Corporate raiders are economic assassins. They strike fear into the hearts of company executives. And T. Boone Pickens has been one of the best.  The oilman turned corporate raider was one of the pioneers of the leveraged buyout craze of the 1980s, producing huge gains for his investors while becoming one of the richest people in America with a net worth of $1.4 billion. As a legendary oilman, investor… Read More

Corporate raiders are economic assassins. They strike fear into the hearts of company executives. And T. Boone Pickens has been one of the best.  The oilman turned corporate raider was one of the pioneers of the leveraged buyout craze of the 1980s, producing huge gains for his investors while becoming one of the richest people in America with a net worth of $1.4 billion. As a legendary oilman, investor and corporate raider, Pickens has a knack for two things: knowing when to strike and when to play big. #-ad_banner-#T. Boone Pickens’ Biography Pickens showcased his lethal business smarts at an early age. At age 12, he expanded his paper route from 28 to 156 papers. In 1956, after graduating with a degree in geology from Oklahoma A&M and working for Phillips Petroleum for three years, Pickens founded the company that would eventually become Mesa Petroleum. By the early 1980s, Mesa had grown into one of the largest independent gas and oil companies in the world, transforming Pickens into… Read More

Did you miss out on China’s unprecedented growth?  In the past decade and a half, China has sailed past Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan before settling in as the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States. If you missed out on that growth, were you put off from investing while many experts dithered about the reliability of official Chinese government data? It would have been nearly impossible for an individual investor to get in on China in 1998. The… Read More

Did you miss out on China’s unprecedented growth?  In the past decade and a half, China has sailed past Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan before settling in as the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States. If you missed out on that growth, were you put off from investing while many experts dithered about the reliability of official Chinese government data? It would have been nearly impossible for an individual investor to get in on China in 1998. The Xinhua China 25 Index (NYSE: FXI) made its debut in 2004 as the first Chinese exchange-traded fund (ETF), but it has had considerable downsides, including its fees and a high concentration in the financial space. As a proxy for investing in China since 2009, consider the SPDR S&P China ETF (NYSE: GXC), which has a more balanced portfolio than FXI. Read More

Do you want to become a millionaire? That’s obviously a rhetorical question… the majority of us would love it. But what’s your plan for achieving that goal?  If your plan is to make that sort of wealth in the stock market, then what’s your strategy? Blue-chip stocks, index funds, or do you want to watch your “daily paychecks,” as my colleague Amy… Read More

Do you want to become a millionaire? That’s obviously a rhetorical question… the majority of us would love it. But what’s your plan for achieving that goal?  If your plan is to make that sort of wealth in the stock market, then what’s your strategy? Blue-chip stocks, index funds, or do you want to watch your “daily paychecks,” as my colleague Amy Calistri would say, roll in by the truck load?  All of these strategies are great. There’s nothing wrong with them and they’ll probably make you money in the long run. But while investing in just steady-eddy, mature companies may keep the income flowing in, it isn’t going to make you a millionaire anytime soon. They’re not going to give you those “knocked-out-of-the-park” returns that you’ve heard about since you first learned of the stock… Read More

It took awhile, but the IPO market is heating up.  Recent deals have performed so well that investment bankers are hustling the next crop up to the starting gate at a rapid pace. You can’t blame them. A shift in the markets can shut the IPO market down, so these firms and their bankers are looking to strike while the iron is hot. Of course, investors only have access to these deals if they have a brokerage account with one of… Read More

It took awhile, but the IPO market is heating up.  Recent deals have performed so well that investment bankers are hustling the next crop up to the starting gate at a rapid pace. You can’t blame them. A shift in the markets can shut the IPO market down, so these firms and their bankers are looking to strike while the iron is hot. Of course, investors only have access to these deals if they have a brokerage account with one of the company’s underwriters. If you have accounts with any investment banks, it pays to give your broker a call and see what deals the firm is underwriting. #-ad_banner-#Expecting triple-digit gains (sometimes in a matter of weeks) — as these IPOs have generated — is unrealistic. But as long as the stock market stays aloft, many coming IPOs could easily tack on 20% to 40% in… Read More

Corporate raiders are economic assassins. They strike fear into the hearts of company executives. And T. Boone Pickens has been one of the best.  The oilman turned corporate raider was one of the pioneers of the leveraged buyout craze of the 1980s, producing huge gains for his investors while becoming one of the richest people in America with a net worth of $1.4 billion. As a legendary oilman, investor… Read More

Corporate raiders are economic assassins. They strike fear into the hearts of company executives. And T. Boone Pickens has been one of the best.  The oilman turned corporate raider was one of the pioneers of the leveraged buyout craze of the 1980s, producing huge gains for his investors while becoming one of the richest people in America with a net worth of $1.4 billion. As a legendary oilman, investor and corporate raider, Pickens has a knack for two things: knowing when to strike and when to play big. #-ad_banner-#T. Boone Pickens’ Biography Pickens showcased his lethal business smarts at an early age. At age 12, he expanded his paper route from 28 to 156 papers. In 1956, after graduating with a degree in geology from Oklahoma A&M and working for Phillips Petroleum for three years, Pickens founded the company that would eventually become Mesa Petroleum. By the early 1980s, Mesa had grown into one of the largest independent gas and oil companies in the world, transforming Pickens into… Read More

Did you miss out on China’s unprecedented growth?  In the past decade and a half, China has sailed past Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan before settling in as the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States. If you missed out on that growth, were you put off from investing while many experts dithered about the reliability of official Chinese government data? It would have been nearly impossible for an individual investor to get in on China in 1998. The… Read More

Did you miss out on China’s unprecedented growth?  In the past decade and a half, China has sailed past Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan before settling in as the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States. If you missed out on that growth, were you put off from investing while many experts dithered about the reliability of official Chinese government data? It would have been nearly impossible for an individual investor to get in on China in 1998. The Xinhua China 25 Index (NYSE: FXI) made its debut in 2004 as the first Chinese exchange-traded fund (ETF), but it has had considerable downsides, including its fees and a high concentration in the financial space. As a proxy for investing in China since 2009, consider the SPDR S&P China ETF (NYSE: GXC), which has a more balanced portfolio than FXI. Read More

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer… Read More

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is only up 11% year to date, lagging behind the broader market and sharply behind its peers.  On the chart below, we can see that the January breakout above $27 held on the June and July pullbacks, forming a key support level. The $4 range between the $27 breakout level and the $31 yearly highs targets a breakout move to $35. The $35 target is about 22% higher than current prices, but traders who use a capital-preserving stock-substitution strategy could more than double their… Read More

Do you want to become a millionaire? That’s obviously a rhetorical question… the majority of us would love it. But what’s your plan for achieving that goal?  If your plan is to make that sort of wealth in the stock market, then what’s your strategy? Blue-chip stocks, index funds, or do you want to watch your “daily paychecks,” as my colleague Amy… Read More

Do you want to become a millionaire? That’s obviously a rhetorical question… the majority of us would love it. But what’s your plan for achieving that goal?  If your plan is to make that sort of wealth in the stock market, then what’s your strategy? Blue-chip stocks, index funds, or do you want to watch your “daily paychecks,” as my colleague Amy Calistri would say, roll in by the truck load?  All of these strategies are great. There’s nothing wrong with them and they’ll probably make you money in the long run. But while investing in just steady-eddy, mature companies may keep the income flowing in, it isn’t going to make you a millionaire anytime soon. They’re not going to give you those “knocked-out-of-the-park” returns that you’ve heard about since you first learned of the stock… Read More

It took awhile, but the IPO market is heating up.  Recent deals have performed so well that investment bankers are hustling the next crop up to the starting gate at a rapid pace. You can’t blame them. A shift in the markets can shut the IPO market down, so these firms and their bankers are looking to strike while the iron is hot. Of course, investors only have access to these deals if they have a brokerage account with one of… Read More

It took awhile, but the IPO market is heating up.  Recent deals have performed so well that investment bankers are hustling the next crop up to the starting gate at a rapid pace. You can’t blame them. A shift in the markets can shut the IPO market down, so these firms and their bankers are looking to strike while the iron is hot. Of course, investors only have access to these deals if they have a brokerage account with one of the company’s underwriters. If you have accounts with any investment banks, it pays to give your broker a call and see what deals the firm is underwriting. #-ad_banner-#Expecting triple-digit gains (sometimes in a matter of weeks) — as these IPOs have generated — is unrealistic. But as long as the stock market stays aloft, many coming IPOs could easily tack on 20% to 40% in… Read More

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer… Read More

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is only up 11% year to date, lagging behind the broader market and sharply behind its peers.  On the chart below, we can see that the January breakout above $27 held on the June and July pullbacks, forming a key support level. The $4 range between the $27 breakout level and the $31 yearly highs targets a breakout move to $35. The $35 target is about 22% higher than current prices, but traders who use a capital-preserving stock-substitution strategy could more than double their… Read More