The markets gave incoming President Obama a grand 5-minute inauguration honeymoon period before the selling continued and the major indexes headed sharply lower with the November 2008 lows (752 on the S&P; 500) now clearly in sight. The problem remains the same in that banks and other financial institutions have not come forward and disclosed all losing investments they carry …
Supporting Winners
The WSJ reports about The Bailout Endgame: It’s hard to know whether the unfolding drama with Bank of America and Citigroup Inc. represents history repeating itself as farce, or whether the markets have a few more go-rounds with tragedy first. Sure, shares are higher on the day on news that the U.S. Treasury has driven an armored truck full of …
A Light-Hearted Look At Securitization
Over the past few years, everything has been securitized. All kinds of mortgages, car loans and credit card debt was being sliced and diced, packaged and sold around the world to investors eager to leverage and increase their returns. So, how does securitization work? For a light-hearted look at the subject, one reader sent in the following story to demonstrate …
Sunday Musings: A Protective TARP
As I noted in last Friday’s market update, the major banks experienced a week of sharp stock losses causing B of A to look for more help from TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). Minyanville expanded further on the subject in “Bank of America Huddling under TARP:” The phrase “buyer beware” no longer applies in the American banking system. Last September, …
You Are Not Liked
Dr. Housing Bubble featured an interesting viewpoint in “Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Don’t Like you, Nothing Personal:” In the investing world you learn to expect the unexpected. I think most of us can put our pride aside and realize that we are living in a very different financial world, one that has not been seen in over a generation. …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 1/15/2009
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpA continuation of last week’s downtrend had the bulls heading for the sidelines. All major indexes lost again. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs remains below its trend line (red) by -9.07% thereby confirming the current bear market trend. The international index now remains -20.73% below its own trend …