The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it will lower interest rates by 25 basis points. This is the first cut we’ve seen in a decade, and rates are already low by historical standards.  Cheaper money, by design, is intended to stimulate the economy and to make sure investing is still preferable to saving.  Another upshot: more financing available to private companies. And it’s not just private equity. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You may be missing… Read More

The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it will lower interest rates by 25 basis points. This is the first cut we’ve seen in a decade, and rates are already low by historical standards.  Cheaper money, by design, is intended to stimulate the economy and to make sure investing is still preferable to saving.  Another upshot: more financing available to private companies. And it’s not just private equity. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You may be missing out on the most effective retirement strategy today. Here’s all you need to know to retire as early as this year. In the past few years, mutual funds and hedge funds have been actively investing in privately-held tech companies and startups in their search for market-beating returns. This brings more money to private companies, and paves the way to building relationships and to receiving more shares when those companies go public. Here’s another byproduct of low interest rates: companies stay private for longer. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOGL) went public in… Read More

If I had to name the biggest game-changing trend of the past decade — a trend that has disturbed the most companies, made the biggest organizational impact, changed the way businesses are structured, and impacted the most lives — it would be cloud computing.  Nothing short of a paradigm change, the advent of the cloud has truly transformed the way most technology companies do business. Even consumer companies have been significantly affected by the shift.  #-ad_banner-#The premise behind the cloud computing is simple: When technology — from simple applications to complete data centers — is delivered over the internet, it… Read More

If I had to name the biggest game-changing trend of the past decade — a trend that has disturbed the most companies, made the biggest organizational impact, changed the way businesses are structured, and impacted the most lives — it would be cloud computing.  Nothing short of a paradigm change, the advent of the cloud has truly transformed the way most technology companies do business. Even consumer companies have been significantly affected by the shift.  #-ad_banner-#The premise behind the cloud computing is simple: When technology — from simple applications to complete data centers — is delivered over the internet, it can be delivered as-needed, or on-demand. This on-demand business is now known as the cloud.  The on-demand feature makes everything easier. Companies have found that signing up for on-demand services is the easiest way to meet their future needs; the cloud-based model can easily get you more (or less), depending on how those needs change.  It also turns out that consuming technology over the internet is less expensive than doing it the traditional way: Basically, you pay for what you use — no more, no less. It requires much less hardware, too: All the hard work is done somewhere off-site… Read More

Investors are faced with a mountain of information, strategies and tactics to choose from. Value, growth, momentum, options, futures… which strategy is right for you? While every strategy has their pros and cons, one of the better-performing strategies has come from focusing on growth stocks. Growth stocks have certainly done well over the last decade, outpacing the popular value approach over that time period. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore value.  In fact, long-term studies still suggest that following a disciplined contrarian, value-driven strategy is the best path to success. Value investors argue that while the market may be… Read More

Investors are faced with a mountain of information, strategies and tactics to choose from. Value, growth, momentum, options, futures… which strategy is right for you? While every strategy has their pros and cons, one of the better-performing strategies has come from focusing on growth stocks. Growth stocks have certainly done well over the last decade, outpacing the popular value approach over that time period. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore value.  In fact, long-term studies still suggest that following a disciplined contrarian, value-driven strategy is the best path to success. Value investors argue that while the market may be efficient in the long term, emotions often dominate in the short run. These emotions can overtake rational analysis, pushing a stock’s price above its intrinsic value during periods of euphoria and below its true worth when reacting to bad news. Value screens, such as searching for stocks with a low price-earnings ratio, typically look for low prices relative to actual measures of company performance or assets. The price-earnings ratio, or multiple, is computed by dividing a stock’s price by its most recent 12 months’ earnings per share. The price-earnings ratio is followed closely because it embodies the market’s expectations of… Read More

If you’ve been reading ​my work for any length of time then you know that I talk a lot about emotions and how they can greatly impact whether you’re successful or not in investing… and really everyday life. But we’ll stick mostly to investing in this issue. Gaining a better understanding of the emotional behavior of investors — commonly referred to as behavioral economics — can not only help you avoid common pitfalls that plague average investors, but it can also help you better understand momentum investing. You see, when it comes to finance and money, humans don’t behave rationally (part of… Read More

If you’ve been reading ​my work for any length of time then you know that I talk a lot about emotions and how they can greatly impact whether you’re successful or not in investing… and really everyday life. But we’ll stick mostly to investing in this issue. Gaining a better understanding of the emotional behavior of investors — commonly referred to as behavioral economics — can not only help you avoid common pitfalls that plague average investors, but it can also help you better understand momentum investing. You see, when it comes to finance and money, humans don’t behave rationally (part of the reason why we have momentum investing at all). When it comes to profits and losses, the fear of losing money greatly outweighs the joy in achieving additional gains. It’s this very premise that has created the mantra, “Let your winners run, and cut your losers short.” How many times have you sold a winning stock just to see it keep climbing in the days and weeks that followed? And on the flip side of that, think about how many times you’ve held on to a loser just to see it keep falling. That’s a lesson I learned the hard… Read More

The market’s comeback this year is one for the record books: The S&P 500 closed the best first half of a year since 1997. Not too many analysts predicted such a big rally — but then again, not too many thought the U.S. Federal Reserve would consider the first interest rate cut in 10 years as early as this July and that the rest of the world would become more dovish as the year progressed.  But investors are still not happy. Just as with so many times during the last few years, they are questioning whether the recent records will… Read More

The market’s comeback this year is one for the record books: The S&P 500 closed the best first half of a year since 1997. Not too many analysts predicted such a big rally — but then again, not too many thought the U.S. Federal Reserve would consider the first interest rate cut in 10 years as early as this July and that the rest of the world would become more dovish as the year progressed.  But investors are still not happy. Just as with so many times during the last few years, they are questioning whether the recent records will hold and whether the rally has some power remaining in it.  —Recommended Link— 5 stocks you need to know about ASAP One Minneapolis cash machine is yielding us 65% (it has hiked its dividend 28 years in a row). A Philadelphia firm yielding us 62% (we’re up 2,559% in this one). The North Dakota juggernaut that has made us 1,881%. The New Orleans utility yielding us 71%-just paid its 188th consecutive dividend. The telecom from New York City yielding us 62%. Get these five stocks now. Reasons For Caution One… Read More

Our first foray into the world of medical and recreational cannabis over at Fast-Track Millionaire remains the industry leader.  It was the first among the industry players to secure a large and lucrative partnership deal — in the form of a multi-billion-dollar link with a well-known maker of beers, wines and spirits.  It was also the first to buy a large U.S.-based competitor, although the deal is designed not to take place until the U.S. legalizes marijuana on a federal level. In many ways, our first cannabis stock pick has set the standard in the budding industry. But other industry… Read More

Our first foray into the world of medical and recreational cannabis over at Fast-Track Millionaire remains the industry leader.  It was the first among the industry players to secure a large and lucrative partnership deal — in the form of a multi-billion-dollar link with a well-known maker of beers, wines and spirits.  It was also the first to buy a large U.S.-based competitor, although the deal is designed not to take place until the U.S. legalizes marijuana on a federal level. In many ways, our first cannabis stock pick has set the standard in the budding industry. But other industry players have been following suit. And my Fast-Track Millionaire readers and I have been paying very close attention, looking for what could be tomorrow’s household names in Big Cannabis. —Recommended Link— This Is The Story To Watch In 2019 I’ve found the perfect marijuana business. And it’s not a dispensary, a lab, or a grower. Instead, it provides the one thing each of these businesses need. Something they pay a 400% premium to get access to. And something that retains its value no matter what happens with marijuana laws. More importantly for you, this company… Read More

Some investors may be concerned about buying stocks when the S&P 500 is up double-digits in less than six months. That’s understandable. As I write this, the S&P 500 index has rallied 16.2%, while the market is up 49% over the past five years and 217% over the past decade. But rather than adopt an overly defensive posture, I’ve been telling my Fast-Track Millionaire readers something different… You see, I think the antidote is to invest in rapid-growth industries — places where future profits are likely to outgrow the market by a wide margin.  After all, if we can identify… Read More

Some investors may be concerned about buying stocks when the S&P 500 is up double-digits in less than six months. That’s understandable. As I write this, the S&P 500 index has rallied 16.2%, while the market is up 49% over the past five years and 217% over the past decade. But rather than adopt an overly defensive posture, I’ve been telling my Fast-Track Millionaire readers something different… You see, I think the antidote is to invest in rapid-growth industries — places where future profits are likely to outgrow the market by a wide margin.  After all, if we can identify the companies delivering the kind of growth I’m talking about — it won’t matter what the rest of the market is doing… the shares of these companies will be positioned to keep delivering. This explains the recent strength in tech, for example. And while there’s plenty of growth in that sector — and you should be paying close attention to it (as we do over at Fast-Track Millionaire)… I’m not here to talk about tech today.  Instead, I’d like to touch on another growth industry — where the action has largely been more muted — the fledgling cannabis sector.  —Recommended… Read More

With U.S. stocks hitting record highs, investors face a question of where to invest. True, that’s always THE question — but this market isn’t an ordinary one.  Expectations for monetary easing have largely been behind the recent market strength (up nearly 10% since the beginning of June). That’s unusual for a market trading at all-time highs, but these expectations have been all but confirmed after Congressional testimony last week from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.  While investors await the next earnings cycle (which gets underway this week) for more clues about the direction of profits and the economy, Chairman Powell’s… Read More

With U.S. stocks hitting record highs, investors face a question of where to invest. True, that’s always THE question — but this market isn’t an ordinary one.  Expectations for monetary easing have largely been behind the recent market strength (up nearly 10% since the beginning of June). That’s unusual for a market trading at all-time highs, but these expectations have been all but confirmed after Congressional testimony last week from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.  While investors await the next earnings cycle (which gets underway this week) for more clues about the direction of profits and the economy, Chairman Powell’s words are the basis of their near-term bullishness. But stocks have gotten expensive, and many growth stocks — the ones we invest in over at Fast-Track Millionaire — look reasonable only if their fast growth remains intact.  In these conditions, it would be wise to also consider somewhat slower-growing and/or better-valued stocks. If you agree, then this screen is for you…  —Recommended Link— How to collect checks for $1,278. $3,225… and even $8,760 Plenty of ordinary Americans are collecting from this “long lost” program. Backed by $1.75 billion in cash and the full authority of… Read More

We need to talk about China…  #-ad_banner-#And no, I’m not referring to the ongoing trade spat with the country. While that is important and it will be touched on, that is something you can read about anywhere. I want to talk about the country’s importance in the broader global economy, its impact on our portfolio over at Top Stock Advisor, and specifically our direct exposure through two holdings: Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (OTC: TCEHY).  Before we dive into our holdings, let’s take a step back and look at the bigger landscape of the country… Massive Size = Massive Opportunity… Read More

We need to talk about China…  #-ad_banner-#And no, I’m not referring to the ongoing trade spat with the country. While that is important and it will be touched on, that is something you can read about anywhere. I want to talk about the country’s importance in the broader global economy, its impact on our portfolio over at Top Stock Advisor, and specifically our direct exposure through two holdings: Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (OTC: TCEHY).  Before we dive into our holdings, let’s take a step back and look at the bigger landscape of the country… Massive Size = Massive Opportunity In terms of land mass, China and the United States are close in size. However, China boasts nearly 1.4 billion people, which dwarfs the roughly 325 million folks in America. Its economy, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), sits at $13.6 trillion, which is second only to the United States’ $20.6 trillion. China and the United States trade more goods — nearly $700 billion last year — than any other two countries in the world. But let’s go back to the country’s population… 1.4 billion citizens. That is a lot of people. And a key reason why nearly… Read More

Money is cheap and, with the Fed apparently re-embarking on an easing course, it will be getting even cheaper. This is a negative for your savings account. On the flip side, though, borrowing is not expensive — personal and corporate alike. This historically low cost of money (i.e. interest rates) has been a factor in the surge of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity over the past few years. Last year, for instance, the volume of M&A transactions jumped 16% globally from 2017 to $4.1 trillion. One of the recent standouts here is biopharma. The need to supplement or replace revenue… Read More

Money is cheap and, with the Fed apparently re-embarking on an easing course, it will be getting even cheaper. This is a negative for your savings account. On the flip side, though, borrowing is not expensive — personal and corporate alike. This historically low cost of money (i.e. interest rates) has been a factor in the surge of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity over the past few years. Last year, for instance, the volume of M&A transactions jumped 16% globally from 2017 to $4.1 trillion. One of the recent standouts here is biopharma. The need to supplement or replace revenue streams from expiring patents, consolidation, rising stock prices (which equals more equity that can be used as a takeover currency) are some of the reasons pharmaceutical and biotech companies, large and small, continue to merge. It’s eat or get eaten out there. —Recommended Link— Life-and-death investing. ​At the office, we call them “essential-service” stocks. Because people don’t just want what they sell, they need it. Nobody is going to go without air conditioning in Arizona. It can be a matter of life and death. And try spending a winter in North Dakota with no heat. Read More