Author Archive
Quarterly Window Dressing - A Recurrent Wall Street Scam
“The time has come the walrus said, to talk of many things”: Of corrections–portfolios— and window dressing— of market cycles— wizards— and reality.
Quarterly portfolio window dressing is one of many immortal Jaberwock-like creatures that roam the granite canyons of the Manhattan triangle, sending inappropriate signals to unwary investors and media spokespersons. Many of you, […]
Guaranteed Social Security Benefits: Make It So
The comically complicated PSA (Personal Savings Account) legislation bouncing around Congress will raise taxes, increase investment risk, and expand the size of government. Let’s stop applying Band-Aids to spouting arteries. We are looking for a guaranteed retirement benefit program, and organizations capable of providing one. Additionally, we want the new program to reduce taxes, create […]
Volatility Rocks The Investment Markets
Gets your attention, doesn’t it? The unfortunate thing though, is that most people will react negatively to this intentionally inflammatory, media-ready, title statement. Has some Wall Street virus attacked our financial experience memory chip? Bouncing around unpredictably is precisely what the markets have always done. In the last forty years, there have been no less […]
Zero Overhead Real Estate Investing— Right Now
Real estate investing is not nearly as complicated, financially burdensome, or time consuming as you might think. In fact, Its easy to add raw land, shopping centers, apartment complexes, and private homes to your portfolio without brokers, bankers, attorneys, and handymen on your payroll. Even better, the zero overhead approach allows you to blend your […]
Strategic Investment Mixology:Finding the Holy Grail Cocktail
So what do your Investment Manager and your neighborhood bartender have in common, other than the probability that you spend more time with the latter during market corrections? Antoine Tedesco, in his “The History of Cocktails” article, lists three things that mixologists consider important to remember and to understand when making a cocktail: 1) the […]
Investment Performance Analysis - Simplified
It matters not what lines, numbers, indices, or gurus you worship, you just can’t know where the stock market is going or when it will change direction. Too much investor time and analytical effort is wasted trying to predict course corrections— even more is squandered comparing portfolio market values with a handful of unrelated indices […]
Compound Stock Earnings Programs - Caveat Investor
The caller seemed surprised that I had never heard about Compound Stock Earnings Programs, or CSEs. “People are earning three to six percent per month with little or no risk”, she continued, “I’m thinking of attending a seminar”. A wise man once said: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, but […]
Your 401(k) Investments And The IGVSI
Smack, right up alongside the head. Your 401(k) investment program deteriorated rapidly as the stock market and the economy weakened. Who would have thought that there was so much risk of loss in those mutual funds, and ETFs? Fortunately, the pain is most often temporary, but the timing of the recovery could alter some participant […]
Predicting Stock Market Movements
I’ve been thinking about starting a stock market prediction business. Clearly, there is a huge market for timely and accurate information of this type, and just as clearly, predicting the future is much easier than dealing with the realities of whatever is actually happening at the moment. If investors could know what’s going to happen […]
Investment Politics: Jobs, The Economy, and Social Security
Who wants to be a president; the President of the United States? Social Security reform is the winning ticket. Research supports the thesis that Social Security reform would provide all the lubrication necessary to get our economic ball bearings rolling in the right direction. Economies do not grow, or increase employment, when job providers are […]
