You know you’ve stumbled across something good when other financial publishing outlets begin using it.  It is a bit of a catch-22, however, because on the one hand it’s an idea that we here at StreetAuthority developed and made popular, but don’t get credit for… On the other hand, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. To be sure, it’s not as if we developed an iPhone model that every other competitor began mimicking, or some other ground-breaking technology. We simply came up with giving a sound, time-tested way of investing, a couple of catchy phrases. They aren’t proprietary, trademarked… Read More

You know you’ve stumbled across something good when other financial publishing outlets begin using it.  It is a bit of a catch-22, however, because on the one hand it’s an idea that we here at StreetAuthority developed and made popular, but don’t get credit for… On the other hand, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. To be sure, it’s not as if we developed an iPhone model that every other competitor began mimicking, or some other ground-breaking technology. We simply came up with giving a sound, time-tested way of investing, a couple of catchy phrases. They aren’t proprietary, trademarked or patented. Nor should they be. But now, whenever I come across them on the Web, I simply smile and know that the history behind these popular headlines and marketing commentary all started here. You see, we’ve published thousands of in-depth research reports. Everything from high-dividend payers, game-changing innovations, top tech stocks, best plays in emerging markets — you name it, we’ve told you how to profit from it. But there are two pieces of research that have spread like wildfire since we first began publishing them over a decade ago. In fact, I hardly even mention or use the… Read More

Once again, an old-school company fails to keep up. Or just fails. General Electric (NYSE: GE), which just a month or so ago seemed to be out of the woods after two years of declining earnings and dividend cuts, just warned investors of another year of lower profits and forecasted that its industrial operations — formerly its bread and butter — could be up to $2 billion cash-flow negative this year. Just a month ago, the market was cheering GE’s decision to sell one of its important assets, the company’s biopharma unit, to Danaher (NYSE: DHR) for $21.4 billion. The… Read More

Once again, an old-school company fails to keep up. Or just fails. General Electric (NYSE: GE), which just a month or so ago seemed to be out of the woods after two years of declining earnings and dividend cuts, just warned investors of another year of lower profits and forecasted that its industrial operations — formerly its bread and butter — could be up to $2 billion cash-flow negative this year. Just a month ago, the market was cheering GE’s decision to sell one of its important assets, the company’s biopharma unit, to Danaher (NYSE: DHR) for $21.4 billion. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. But the proceeds won’t be reinvested in the business. Rather, the proceeds will be used to reduce GE’s enormous debt. At year-end, GE had $108 billion in debt (almost as much as it had taken in revenue during the entire year, which was $121.6 billion). ​ The decision to reduce debt is the right one. The size of a company’s debt matters, especially when business suddenly slows. Too much debt can often lead to bankruptcy — even in a strong economy like ours today, let alone in leaner times. But when… Read More

The ongoing situation with Boeing (NYSE: BA) is important for investors to watch.  As you probably know, on Sunday, March 10, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashed just six minutes after takeoff in Ethiopia, killing all 157 passengers and crew aboard.  Authorities have begun investigating the cause of the crash, which was the second crash involving that particular model within the span of several months. In the meantime, a number of countries issued orders to ground the Boeing model, with the U.S. following suit on Wednesday.  Safety concerns about the airplane maker’s 737 MAX aircraft are a tragedy, and… Read More

The ongoing situation with Boeing (NYSE: BA) is important for investors to watch.  As you probably know, on Sunday, March 10, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashed just six minutes after takeoff in Ethiopia, killing all 157 passengers and crew aboard.  Authorities have begun investigating the cause of the crash, which was the second crash involving that particular model within the span of several months. In the meantime, a number of countries issued orders to ground the Boeing model, with the U.S. following suit on Wednesday.  Safety concerns about the airplane maker’s 737 MAX aircraft are a tragedy, and I don’t have any intention of minimizing them. And we don’t have a clear idea of just how much this will affect Boeing just yet. But from an investment perspective, history shows that problems in a single company can spark a significant decline in an overvalued market. Let me explain… #-ad_banner-#Historic examples include the October 1989 market crash that followed the collapse of a leveraged buyout deal for United Airlines. That crash was small, with the S&P 500 falling a little more than 6% that day, but the deal’s collapse showed traders that buyouts were risky. The news pushed prices down… Read More

It’s no secret that Warren Buffett is an incredible investor. Arguably the greatest of all-time. His track record speaks for itself — 20.5% compound annual gains from 1965 through 2018. That’s more than double S&P 500’s 9.7% annual return over the same time frame. But I’m not here to talk about Buffett’s successes, or his recent shareholder letter (which you can read here.) Instead, I want to talk about one of Buffett’s biggest failures  — and how we can take those lessons and profit. It’s the largest investment loss, in dollar terms, of his entire career. Read More

It’s no secret that Warren Buffett is an incredible investor. Arguably the greatest of all-time. His track record speaks for itself — 20.5% compound annual gains from 1965 through 2018. That’s more than double S&P 500’s 9.7% annual return over the same time frame. But I’m not here to talk about Buffett’s successes, or his recent shareholder letter (which you can read here.) Instead, I want to talk about one of Buffett’s biggest failures  — and how we can take those lessons and profit. It’s the largest investment loss, in dollar terms, of his entire career. —Recommended Link— Listen to our MiracleBlood Podcast It’s a new type of blood cell that can kill 12 types of cancer… eradicate heart disease… diabetes… arthritis… Alzheimer’s… and extend your life by another 50 vibrant years. ​Click here to listen now. Here’s the story of how Warren Buffett lost billions in the oil business…  It starts in 2007 when the Oracle of Omaha began purchasing shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP). By the end of 2007, Buffett had spent just over $1 billion. The following year, shares of ConocoPhillips continued to climb, and Buffett continued investing. By the end… Read More

If you asked for investment advice from the world’s greatest investors, the message would be the same… Sure, their investment philosophies would differ, but their guiding principles on what it takes to be successful wouldn’t. Every one of them would cite one single thing as the key ingredient to building wealth. And that’s risk management. #-ad_banner-#Hedge Fund founder Paul Tudor Jones has a trading manifesto with 21 rules. The majority of them deal with risk management. For example, Rule No. 3 is “If I have positions going against me, I get out; if they are going for me, I keep… Read More

If you asked for investment advice from the world’s greatest investors, the message would be the same… Sure, their investment philosophies would differ, but their guiding principles on what it takes to be successful wouldn’t. Every one of them would cite one single thing as the key ingredient to building wealth. And that’s risk management. #-ad_banner-#Hedge Fund founder Paul Tudor Jones has a trading manifesto with 21 rules. The majority of them deal with risk management. For example, Rule No. 3 is “If I have positions going against me, I get out; if they are going for me, I keep them.” In other words, he cuts his losers short and lets his winners ride. Rule No. 5: “Don’t ever average losers.” Said another way, don’t throw good money after bad. Rule No. 10: “The most important rule of trading is to play great defense, not offense.” In other words, protect and preserve the capital you’ve made. Rule No. 17: “Don’t focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have.” American financier Bernard Baruch, whom after success in business devoted his time to advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, wrote in his 10 Rules of Investing, “Learn… Read More

It’s good to have the best seat in the house… In all of my years at StreetAuthority, I’ve been fortunate enough to watch some of the brightest financial minds at work in this business. And every so often I like to take the spotlight and shine it exclusively on one of our premium newsletter analysts. —Recommended Link— MiracleBlood postpones old age by 50 years The full details are in our new podcast, but believe me when I say that this is huge. Click here to listen for free. I’ve done this a number of times. Often it’s in the… Read More

It’s good to have the best seat in the house… In all of my years at StreetAuthority, I’ve been fortunate enough to watch some of the brightest financial minds at work in this business. And every so often I like to take the spotlight and shine it exclusively on one of our premium newsletter analysts. —Recommended Link— MiracleBlood postpones old age by 50 years The full details are in our new podcast, but believe me when I say that this is huge. Click here to listen for free. I’ve done this a number of times. Often it’s in the form of one-on-one interviews. On other rare occasions, I’ll hand the reins of these pages over to the analyst so that they can speak directly, personally, to you. When it comes to an in-depth look at a winning strategy or important issue that could fundamentally change the way you think about investing, I’ve found that there’s simply no better way to get the message across than to sit down with one of our experts and have a detailed discussion. And judging from the feedback I’ve received over the years from you, our StreetAuthority Daily readers, a lot of you agree. Read More

Last week, news outlets reported the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting in January. We all know that when the Fed meets, it’s usually big news. Since the financial crisis, the central bank has been ever-so-gradually raising interest rates, from zero, to where they now sit, in a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. But ever since equities markets fell sharply to end 2018, the Fed has been sending mixed signals. I won’t bore you with the details, but the short version is that Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed committed to gradual increases… until things… Read More

Last week, news outlets reported the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting in January. We all know that when the Fed meets, it’s usually big news. Since the financial crisis, the central bank has been ever-so-gradually raising interest rates, from zero, to where they now sit, in a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. But ever since equities markets fell sharply to end 2018, the Fed has been sending mixed signals. I won’t bore you with the details, but the short version is that Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed committed to gradual increases… until things got a little ugly. So the question became whether the Fed would continue raising rates gradually or take an even softer stance going forward. So here’s what we learned from the official notes from the meeting… #-ad_banner-#As it stands, the central bank still holds about $3.8 trillion in Treasury bonds on its balance sheet. The “balance sheet reduction” program, where the Fed was holding U.S. government bonds to maturity without making any new repurchases, will likely conclude at the end of the year. (Remember QE, or quantitative easing? Well, this was quantitative “tightening,” if you will.) Still with me? Good,… Read More

Value investing is one of the most popular investment strategies used today by individual investors and portfolio managers.  Value investors seek out stocks that can be purchased at a discount to a company’s “real” worth. It’s an approach that’s been refined over the years, but its foundation goes back roughly 85 years with the publishing of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd’s college textbook, “Security Analysis.” Benjamin Graham is properly credited as one of the fathers of value investing. Disciples of his include such notables as Warren Buffett (who is reportedly the only student to receive an “A” in his class),… Read More

Value investing is one of the most popular investment strategies used today by individual investors and portfolio managers.  Value investors seek out stocks that can be purchased at a discount to a company’s “real” worth. It’s an approach that’s been refined over the years, but its foundation goes back roughly 85 years with the publishing of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd’s college textbook, “Security Analysis.” Benjamin Graham is properly credited as one of the fathers of value investing. Disciples of his include such notables as Warren Buffett (who is reportedly the only student to receive an “A” in his class), Walter J. Schloss, Seth Klarman, and Bill Ackman. Graham’s approach was to identify stocks that were trading at a discount to their intrinsic value. And although Graham never fully explained how to determine “intrinsic” value for a stock, we do know that he felt a firm’s tangible assets were a particularly important component. Other factors included earnings, dividends, financial strength, and stability.  Graham knew that identifying such neglected, undervalued stocks was a protracted and patience-trying experience. But he also knew the rewards could be great. And so did his most famous student…  —Recommended Link— The most powerful market research you’ll… Read More

Should I stay or should I go? If you’ve been singing this 1981 tune by the English punk rock band The Clash to yourself since late September, you are not alone.  In the fourth-quarter selloff last year, U.S. equities lost $4 trillion in combined market value. For those who had chosen to stay and not to go, a sharp market bounce has helped recover much of the losses: after the 17% rally off the December low, the S&P 500 has now returned to early January 2018 levels. For the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, the decline was deeper, but the bounce was… Read More

Should I stay or should I go? If you’ve been singing this 1981 tune by the English punk rock band The Clash to yourself since late September, you are not alone.  In the fourth-quarter selloff last year, U.S. equities lost $4 trillion in combined market value. For those who had chosen to stay and not to go, a sharp market bounce has helped recover much of the losses: after the 17% rally off the December low, the S&P 500 has now returned to early January 2018 levels. For the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, the decline was deeper, but the bounce was sharper. At its lowest levels of 2018, the Nasdaq was down 23% from its highs. Since its December lows, though, it has rallied some 19%.  As a result, the Nasdaq is now higher by about 10% from its 2017 levels. —Recommended Link— How I hacked the stock market and got away with thousands. Make $30,000 in 2 months exploiting mispriced stocks like Apple, Starbucks and other quality blue chips. Click here for the easy (and legal) secret… Hardly a record, but still better than money-market returns. It Pays To Hold Fast But stocks are risky, you might… Read More

As a child, I wanted to be a weatherman. I knew more than any ten-year-old should about barometric pressure and relative humidity and spent countless hours in the winter staring at the radar praying for snow (understand, it’s a rarity in my home state of Louisiana).  Back then, one of our local network meteorologists never predicted any of the white stuff, even when his colleagues assured kids that several inches were coming and schools would be closed the next day. I hated that guy. But my ski gloves and sled never got much use — he was right 99% of… Read More

As a child, I wanted to be a weatherman. I knew more than any ten-year-old should about barometric pressure and relative humidity and spent countless hours in the winter staring at the radar praying for snow (understand, it’s a rarity in my home state of Louisiana).  Back then, one of our local network meteorologists never predicted any of the white stuff, even when his colleagues assured kids that several inches were coming and schools would be closed the next day. I hated that guy. But my ski gloves and sled never got much use — he was right 99% of the time.  Of course, you can’t really blame the weatherman for the forecast. They are simply the messengers. Please keep that in mind when I tell you the stock market forecast appears rather stormy right now.  I’d much prefer to say that conditions look lovely — but honestly, you might want to keep an umbrella handy the next few weeks.  Here’s what’s got me worried.  This chart shows the change in S&P first-quarter earnings estimates over the past 18 weeks. Back in September, analysts were anticipating a decent 6.7% increase. By December 31, that projection had been cut in half… Read More