To me, it’s simply amazing that masses of investors tune into financial news shows, like CNBC, and actually take the offered information as credible advice. It’s pretty sad that serious money matters are being marketed purely based on entertainment value and not on the basis of what might really make sense in the current market environment. The bias in these …
A Dead Cat Bounce?
It was bound to happen sooner or later. No matter how deeply we are entrenched in a bear market, there will be rallies based on short covering and hope that economic improvement lurks around the corner. That appeared to be the case yesterday, and we’ll have to wait and see if this will be a substantial rebound or just another …
Ignoring Support
As almost has become a habit at the beginning of a new week, the market took another hit to the downside yesterday. While the damage was only around 1% for the major averages, many technicians will be now slobbering over the closing numbers as the support level of 680 on the S&P; 500 was taken out. I reported in “Looking …
Hedging: Reader Q & A
Reader Sig had this comment after reading my new e-book “The Simple Hedge Strategy:” First let me thank you for your continued effort to educate and inform us neophytes. I really appreciate your efforts on our behalf. My question is this: I have found there is a 90 day holding period on most mutual funds. Am I correct, and if …
Sunday Musings: Still Not Getting It
Despite last year’s (and this year’s) market collapse there are still plenty of writers, brokers and others who simply don’t get it. They have stuck to their proven method of losing a large amount of their portfolio value in record time due to, well, sheer ignorance. Reader GH had this to say on the subject: You simply must visit this …
A Big Picture View
[Click chart to enlarge] With the markets having plunged at an unprecedented rate over the past year, it helps to look at things in a historical context to see if any parallels exist. The chart above does a fine job of showing were this current decline ranks in terms of past market disasters. I have featured it before, but it …