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Mr. Smith Goes To Wall Street
"I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too." Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington Jefferson Smith was referring, of course, to Congress in that line but another Mr. Smith - Greg [...]
Weekly Economic & Market Review
Stocks continued their relentless advance last week and while I remain skeptical of the rally, I must admit its persistence has been impressive. All good things must come to an end though as the bond market demonstrated in fairly dramatic fashion just last week. Long term bonds (as measured by the IShares 20+ year Treasury ETF, TLT) are down nearly [...]
Trend Watcher – Skepticism keeps the rally going
Joseph Gomez, Sr. Investment Advisor and Portfolio Manager Apple was, once again, the star performer in client accounts last week, rising 7.41% and hitting another milestone - $600 per share. The rapid increase in AAPL’s share price has also caused a bit of a problem for analysts, as the stock keeps catching up with their price targets. Right now, the lowest price [...]
Oil Prices, and the Recurring Monetary Nightmare
On June 23, 2011, less than one year ago, the Department of Energy released the final details of the planned sale of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Not surprisingly, the DOE would conduct the sale of 30 million barrels of oil in one bidding process (in conjunction with foreign sales of an additional 30 million barrels), with [...]
Some Things Change, Some Things Don’t
One of my favorite blogs on common sense investing is Bogleheads.org. I recently stumbled across a blog that Taylor Larimore wrote back in December, 2010 on the Bogleheads blog. In this blog Taylor listed many excerpts that were direct quotes from a book titled "The Power of Passive Investing" by Richard A. Ferri. This book by Rick Ferri is loaded [...]
Beware the Conflicts of Interest in Money Management
In 1954, after 25 years, the Dow Jones Industrial Average regained its previous all-time high set in August of 1929. Coincidentally, that same year Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith published his landmark study of the debacle, The Great Crash: 1929. Galbraith was no fan of unfettered capital markets, and blamed the crash on rampant speculation, among other things, fueled by what he saw [...]
Independent Adviser v Broker/Dealer
I don't even feel compelled to write anything...these parting words say it all. Op-Ed to the NYT from departed Goldman Executive Director, Greg Smith, Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs: To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Today, if you [...]
The 17-year Market Cycle, Revisited
Joseph Gomez, Sr. Investment Advisor As of today, the S & P 500 is up 11% for 2012, a 4 year high. I believe we are within weeks/months from the point where investors will exit the "dis-belief stage" of a bull market (marked by historically low volumes) to the "acceptance stage" (marked by increased volume and an asset allocation adjustment out [...]
General Motors: An Emblem of a Potemkin Economy
Thinking Things Over March 11, 2012 Volume II, Number 10: General Motors: An Emblem of a Potemkin Economy By John L. Chapman, Ph.D. Washington, D.C. There were no private investors or companies out there willing to take a chance on the auto industry. Nobody was lining up to give you guys loans. Anyone in the financial sector can tell you that. [...]
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