Let me start off today’s issue with a warning…  I’m not trying to sound alarmist. It does absolutely zero good if you walk away from today’s essay with a “the sky is falling” mentality. I certainly don’t think that, and neither should you.  That being said, I’ve been spending a lot of time around the office thinking about a topic that has dominated headlines recently — one that StreetAuthority’s Andy Obermueller has been spot-on with his analysis since Day 1.  #-ad_banner-#I’m talking about pandemics.  Now, again, I want to be perfectly clear that we’re not saying some sort of global… Read More

Let me start off today’s issue with a warning…  I’m not trying to sound alarmist. It does absolutely zero good if you walk away from today’s essay with a “the sky is falling” mentality. I certainly don’t think that, and neither should you.  That being said, I’ve been spending a lot of time around the office thinking about a topic that has dominated headlines recently — one that StreetAuthority’s Andy Obermueller has been spot-on with his analysis since Day 1.  #-ad_banner-#I’m talking about pandemics.  Now, again, I want to be perfectly clear that we’re not saying some sort of global pandemic is imminent. But if you’ve paid any attention to the news regarding the Ebola outbreaks in Africa — and its move to the United States — you know that the next potential outbreak of some kind is always around the corner.  Since first being discovered in 1976, the most recent outbreak of Ebola has been the most deadly. At last count the World Health Organization concluded it has infected 24,797 people in West Africa and killed an astonishing 8,764. This deadly strain of Ebola has a 60 percent fatality rate. To put that in perspective, the 1918 flu pandemic… Read More

Will they or won’t they raise interest rates? It’s the question at the forefront of investors’ minds going into the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The board has considered hiking the federal funds rate for the past year, but hasn’t yet made a move. Many believe that the upcoming December meeting could be the one where we finally see a bump… I’m not here to predict whether or not the Fed will raise rates in December. I don’t know what their plan is… I’m not sure they do either. I do, however, want to give… Read More

Will they or won’t they raise interest rates? It’s the question at the forefront of investors’ minds going into the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The board has considered hiking the federal funds rate for the past year, but hasn’t yet made a move. Many believe that the upcoming December meeting could be the one where we finally see a bump… I’m not here to predict whether or not the Fed will raise rates in December. I don’t know what their plan is… I’m not sure they do either. I do, however, want to give you an idea of what may happen if the rates do rise.  It’s important to know what sectors could benefit from a possible rate hike — and which ones will suffer — if you want your portfolio to end the year in the black, and not in the red. Thanks to the folks at Bloomberg, I can run different economic scenarios and see the effects on a variety of financial instruments. So I looked at how a 25 basis point increase would impact the S&P 500. I was astonished to find that one of the best performing sectors is currently… Read More

#-ad_banner-#Today I want to tell you about an investing strategy that defies logic. It shouldn’t work based on everything we’ve learned about the stock market. Yet it does. In fact, for over half a century, investors and traders have used this strategy to produce unparalleled results. And no, for those of you who may be wondering, this strategy doesn’t involve options, derivatives or any other obscure financial product. What’s more, what I’m about to show you can be used as part of any general investing strategy — regardless of whether you’re focusing on income, growth, blue chips, small… Read More

#-ad_banner-#Today I want to tell you about an investing strategy that defies logic. It shouldn’t work based on everything we’ve learned about the stock market. Yet it does. In fact, for over half a century, investors and traders have used this strategy to produce unparalleled results. And no, for those of you who may be wondering, this strategy doesn’t involve options, derivatives or any other obscure financial product. What’s more, what I’m about to show you can be used as part of any general investing strategy — regardless of whether you’re focusing on income, growth, blue chips, small caps or commodities. Specifically, I’m talking about relative-strength investing. Longtime readers might already be familiar with relative-strength investing. We’ve talked about it before in previous StreetAuthority Daily issues. But for those who need a refresher, allow me to provide a brief recap. Relative-strength investing is simply a type of momentum investing. It involves buying the best-performing stocks (relative to the market) and holding them until their momentum changes course. To most investors, especially those considered value investors, this strategy probably sounds ridiculous. After all, most people have heard the phrase “buy low, sell high.” Since relative-strength investors buy stocks that… Read More

“I think this company is going to make a killing…” My brother, an acute businessman and owner of a construction firm, recently told me he was thinking of putting a few grand into a small, relatively unknown company. It trades over-the-counter and sells workout powders, like whey protein. #-ad_banner-#His comment wasn’t a comment at all, though. It was a veiled question: should I proceed with the investment? He was looking for validation. I was familiar with the company and its products. My brother and I even knew one of the founders. Read More

“I think this company is going to make a killing…” My brother, an acute businessman and owner of a construction firm, recently told me he was thinking of putting a few grand into a small, relatively unknown company. It trades over-the-counter and sells workout powders, like whey protein. #-ad_banner-#His comment wasn’t a comment at all, though. It was a veiled question: should I proceed with the investment? He was looking for validation. I was familiar with the company and its products. My brother and I even knew one of the founders. But it didn’t take me long to prove that this was a bad investment. I asked my brother, “Would you go into business with this guy on a housing project?” “Absolutely not,” he said, almost immediately. “The guy was sued by the Food and Drug Administration in his previous endeavor, and he isn’t someone that I would want to partner with… ever.” It’s a funny thing. My brother understands real estate, construction — business, in general. But throw him a ticker symbol, and his judgment is clouded. Instantly,… Read More

Let’s make a wager. You have five days to drive across the country. If you make it in less than five days, you will win $20,000. If you don’t, then you owe me $10,000. There are some caveats to this deal: First, you have no map, compass, GPS unit or directions — nothing that will assist you on your journey. Second, there are no road signs; only mile markers. #-ad_banner-#Are you still willing to blindly drive across the country risking $10,000 at the chance you’ll make $20,000? In this scenario, it’s… Read More

Let’s make a wager. You have five days to drive across the country. If you make it in less than five days, you will win $20,000. If you don’t, then you owe me $10,000. There are some caveats to this deal: First, you have no map, compass, GPS unit or directions — nothing that will assist you on your journey. Second, there are no road signs; only mile markers. #-ad_banner-#Are you still willing to blindly drive across the country risking $10,000 at the chance you’ll make $20,000? In this scenario, it’s easy to tell that taking this bet is a bad idea, but this sort of blind gambling is indicative of how many average investors navigate the markets. Most investors buy a stock and hope that it goes up. When it doesn’t and the stock plummets 20%, 30% even 50%, they continue to hold on… clinging to that hope that it will soon rebound. Well I’m here to tell you: hope isn’t a strategy. If there’s one thing you need to learn when it comes to investing, it’s how to invest with… Read More

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes. I know this sounds a bit morbid, but it’s a common phrase used in the finance industry. The word “guarantee” is taught to be nixed from your vocabulary. And while this truth about death and taxes may be true, there are other near-certainties in life — some of which have made (and lost) investors millions of dollars over the last few centuries. One of these certainties is population growth. Every minute there are roughly 255 births worldwide, along with… Read More

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes. I know this sounds a bit morbid, but it’s a common phrase used in the finance industry. The word “guarantee” is taught to be nixed from your vocabulary. And while this truth about death and taxes may be true, there are other near-certainties in life — some of which have made (and lost) investors millions of dollars over the last few centuries. One of these certainties is population growth. Every minute there are roughly 255 births worldwide, along with about 108 deaths. That leaves 147 net additions to the world every single minute. That works out to be more than 211,000 people every day added to the world population. During 2015, the world’s population will grow by about 80 million — equal to the population of California, New York and Texas combined. My colleague Nathan Slaughter of Total Yield gave an interesting perspective on the stress that the growing global population has on the economy and the transportation industry, in particular. #-ad_banner-#Nathan discussed the drastic steps local officials have taken… Read More

For novice investors it’s always the hardest part: where do you begin? But it’s not only novice investors that have this problem. No matter where an investor falls on the learning curve, it’s tough to know what stock to buy, which strategy to pursue or which retirement account to use. Even the basics can be overwhelming for somebody new to the market. Should you invest in a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, Simple IRA, SEP IRA, Uni-401(k), Mutual Funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds? The list goes on… Investors are literally inundated with options. And if you go to a financial advisor, most… Read More

For novice investors it’s always the hardest part: where do you begin? But it’s not only novice investors that have this problem. No matter where an investor falls on the learning curve, it’s tough to know what stock to buy, which strategy to pursue or which retirement account to use. Even the basics can be overwhelming for somebody new to the market. Should you invest in a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, Simple IRA, SEP IRA, Uni-401(k), Mutual Funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds? The list goes on… Investors are literally inundated with options. And if you go to a financial advisor, most require at least $50,000 and can charge outrageous fees. Most investors start out with a few hundred bucks and stuff it in a savings account, earning next to nothing, simply because they don’t know what else to do with it. #-ad_banner-#These were the shoes Matthew Michaels, a young father who works here in the StreetAuthority office, was in when his grandparents gave his two young daughters money for Christmas last year. At first, he figured he’d use the money to buy more diapers and onesies, but after talking it over with his wife, they decided to invest it for their… Read More

Understanding this one catalyst could dramatically change where and how you invest… Right now, it’s the foundation of the largest wealth transfer in history. More money will change hands over the coming years from this trend than the annual sales of Wal-Mart, Kroger, Costco, Target and Sears combined. It’s revolutionized entire industries, created new markets and saved entire corporations. Take the baby food industry for example. In the early 40s and 50s this very catalyst helped launch a relatively unknown company, called the Freemont Canning Company, into a global icon. The company — now better known as Gerber — went… Read More

Understanding this one catalyst could dramatically change where and how you invest… Right now, it’s the foundation of the largest wealth transfer in history. More money will change hands over the coming years from this trend than the annual sales of Wal-Mart, Kroger, Costco, Target and Sears combined. It’s revolutionized entire industries, created new markets and saved entire corporations. Take the baby food industry for example. In the early 40s and 50s this very catalyst helped launch a relatively unknown company, called the Freemont Canning Company, into a global icon. The company — now better known as Gerber — went from selling just 590,000 jars of baby food per year to nearly two million jars per day. By 1955, Gerber’s sales swelled to 1.8 billion jars of baby food per year. It sold more jars of baby food in one year than in the company’s first 18 years combined. It’s also what helped boost Buster Brown’s shoe sales. The company went from selling $6 million worth of merchandise in 1949 to more than $30 million in sales in less than nine years — a 400% increase. Nobody understood this trend better than a man named Lee… Read More

These days, investors are bombarded with a lot of chatter from the market. #-ad_banner-#The internet, TV and radio are flooded with so-called “experts” claiming to know the future of the economy and offering varying opinions on where investors should place their hard earned dollars. On any given day, you might come across a dozen articles online claiming the market is in-store for a major bull run, only to see a news report claiming the next recession is just around the corner, not even an hour later. With the market presenting you… Read More

These days, investors are bombarded with a lot of chatter from the market. #-ad_banner-#The internet, TV and radio are flooded with so-called “experts” claiming to know the future of the economy and offering varying opinions on where investors should place their hard earned dollars. On any given day, you might come across a dozen articles online claiming the market is in-store for a major bull run, only to see a news report claiming the next recession is just around the corner, not even an hour later. With the market presenting you such a mixed bag of opinions, how are you to know what investments you can actually trust? Simple: just ignore it completely. Now, I know that might sound like a stretch, but trust me, it isn’t. The market — and its thousands of pundits — often panders to what I think is an investor’s absolute worst enemy: their emotions. Whether its fear, optimism, excitement or panic, many investors have a way of letting their emotions completely cloud their judgments. And often times, that can cost them a big… Read More

I’m going to do something today that I’ve never done before… #-ad_banner-#For those who don’t know, I’m the Co-Chief Investment Strategist of Maximum Profit — StreetAuthority’s proprietary trading system that’s designed to identify when a stock is about to deliver double- or even triple-digit gains in the coming days, weeks and months. Every two weeks we publish an issue telling readers exactly which stocks to buy and which stocks to sell in our premium advisory. Our readers pay good money for our research and so I can’t just give away all of our recent… Read More

I’m going to do something today that I’ve never done before… #-ad_banner-#For those who don’t know, I’m the Co-Chief Investment Strategist of Maximum Profit — StreetAuthority’s proprietary trading system that’s designed to identify when a stock is about to deliver double- or even triple-digit gains in the coming days, weeks and months. Every two weeks we publish an issue telling readers exactly which stocks to buy and which stocks to sell in our premium advisory. Our readers pay good money for our research and so I can’t just give away all of our recent trades to the public. It wouldn’t be fair to our paying subscribers. But today I’m breaking that rule. That’s because after delivering a string of winners to our paying subscribers, I wanted to share one of our recent recommended trades with the public — so you can have the chance of profiting alongside us. After discussing this with my editor, he gave me the go-ahead to let the cat out of the bag. I know this won’t always be the case, so make sure to pay close attention to the rest of this issue. Read More