Archive for December, 2010
Smart Investing Daily – How Rapidly Inflation Eats Away at Money Tucked Away in CDs
Behind the meaning of one of the most famous sayings ever coined lies a fundamental flaw that our friend Benjamin Franklin didn’t warn you about. While Mr. Franklin noted how hard it was to make a buck, his emphasis was on how much harder it was to save it. Unfortunately, he had no idea what the world would look like in 2011.
I’m sure most of our founding fathers would have more than one bone to pick with the current state of financial affairs in this country, but I’ll save that for another article.
I’m not here to bash fiscal or monetary policy, but to inform you that you may be losing with your hard-earned dollars wasting away in one of the most popular asset safe haven investments out there.
Many of you reading this may either be on a fixed income, looking for preservation of capital, or maybe you just want some or all of your money to be “safe” for now, while you save. The certificate of deposit (CD), regrettably, is the preferred choice for Read more
Smart Investing Daily – The Housing Market is Still NOT Safe
Friday, 17 December 2010
A couple of months back, I wrote about the tremendous deals that can be had if you are an investor buying real estate properties. Obviously, as a qualified, confident buyer, you have quite a selection, as well as many distressed sellers at your beck and call wanting to unload their homes. “Qualified” and “confident” are the operative words — but many Americans still are neither.
Housing Market Pricing Power
Existing new home inventories are high all around the United States. Home sales data does not look like it should in a economic recovery. Year-to-date, there were 4.149 million existing home sales, down 2.9 percent from 4.272 million home sales at this time a year ago.
According to S&P/Case-Shiller, prices are still moving lower: through September 2010, the average home price dropped 2.0% in the third quarter of 2010, after having risen 4.7% in the second quarter, which was Read more
Smart Investing Daily – The Most Important Stock Market Chart of the Week
Early last week I gave you four reasons to buy the S&P 500 market (SPX or SPY), and hopefully you had the chance to participate in the market’s recent gains. Aside from the somewhat positive fundamentals of both the macroeconomic improvements and individual companies’ improved fiscal health, we have year-end window dressing and some good old statistical (and superstitious) beliefs working in your favor, especially if you are a bull.
What I have not addressed yet are some of the key technical levels that you need to be aware of. In just about every stock trade I make, I am paying close attention to a minimum of two stock market charts (usually more). I don’t just analyze the stock that my investment is in, but also a large index, such as the SPX, OEX, NDX or similar.
Don’t Pay Attention to the Dow Jones Industrial Average
I do NOT use the Dow Jones Industrial Average, because I feel the index is flawed in that it concentrates on the price of the stock for its weight in the index as opposed to its real value. In addition, to me, 30 stocks out of the over 5,000 stocks that trade on major exchanges is just not a good sample size. But I digress…
The S&P 500 Can Show You the Market’s “Hand”
Out of all the commonly watched indexes out there, the S&P 500 or SPX is the preferred barometer of Read more
Smart Investing Daily – The Energy Investment No One Is Talking About
Friday, 10 December 2010
Last week I discussed the country’s dire need for energy infrastructure improvements and expansion, and how you can use the First Trust Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure ETF (GRID:NASDAQ) to capitalize on that need. Our evolution into hybrid and eventually full electric cars is a major driver of this need for a better grid and is my topic today.
This new energy infrastructure will offer Americans more efficient energy distribution, storage and hopefully cost savings over the long term, not to mention more places for us to fill our cars up with their new fuel (electricity). What I didn’t discuss is the need for super-efficient storage devices to power the cars themselves!
We Need Better Batteries!
A major hurdle for electric carmakers to overcome in addition to the lack of charging stations around the U.S., is the capacity, Read more
Smart Investing Daily – Four Financial Market Signposts Point to Santa Rally
Back on Oct. 1, when the S&P 500 was at 1,136, I gave you four reasons why I thought stocks were still cheap. Today, even with the index almost 90 points (8%) higher, I still believe you should be buying certain U.S. equities. If you have been reading Smart Investing Daily regularly, you know that Sara, our guests and I try to offer you real, practical, actionable advice that makes sense.
Figuring the Financial Market Out Is NOT Impossible
We often forget what is behind the financial market’s proverbial curtain. Behind all the numbers, algorithms, earnings, charts, forecasts and analysis is one thing that makes it all come together and offers rationale for all these seemingly random numbers and patterns: the human mind.
Smart Investing Daily – The Best ETF for Your Portfolio
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As a kid, some of my fondest winter memories were driving through the different neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia where I grew up admiring all of the ornate holiday light displays. Of course, being a geek at an early age, I always wondered what their electric bills looked like and how rich someone had to be to essentially fire up 10,000 small lamps every night for six to 12 hours.