As Standard & Poor’s gears up to prep the next group of companies to join the S&P 500, investors are trying to game the system by buying stocks that have a strong chance of graduating into this famous… Read More

I have a friend who suffers from a peculiar phobia. It’s so bad that her fear keeps her from driving many places.#-ad_banner-# She will drive a hundred miles in the wrong direction to avoid coming face to face with the cause of her… Read More

I want to tell you about one of the best strategies in the world for beating an overvalued market. I use it to generate thousands of dollars in “Instant Income” from the best companies in the world.  If you haven’t guessed it already, my strategy involves selling options. And right now, we have a huge opportunity… In just a minute, I’ll give you five potential trades to consider today for collecting immediate income. First, let me explain how it works with… Read More

I want to tell you about one of the best strategies in the world for beating an overvalued market. I use it to generate thousands of dollars in “Instant Income” from the best companies in the world.  If you haven’t guessed it already, my strategy involves selling options. And right now, we have a huge opportunity… In just a minute, I’ll give you five potential trades to consider today for collecting immediate income. First, let me explain how it works with a couple of past examples. Recently, subscribers to my Income Trader newsletter made $130 in “Instant Income” from a $520 “down payment” on Questcor Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: QCOR). That’s an immediate return of 25% in 43 days, or 212% a year. And back in July, I collected $100 in “Instant Income” from OSI Systems (Nasdaq: OSIS) for every $900 I set aside. That’s an 11.1% return in 45 days, or 90.1% a year. Remember, this is how much income we made per contract. You can scale up as much as you want. You see,… Read More

The truth will make you sick. Technically it’s public knowledge, but I can tell you — it’s Congress’ dirty little secret. Congress is rich. Unbelievably rich. And until just recently, insider trading laws didn’t apply to Congress. I don’t know which is worse: The fact that insider trading was legal for some of our nation’s wealthiest politicians… or that Congress refused to do anything about it for decades. “A few lawmakers proposed a bill that would prevent members and employees of Congress from trading securities based… Read More

The truth will make you sick. Technically it’s public knowledge, but I can tell you — it’s Congress’ dirty little secret. Congress is rich. Unbelievably rich. And until just recently, insider trading laws didn’t apply to Congress. I don’t know which is worse: The fact that insider trading was legal for some of our nation’s wealthiest politicians… or that Congress refused to do anything about it for decades. “A few lawmakers proposed a bill that would prevent members and employees of Congress from trading securities based on nonpublic information they obtain. The legislation has languished since 2006,” according to The Wall Street Journal. That was, the legislation languished until “60 Minutes” — one of the most respected investigative journalism programs on television — dedicated a segment to the issue. Here’s a portion of what they had to say… “In mid-September 2008, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average still above 10,000, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were… Read More

You’ve no doubt heard many times that one of the best ways to make money in the stock market is to buy stocks when they’re “hated.” In fact, Warren Buffett has followed this path to profits countless times and used it to amass his vast fortune. I don’t think I could find many stocks that have been more “hated” over the past few years than Bank of America… Read More

You’ve no doubt heard many times that one of the best ways to make money in the stock market is to buy stocks when they’re “hated.” In fact, Warren Buffett has followed this path to profits countless times and used it to amass his vast fortune. I don’t think I could find many stocks that have been more “hated” over the past few years than Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). From its role in the financial crisis and housing bubble to ongoing litigation issues associated with those dark chapters for the economy, it seems like the company can’t catch a break. But, of course, just because a stock is hated doesn’t mean you should buy it. To determine this, we have to look much deeper.#-ad_banner-# But before we do that, the first and most obvious thing to consider is that none other than Buffett himself has issued a vote of… Read More

Over the past few years, the notion of Murphy’s law comes to mind for Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), the world’s largest copper miner. In that time, the company has witnessed: A sharp drop in copper prices as China worked off overbuilt stockpiles A similar plunge in gold prices (which accounts for roughly a fourth of the company’s revenues) A mining accident that took 28 lives in Indonesia A pair of major acquisitions in the oil and gas industry that were greeted by a chorus of boos from shareholders and… Read More

Over the past few years, the notion of Murphy’s law comes to mind for Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), the world’s largest copper miner. In that time, the company has witnessed: A sharp drop in copper prices as China worked off overbuilt stockpiles A similar plunge in gold prices (which accounts for roughly a fourth of the company’s revenues) A mining accident that took 28 lives in Indonesia A pair of major acquisitions in the oil and gas industry that were greeted by a chorus of boos from shareholders and analysts A rapid spike in the debt load to above $20 billion that raised alarms at a time when revenue and cash flow forecasts were being trimmed The net result, this stock has lost nearly 40% of its value over the past 2 1/2 years, even as the S&P 500 has moved higher by a similar amount. The fact that this stock recently tested support… Read More

Mario Gabelli is the value investor’s value investor.  Using a powerful value plus a catalyst stock-picking methodology that has been described as “Benjamin Graham and David Dodd plus Warren Buffett,” his GAMCO… Read More

What do Warren Buffett and Sir John Templeton have in common? They both made billions by following one simple maxim: Find stocks or industries that are absolutely loathed. These are the only areas you… Read More

It’s a country that rarely gets any mention by the mainstream investing press. Sure, you hear about India, China, Russia, and Brazil. And for good reason — those countries are growing at incredible rates, which has made many investors rich already… and will make even more people wealthy in the years ahead. But for my money, I don’t know if there is a better place to invest than Chile. It’s small — its total… Read More

It’s a country that rarely gets any mention by the mainstream investing press. Sure, you hear about India, China, Russia, and Brazil. And for good reason — those countries are growing at incredible rates, which has made many investors rich already… and will make even more people wealthy in the years ahead. But for my money, I don’t know if there is a better place to invest than Chile. It’s small — its total GDP is roughly $325.8 billion. That’s about 50 times smaller than the United States’ economy. Meanwhile, only 17.2 million people call Chile home… giving it a smaller population than Florida. Right now, Chile’s economy is growing at a 5.5% annual rate. That growth is accompanied by perhaps the most fiscally conservative government on the planet. National debt in the United States sits at 72.5% of GDP. But Chile’s public debt totals just 12% of… Read More

In a bear market, diversification reduces losses. In a bull market, diversification can reduce your gains. This is the trade-off all investors face. The price of decreased risk is almost always lower returns. Despite its disadvantages, holding a diversified rather than a concentrated portfolio is usually the best choice for an individual investor. Diversification is also the best choice for many institutional investors, including the managers of large endowment… Read More

In a bear market, diversification reduces losses. In a bull market, diversification can reduce your gains. This is the trade-off all investors face. The price of decreased risk is almost always lower returns. Despite its disadvantages, holding a diversified rather than a concentrated portfolio is usually the best choice for an individual investor. Diversification is also the best choice for many institutional investors, including the managers of large endowment funds at colleges and charities. Managers of these funds must balance current income needs and demands for growth of capital that will allow the institution to continue meeting its goals in the future. Historically, diversification has been the best way to strike this balance. One of the research papers we recently read showed how profitable it would be to perfectly time the markets. If you could invest each… Read More