor is up to twice as fast as the original version. Driven by the increasingly urgent need for security, as well as consumers’ smooth adoption of such sensors in mobile devices, the market for fingerprint sensors is on fire. According to… Read More

Even giants can fall in the stock market. History is full of companies once thought to be bulletproof that are now relegated to the dustbin of history. Even the great Warren Buffett is not immune to economic forces. Right now, Buffett’s third largest holding, the Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) company is setting up for a sell-off. Despite its size, dividends, past performance, and investor interest, Coca-Cola stock is not beyond entering a downward period. And this could have wide-reaching implications. Not only is Coca-Cola a huge holding for the Oracle of Omaha, but it is also a major part… Read More

Even giants can fall in the stock market. History is full of companies once thought to be bulletproof that are now relegated to the dustbin of history. Even the great Warren Buffett is not immune to economic forces. Right now, Buffett’s third largest holding, the Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) company is setting up for a sell-off. Despite its size, dividends, past performance, and investor interest, Coca-Cola stock is not beyond entering a downward period. And this could have wide-reaching implications. Not only is Coca-Cola a huge holding for the Oracle of Omaha, but it is also a major part of the majority of diversified stock portfolios and a Dow component. This means that many giant index funds and ETFs are heavily invested in the stock. But this is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, savvy investors can use the expected down period to profit handsomely on the short side. How Can I Profit From Coke’s Decline? The coolest thing about active trading is that money can always be made, whether the stock is going up or going down. Unlike the majority of buy-and-hold investors, the active investor does not care what direction the stock moves. The secret… Read More

Nobody likes to be wrong. And it’s that sentiment that causes many investors to lose their shirt — taking a loss is proving exactly that… that you’re wrong. It’s been proven that investors tend to sell their winners too early, satisfying their desire to be right, and hold on to their losers too long, hoping that they will not have to take a loss and be wrong. The simple fact is that we as investors will be wrong from time to time. But it’s whether you admit your mistake and move on that will determine whether you’re an average investor… Read More

Nobody likes to be wrong. And it’s that sentiment that causes many investors to lose their shirt — taking a loss is proving exactly that… that you’re wrong. It’s been proven that investors tend to sell their winners too early, satisfying their desire to be right, and hold on to their losers too long, hoping that they will not have to take a loss and be wrong. The simple fact is that we as investors will be wrong from time to time. But it’s whether you admit your mistake and move on that will determine whether you’re an average investor (generating only 2% per year) or an extraordinary investor. Or as investing legend George Soros once said, “It’s not about being right or wrong, rather, it’s about how much money you make when you’re right and how much you don’t lose when you’re wrong.” #-ad_banner-#Investors have a hard time controlling their emotions, which often leads to small losses turning into large ones. When a holding is down 25%, most investors tell themselves either that A) they’re not going to take any action because they’re in it for the long haul, or B) they’ll sell once the price gets back to… Read More