In the latest saga of bond insurers’ problem, Bloomberg reports that “Bond Insurer Split May Trigger Lawsuits:”Regulators’ plans to break up bond insurers into “good” businesses covering municipal debt and “bad” businesses liable to subprime-related losses may trigger “years of litigation,” Bank of America Corp. analysts said. New York Insurance Department Superintendent Eric Dinallo and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer …
Have We Reached Bottom?
Based on the amount of reader e-mails I have received, I am amazed about how many investors are in hot pursuit of trying to pick a bottom in certain beaten down ETFs. Others are using an assortment of analysts and TV gurus to confirm their uncontrollable desires to enter the market and, hopefully, pick a declining investment (a loser) on …
Sunday Musings: It’s Not About You
No matter where you look, and which online news service you scan, you are bombarded with stats about the declining housing market and the daily increase in the number of homes entering foreclosure. It’s not only happening in the bubble states (California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida) but nationwide as well. Calculated Risk featured an update story on the subject in Georgia, …
How Credit Default Swaps Work
One of the many terms you’ve been reading about is Credit Default Swaps (CDS). They represent a market that is currently valued at some $50 trillion (yes, trillion, not billion) and can, given today’s counter party risk, which I alluded to in a recent post, affect the markets very negatively given the right circumstances.So what on earth are CDSs and …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 2/14/2008
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpMixed economic reports had the bulls and bears engaged in a tug-of-war all week. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs remained -0.86% below its long-term trend line (red), in bearish territory. The international index dropped to -7.42% below its own trend line, keeping us in a sell mode for …
Money Market Fund Update
In a recent post, I warned about the dangers of chasing high money market yields. Kevin Depew at Minyanville had this to say in item #3 of his “Five Things You Need To Know:This morning on its earnings conference call Panera Bread (PNRA) was forced to detail why the company had to write down $1 million due to a short-term …