As we all know, the goal of trading is to make money. But sometimes traders think like analysts, and being right about a market’s direction overshadows the primary directive — making money. So when the stock market gives us fits and starts, and crosscurrents like emerging markets and the Federal Reserve make equities treacherous, it makes sense to look for other opportunities.#-ad_banner-# As they say, there is always a bull market somewhere, and right now, it looks as if the Japanese yen is in the early stages of one. And for those who cannot or prefer not to… Read More

As we all know, the goal of trading is to make money. But sometimes traders think like analysts, and being right about a market’s direction overshadows the primary directive — making money. So when the stock market gives us fits and starts, and crosscurrents like emerging markets and the Federal Reserve make equities treacherous, it makes sense to look for other opportunities.#-ad_banner-# As they say, there is always a bull market somewhere, and right now, it looks as if the Japanese yen is in the early stages of one. And for those who cannot or prefer not to trade spot currencies or futures, the CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (NYSE: FXY) provides a liquid way to play. I will leave the fundamentals of the Japanese economy to others to analyze. From a charting point of view, there is plenty to like, and given the yen’s status as a safe-haven currency, the turmoil in emerging markets and volatility domestically add additional luster. The analysis is rather simple. After a two-year bear market in which FXY fell from $130 to a low of $92.75 at the end of last year, technical indicators are looking up. For example, on the weekly chart,… Read More

I want to let you in on a secret: Wall Street doesn’t make most of its money from the stock market.#-ad_banner-# While trading equities constitutes a large part of “big banking,” if you were to add the value of all the stocks in the world it would only come out $36.6 trillion. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a big number. It’s also one reason brokerage commissions have been the bread and butter of Wall Street firms since the New York Stock Exchange was founded in 1817. But the truth is there’s a much bigger market out there. This market, which… Read More

I want to let you in on a secret: Wall Street doesn’t make most of its money from the stock market.#-ad_banner-# While trading equities constitutes a large part of “big banking,” if you were to add the value of all the stocks in the world it would only come out $36.6 trillion. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a big number. It’s also one reason brokerage commissions have been the bread and butter of Wall Street firms since the New York Stock Exchange was founded in 1817. But the truth is there’s a much bigger market out there. This market, which is valued at over $790 trillion, has grown exponentially since the Securities and Exchange Commission deregulated it in the 1990s. Unlike most stocks and bonds, which tend to be “boring” and relatively stable, the securities in this market allow investors to make bets on the outcome of certain asset prices. For instance, right now traders are betting $56,880 that the price of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will be over $610 on March 22 — 22% above its recent price near $500. Investors in this market are also betting over $874,000 that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) will be trading at $1,300 — or… Read More

Several years ago, during one of my journalistic endeavors, I scored an interview with one of my investing heroes, commodity trading legend Jim Rogers. I couldn’t believe my good luck.#-ad_banner-# My assignment was to interview one famous trader, money manager or financial professional on a weekly basis. The editors wanted me to drill down into their methods, tactics and ideas for fresh, actionable ideas for our readers. While I knew Jim Rogers was a unique individual, I was taken aback and surprised at our interview, which he conducted while running on a treadmill. Although Rogers was gracious and… Read More

Several years ago, during one of my journalistic endeavors, I scored an interview with one of my investing heroes, commodity trading legend Jim Rogers. I couldn’t believe my good luck.#-ad_banner-# My assignment was to interview one famous trader, money manager or financial professional on a weekly basis. The editors wanted me to drill down into their methods, tactics and ideas for fresh, actionable ideas for our readers. While I knew Jim Rogers was a unique individual, I was taken aback and surprised at our interview, which he conducted while running on a treadmill. Although Rogers was gracious and kind, he avoided my direct questions, answering me instead with broad generalities and stories. The one thing that he stressed again and again when asked for investment ideas was to simply look around — in other words, invest in what you buy and what you see. At the time I was disappointed with his answer, which I saw as a cop-out. However, I’ve learned to appreciate the wisdom of his words. By following this simple investment rule, I have discovered far more profitable opportunities and ideas than I ever would have expected. In the search for the next profitable investment,… Read More

U.S. stocks were little changed after a volatile week. ‘January Indicator’ Signals 50/50 Chance of Gains in 2014 SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) fell 0.4% last week and was down 3.52% for the month. SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) was down 5.2% for the month.#-ad_banner-# According to a popular interpretation of the “January Indicator,” this makes the widely followed market forecasting tool bearish for 2014. But history doesn’t support this interpretation of the indicator. In the past, a negative performance for the Dow in… Read More

U.S. stocks were little changed after a volatile week. ‘January Indicator’ Signals 50/50 Chance of Gains in 2014 SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) fell 0.4% last week and was down 3.52% for the month. SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) was down 5.2% for the month.#-ad_banner-# According to a popular interpretation of the “January Indicator,” this makes the widely followed market forecasting tool bearish for 2014. But history doesn’t support this interpretation of the indicator. In the past, a negative performance for the Dow in January has occurred 22 times since 1950, and a down month had been followed by declines in the rest of the year 50% of the time. Big losses in January are less common. This is the eighth time the Dow has fallen more than 5% in the first month of the year, and the market showed a gain in the rest of the year five of the previous seven times. The average of a small sample is not statistically significant, but the average gain in the seven years has been 6.5%. Based on the size of January’s loss, we can… Read More

A few weeks ago, StreetAuthority analyst Michael Vodicka stumbled on a compelling pattern while performing some routine research for his new newsletter, High-Yield International. When he and his team of experts ran a stock screen looking for all the stocks in the world yielding over 12%, they found that out of the 118 stocks their analysis identified, only 25 them were located in the U.S. In other words, Michael’s study showed that if you aren’t looking overseas, you’re likely missing out on 79% the world’s highest-yielding securities before you even get started. #-ad_banner-#Unfortunately, even if we dedicated every issue of… Read More

A few weeks ago, StreetAuthority analyst Michael Vodicka stumbled on a compelling pattern while performing some routine research for his new newsletter, High-Yield International. When he and his team of experts ran a stock screen looking for all the stocks in the world yielding over 12%, they found that out of the 118 stocks their analysis identified, only 25 them were located in the U.S. In other words, Michael’s study showed that if you aren’t looking overseas, you’re likely missing out on 79% the world’s highest-yielding securities before you even get started. #-ad_banner-#Unfortunately, even if we dedicated every issue of this newsletter to international dividend companies, I’m willing to bet some of you still wouldn’t get the message. Since most investors associate the word “international” with high-risk growth stocks, our recommendations often fall on deaf ears.  If you’re one of those investors, I urge you not to think that way.  The truth is, in addition to offering the vast majority of high-yield stocks, foreign markets can be just as safe as investing in the U.S. — if not safer. Michael explains why in his recent report “Why You’re Not Hearing About 79% Of The World’s Highest-Yielding Stocks”: In the… Read More

The closest thing to a no-brainer in investing is investing in a market-dominating company.  #-ad_banner-#One of the biggest markets in the world is the wireless industry. As emerging markets continue to urbanize, the number of mobile phone users will only increase. The other beauty about the wireless market is that there are only a handful of major operators, giving them a monopoly-like hold on the industry.  That’s what you get with AT&T (NYSE: T), a market leader with a very robust dividend and one of the best balance sheets in the business. Its debt-to-equity ratio is 89%, compared… Read More

The closest thing to a no-brainer in investing is investing in a market-dominating company.  #-ad_banner-#One of the biggest markets in the world is the wireless industry. As emerging markets continue to urbanize, the number of mobile phone users will only increase. The other beauty about the wireless market is that there are only a handful of major operators, giving them a monopoly-like hold on the industry.  That’s what you get with AT&T (NYSE: T), a market leader with a very robust dividend and one of the best balance sheets in the business. Its debt-to-equity ratio is 89%, compared with rival Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) 110%. During 2012, AT&T doubled its share buyback authorization, to 600 million shares.  The focus for AT&T going forward is wireless, which is a $22 billion per year business for the company and will likely continue to be its main revenue driver. AT&T already offers users some of the fastest speeds in the wireless Internet space, and it’s running ahead of schedule for its 4G LTE buildout.  AT&T covers some 250 million users with 4G LTE, and it expects to have that number up to 300 million by the end of this year. AT&T beat… Read More

Wilbur Ross is a man of large appetites. He doesn’t nibble around the edges with his investments — he consumes them with abandon.#-ad_banner-# At various points in his career, he’s committed almost all of his capital to one major investment, whether it’s distressed steel-making, out-of-favor textile making, or any other business that is flirting with bankruptcy but represent deep value through a corporate restructuring. His most famous move, as we noted last year: “Ross picked up numerous steel and mining ventures that had gone bankrupt. He sold his steel holdings for $4.5 billion in 2005 to ArcelorMittal, making $2.5 billion… Read More

Wilbur Ross is a man of large appetites. He doesn’t nibble around the edges with his investments — he consumes them with abandon.#-ad_banner-# At various points in his career, he’s committed almost all of his capital to one major investment, whether it’s distressed steel-making, out-of-favor textile making, or any other business that is flirting with bankruptcy but represent deep value through a corporate restructuring. His most famous move, as we noted last year: “Ross picked up numerous steel and mining ventures that had gone bankrupt. He sold his steel holdings for $4.5 billion in 2005 to ArcelorMittal, making $2.5 billion for (his firm) WL Ross and $300 million for himself.” That and other moves once led New York magazine to call Ross the “Bottom-Feeder King.”   These days, Ross has been unable to identify any major assets on the cusp of bankruptcy — the economy has been too healthy for that. Instead, he’s acquiring sizable stakes in companies that he views as severely undervalued. Though that approach continues to serve him well, one of his investments has been an utter disaster. Back in the third quarter of 2010, Ross bought nearly 2 million shares of energy… Read More

On Jan. 14 on StreetAuthority’s sister site ProfitableTrading.com, I wrote: “Gold and silver prices have taken a dive in the past two and a half years. Silver prices have been cut in half since their 2011 highs, while gold ‘only’ shed about a third of its value since then. Currently, silver is trading around $20 an ounce, and gold is trading at about $1,250 an ounce.”#-ad_banner-# Well, not much has changed in the past two weeks. Prices are slightly lower with silver at $19.70 an ounce and gold at $1,245.80. One company that is shielded from these… Read More

On Jan. 14 on StreetAuthority’s sister site ProfitableTrading.com, I wrote: “Gold and silver prices have taken a dive in the past two and a half years. Silver prices have been cut in half since their 2011 highs, while gold ‘only’ shed about a third of its value since then. Currently, silver is trading around $20 an ounce, and gold is trading at about $1,250 an ounce.”#-ad_banner-# Well, not much has changed in the past two weeks. Prices are slightly lower with silver at $19.70 an ounce and gold at $1,245.80. One company that is shielded from these fluctuations in prices is Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE: SLW). Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the company basically secures long-term purchasing agreements associated with silver and gold around the globe at a fixed price. Currently, it has more than 20 agreements associated with 23 mines. This allows the company to pay dividends on a regular basis without worrying too much about fluctuations in metal prices. As an example, Silver Wheaton agreed to purchase 25% of all the silver produced by Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) at a mine in Mexico at $3.90 per ounce (remember that silver is currently at $19.70 an ounce),… Read More

If the market was looking to get our attention, it has it now. Since Jan. 13, the S&P has dropped at least 1% on three occasions. It now stands nearly 5% below its 52-week high.  At this point, investors have begun to wonder if the market choppiness is a sign of a looming correction, which is defined as a 10% pullback (a bear market is a pullback of 20% or more). It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a market correction: It happened once in 2010, 2011 and in the middle of 2012, but it hasn’t happened… Read More

If the market was looking to get our attention, it has it now. Since Jan. 13, the S&P has dropped at least 1% on three occasions. It now stands nearly 5% below its 52-week high.  At this point, investors have begun to wonder if the market choppiness is a sign of a looming correction, which is defined as a 10% pullback (a bear market is a pullback of 20% or more). It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a market correction: It happened once in 2010, 2011 and in the middle of 2012, but it hasn’t happened since. #-ad_banner-#Notably, each correction has been followed by an impressive rebound, and some investors would welcome such a purge. In a market where values remain hard to find, pullbacks create solid openings. If we are entering into a corrective phase, history suggests it would last a couple of months. (The 2011 correction was quite rapid and due solely to the government shutdown.) Frankly, it’s unclear if the market’s recent gyrations will trigger a major directional shift. The economy appears fairly healthy, earnings season has been reasonably impressive, and Washington gridlock doesn’t seem to be an issue at the… Read More