One of the most exciting and lucrative avenues of stock investing is in the biotech arena. It can also be one of the most dangerous.#-ad_banner-# The sector focuses on developing and marketing lifesaving drugs and other medical breakthroughs. These products can have profound constructive effects on the world. Not only have many investors built fortunes by investing in biotech, but it feels good to know you’re helping to fund such positive research and development. Tiny biotech companies can make their investors a fortune when they’re acquired by their larger brethren or bring a revolutionary product to market. Short-term… Read More

One of the most exciting and lucrative avenues of stock investing is in the biotech arena. It can also be one of the most dangerous.#-ad_banner-# The sector focuses on developing and marketing lifesaving drugs and other medical breakthroughs. These products can have profound constructive effects on the world. Not only have many investors built fortunes by investing in biotech, but it feels good to know you’re helping to fund such positive research and development. Tiny biotech companies can make their investors a fortune when they’re acquired by their larger brethren or bring a revolutionary product to market. Short-term profits can abound when these companies make bullish product announcements or pass Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements, as well as for a host of other reasons. The Dangerous Side  However, biotech companies are among the market’s most inherently volatile stocks. Many of these companies don’t generate revenue and are burning cash like crazy on research and development. It’s a race between this burn rate and the company’s ability to get its products to market (or raise more cash to continue operations).  In other words, early stage biotechs are highly speculative. As products are brought to market, the company… Read More

In early September, stocks in the long-beleaguered maritime shipping industry started to do something few observers expected them to do anytime soon — they started to rise in a meaningful way.#-ad_banner-# The rally from names like DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) and Eagle Bulk Shipping (Nasdaq: EGLE) was driven by a meteoric rise in the Baltic Dry Index, which reflects the change in the daily charter rate for dry bulk vessels. The index nearly doubled in value between mid-August and this month, providing a glimmer of hope of decent profits for maritime shippers. But as is often… Read More

In early September, stocks in the long-beleaguered maritime shipping industry started to do something few observers expected them to do anytime soon — they started to rise in a meaningful way.#-ad_banner-# The rally from names like DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) and Eagle Bulk Shipping (Nasdaq: EGLE) was driven by a meteoric rise in the Baltic Dry Index, which reflects the change in the daily charter rate for dry bulk vessels. The index nearly doubled in value between mid-August and this month, providing a glimmer of hope of decent profits for maritime shippers. But as is often the case with huge moves from stocks and indices, doubts started to set in about the sustainability of the Baltic Dry Index’s new price levels, and these stocks started to wane just as quickly as they’d heated up.  However, the rise from the Baltic Dry Index wasn’t the result of a little volatility. A handful of other data indicate the supply/demand balance in the dry bulk shipping sector has finally found a happy medium, making DryShips, Eagle Bulk, FreeSeas (Nasdaq: FREE), Diana Shipping (NYSE: DSX) and a few other names in the group worth a closer long-term look. The Perfect… Read More

Weekend headlines focused on new highs in the major market indexes. New highs in the fourth quarter are bullish, and any pullback should be treated as a buying opportunity. Tech Stocks At 13-Year Highs SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) gained 2.43% last week and reached a new all-time high. PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ) gained 3.69% and closed at its highest price since November 2000. The monthly chart is shown below. Traders often focus on daily or weekly charts. Monthly charts also offer valuable insights, and the chart of QQQ shows an uptrend and… Read More

Weekend headlines focused on new highs in the major market indexes. New highs in the fourth quarter are bullish, and any pullback should be treated as a buying opportunity. Tech Stocks At 13-Year Highs SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) gained 2.43% last week and reached a new all-time high. PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ) gained 3.69% and closed at its highest price since November 2000. The monthly chart is shown below. Traders often focus on daily or weekly charts. Monthly charts also offer valuable insights, and the chart of QQQ shows an uptrend and an upside breakout. I’ve added a few notations to the chart that support the argument for higher prices.#-ad_banner-# Going back to the 2000 high, I have added Fibonacci retracement levels. Common Fibonacci numbers are 38.2% and 61.8%. Once prices retrace 61.8% of the decline, a bullish trend is confirmed. Friday’s close of $82.15 is just above that level. In 2008, the bear market formed a pattern that could be called a rounding bottom. The name of the pattern is less significant than what a price pattern tells us. In general, technical analysts look at patterns because they expect… Read More

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but the odds are stacked against you when it comes to “beating the market.”  By nearly 6 to 1 in fact… Investment analysts, advisors and fund managers — the so-called experts — spend their entire working lives and billions of dollars on research vowing to “beat the market” in any given year — yet the vast majority of them fail… Just look at mutual fund industry’s record. In the past three years, just 14% of actively-managed mutual fund managers matched or exceeded the market’s performance according to Standard & Poor’s. So how… Read More

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but the odds are stacked against you when it comes to “beating the market.”  By nearly 6 to 1 in fact… Investment analysts, advisors and fund managers — the so-called experts — spend their entire working lives and billions of dollars on research vowing to “beat the market” in any given year — yet the vast majority of them fail… Just look at mutual fund industry’s record. In the past three years, just 14% of actively-managed mutual fund managers matched or exceeded the market’s performance according to Standard & Poor’s. So how are the small minority beating the market? After years of research, we’ve found that more often than not, companies with just three basic characteristics are the ones that consistently beat the S&P 500… They often pay much higher dividend yields than the S&P 500 too. In fact, eight out of 10 stocks chosen for our “Top 10 Stocks For 2014” report paid a higher dividend yield than the S&P 500. A few even carried yields over 4.3% — more than twice the S&P 500’s yield. Don’t believe it’s as simple as three traits to find market-beating stocks? Consider our track… Read More

Deal shopping is quickly becoming a lost art.  Technology, like it has done time and again, is changing the way we buy and sell used goods, as those marketplaces are quickly becoming centralized. The Internet is quickly rendering classic print ads, such as the weekly PennySaverUSA, obsolete. The two big names in online classified are eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and Craigslist. Though there are plenty of horror stories about Craigslist, it remains the go-to site for used goods, with nearly 50 million unique visitors a month.  But neither Craigslist nor PennySaverUSA will help you find the next great value… Read More

Deal shopping is quickly becoming a lost art.  Technology, like it has done time and again, is changing the way we buy and sell used goods, as those marketplaces are quickly becoming centralized. The Internet is quickly rendering classic print ads, such as the weekly PennySaverUSA, obsolete. The two big names in online classified are eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and Craigslist. Though there are plenty of horror stories about Craigslist, it remains the go-to site for used goods, with nearly 50 million unique visitors a month.  But neither Craigslist nor PennySaverUSA will help you find the next great value investment. What value investors can do is buy the company that owned and distributed PennySaverUSA, Harte-Hanks (NYSE: HHS). This marketing company appears to be a great value, and it has a near-term catalyst to boot.  In an effort to focus on higher-growth markets, Harte-Hanks agreed last month to sell its PennySaverUSA business for $22.5 million. The sale will leave Harte-Hanks with an international direct and targeted marketing business that generates a tremendous amount of cash. The sell-off of PennySaverUSA — which had been a drag on financials and a distraction for management — gives new investors the chance… Read More

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is clearly in fighting shape. The heavyweight index has already pounded out 17% gains this year, on top of gains of 10% to 11% in 2010, 2011 and 2012 as well. Yet a quick look at what’s not working in the Dow gives a glimpse of the index’s weak points. Four of the Dow’s 30 stocks are lagging behind the broader index by a wide margin. Yet only one of those can simply be seen as having an off year due to cyclical economic factors. The other three simply lack the strength and… Read More

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is clearly in fighting shape. The heavyweight index has already pounded out 17% gains this year, on top of gains of 10% to 11% in 2010, 2011 and 2012 as well. Yet a quick look at what’s not working in the Dow gives a glimpse of the index’s weak points. Four of the Dow’s 30 stocks are lagging behind the broader index by a wide margin. Yet only one of those can simply be seen as having an off year due to cyclical economic factors. The other three simply lack the strength and stamina to duke it out for the long haul, and you might want to reconsider their place in your portfolio. The four big laggards: 1. AT&T (NYSE: T ) Ma Bell’s shares were generating a small loss for the year before the recent Washington fiscal agreement pushed it slightly into the black. If the market retreats from the current euphoria by year’s end, AT&T will surely end up posting a down year.  In fact, short sellers are anticipating such a move.  As I noted last month, both AT&T and Sprint (NYSE: S) have seen rising short interest in recent months. Read More

Some of the best ways to find undervalued investments is to look in places that other investors tend to ignore.#-ad_banner-#​ There are a number of “unsexy” industries and companies that produce goods and services we use every day, but they don’t receive the media attention that an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) or Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) does. And so many retail investors miss out on great opportunities.  One such industry is auto parts. There are nearly 250 million vehicles in North America alone. Almost everyone I know has a car (sometimes two). Those vehicles all need servicing, and they all… Read More

Some of the best ways to find undervalued investments is to look in places that other investors tend to ignore.#-ad_banner-#​ There are a number of “unsexy” industries and companies that produce goods and services we use every day, but they don’t receive the media attention that an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) or Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) does. And so many retail investors miss out on great opportunities.  One such industry is auto parts. There are nearly 250 million vehicles in North America alone. Almost everyone I know has a car (sometimes two). Those vehicles all need servicing, and they all break down from time to time.  And while some people choose to take their vehicles to an auto parts servicer — a strategy known colloquially as DIFM, short for “do it for me” — others prefer to get their hands dirty with a DIY (“do it yourself”) approach. Regardless, it has to get done.  Enter Motorcar Parts of America (Nasdaq: MPAA). This company is one of the nation’s top manufacturers of aftermarket auto parts. And a company that caters to both sides of the very large replacement parts market, DIYers and DIFMers alike. One of the big tailwinds for Motorcar… Read More

“You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.”  Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” earned the silver-bearded singer a gazillion dollars and carried him on to fame and fortune as a rotisserie chicken magnate. But when it comes to trading — especially when it comes to trading gold — it’s really darn good advice. Now, as I wrote a few months ago, I’m no fan of the shiny yellow metal. But after a merciless pounding this summer, gold is due for a near-term rally. The best way to play this bounce is through the SPDR… Read More

“You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.”  Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” earned the silver-bearded singer a gazillion dollars and carried him on to fame and fortune as a rotisserie chicken magnate. But when it comes to trading — especially when it comes to trading gold — it’s really darn good advice. Now, as I wrote a few months ago, I’m no fan of the shiny yellow metal. But after a merciless pounding this summer, gold is due for a near-term rally. The best way to play this bounce is through the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (Nasdaq: GLD). The weekly chart explains it all. After blowing through $170 around this time last year, GLD has taken a nasty tumble of over 30%. Apparently, the fear trade can be scary on both sides of the table. When shares pierced $120, they bounced nicely by 18% — and immediately proceeded to give most of that gain back. However, looking at the chart, it seems that a double bottom is in place for GLD.#-ad_banner-#​ Typically (and technically), a double-bottom formation can be a bullish signal. Besides… Read More

It’s not just food scarcity causing riots.  Last week, thousands of protestors in over 50 countries and 47 U.S. states took to the streets to rally against Monsanto (NYS: MON), a global leader in genetically modified seeds and food products. That violent reaction and growing resistance to genetically modified food is one of the biggest drivers in the incredible growth of the organic food industry. While domestic food sales continue to grow at just 1% annually, organic food sales are on pace to reach $42 billion in 2014, a 31% increase from $29 billion in 2010. That same… Read More

It’s not just food scarcity causing riots.  Last week, thousands of protestors in over 50 countries and 47 U.S. states took to the streets to rally against Monsanto (NYS: MON), a global leader in genetically modified seeds and food products. That violent reaction and growing resistance to genetically modified food is one of the biggest drivers in the incredible growth of the organic food industry. While domestic food sales continue to grow at just 1% annually, organic food sales are on pace to reach $42 billion in 2014, a 31% increase from $29 billion in 2010. That same trend is unfolding across the world, with global organic food sales expected to top $100 billion by 2016. More than half of this demand is expected to come from the United States, with more than 40 million organic customers. And today I am going to share one of my favorite stocks to cash in on the bullish trend. With the organics industry growing by leaps and bounds, this is one of the few small caps left in the space. That has lifted shares to a market-crushing 62% return in 2013. Take a look below. SunOpta (Nasdaq: STKL) is… Read More