The financial crisis forced every company in the world to re-evaluate its business model. Frozen credit markets, a recessionary global economy and weak consumer demand scared even the most profitable and… Read More

Known as an activist investor, David Einhorn is actually a methodical value investor with a long-term track record of success. He started his hedge fund, Greenlight Capital, in 1996 with… Read More

Six hundred fifty million dollars is a lot of money — even for Bill Gates.  That’s how much his investment firm has invested in what might be considered the best way to play China. It’s not a software firm or even a computer hardware firm. It’s mining giant Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT). Gates started building a position in Caterpillar before the financial crisis, but he became a very aggressive buyer once the crisis hit and… Read More

Six hundred fifty million dollars is a lot of money — even for Bill Gates.  That’s how much his investment firm has invested in what might be considered the best way to play China. It’s not a software firm or even a computer hardware firm. It’s mining giant Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT). Gates started building a position in Caterpillar before the financial crisis, but he became a very aggressive buyer once the crisis hit and shares had fallen by half. Yet remarkably, Gates has kept on buying, even as shares steadily rebounded to previous peaks. But now that Caterpillar has come under pressure on concerns that China is slowing, is Gates locking in profits? No, he’s been buying more, picking up another 500,000 shares in this year‘s second quarter. At current prices, his firm’s stake of 10.76 million shares is worth a cool $650 million. The key question: Why does Gates continue to buy shares even after China’s slowdown has signaled the potential end of a global commodities… Read More

In 1905, Charles Henry Robinson spotted a unique opportunity. After moving west with his family to the North Dakota town of Grand Forks, he soon realized that settlers were in need of supplies. He founded a transportation company with the goal of delivering perishable products to consumers before they spoiled… Read More

The stock market is one fickle beast.  Without rhyme or reason, investor sentiment can change direction like leaf being blown by a breeze. A company can be on top of the world one day with a soaring… Read More

While other computer and smartphone makers have repeatedly suffered from price wars, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) always takes a different path. The consumer technology giant prefers to deliver the most advanced products at premium points. Such an approach can create a great user experience, but can… Read More

There’s a supercomputer at the University of Tennessee that can predict the future. Sort of. “Nautilus” scans tens of millions of news articles and archives from around the planet in search of emotive words — words such as “angry,” “tense,” and “concerned.” Words that convey emotions rather than facts.#-ad_banner-# The… Read More

Imagine you’ve located the perfect stock. Based on your research and intuition, the company will make a very positive impact on your long-term portfolio’s bottom line. The only question left is when to buy.  Although timing into the market isn’t as important for long holding periods as it is for short-term trading, investors with an eye on the long term can improve results by implementing the trade entry methods of… Read More

Imagine you’ve located the perfect stock. Based on your research and intuition, the company will make a very positive impact on your long-term portfolio’s bottom line. The only question left is when to buy.  Although timing into the market isn’t as important for long holding periods as it is for short-term trading, investors with an eye on the long term can improve results by implementing the trade entry methods of short-term active traders.#-ad_banner-# The difference is that instead of using minute to hour price timeframes for decision making, the long-term investor will use day or week price timeframes in an attempt to nail the perfect entry level. The perfect entry level is one from which the price barely pulls back, if at all, before taking off on the upside.  There are two schools of thought when it comes to purchasing a stock: momentum and pullback.  Momentum investing is when one waits for the share price to… Read More

Six years ago, the markets could not get enough China. The iShares China Large Cap Fund (NYSE: FXI) quadrupled in just three years, and shares of PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) had surged 1,175% in the seven years before October 2007. Though most of the hard-landing crowd has been discounted, sentiment has clearly turned against the world’s second-largest economy. Shares of the largest China fund are down 12% over… Read More

Six years ago, the markets could not get enough China. The iShares China Large Cap Fund (NYSE: FXI) quadrupled in just three years, and shares of PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) had surged 1,175% in the seven years before October 2007. Though most of the hard-landing crowd has been discounted, sentiment has clearly turned against the world’s second-largest economy. Shares of the largest China fund are down 12% over the past four years and have underperformed the S&P 500 index by 77% over that period. But those focusing on the short-term economic weakness, a result of overcapacity and the government’s attempt to reposition economic drivers, are missing a very important figure that will drive real long-term growth. $8.1 trillion. That is the amount of investment needed over the next six years to meet urbanization needs in the country and to support more than 300… Read More

Sometimes the profound truths are the easiest to understand.  This is particularly true when it comes to investing. Many investors make the process much more difficult than it needs to be. At its core, investing is a simple process governed by a few irrefutable axioms.  Choosing investments based on what you already know is one of these simple yet profound truths. I first heard this rule articulated by Peter Lynch, the superstar manager of Fidelity’s Magellan Fund. Lynch wrote one of… Read More

Sometimes the profound truths are the easiest to understand.  This is particularly true when it comes to investing. Many investors make the process much more difficult than it needs to be. At its core, investing is a simple process governed by a few irrefutable axioms.  Choosing investments based on what you already know is one of these simple yet profound truths. I first heard this rule articulated by Peter Lynch, the superstar manager of Fidelity’s Magellan Fund. Lynch wrote one of the best books on the stock market, “One Up On Wall Street,” in which he stresses this simple investing rule.#-ad_banner-# Leading commodity trader Jim Rogers also repeats this mantra whenever he is asked what to invest in. I learned this several years ago when I interviewed Rogers while he was running on a treadmill — an interviewing first for me — in his home gym. When I asked if he cared to share any… Read More