It’s unusual to hear someone in the financial media suggest selling a stock — particularly one they previously recommended. But knowing when to close a position at the right time is just as important as getting into the right trade at the right time. That’s why I’d prefer not to leave this loose end open. If you stepped into a Wendy’s (NYSE: WEN) position about a year ago on my recommendation, I think it’s time… Read More

It’s unusual to hear someone in the financial media suggest selling a stock — particularly one they previously recommended. But knowing when to close a position at the right time is just as important as getting into the right trade at the right time. That’s why I’d prefer not to leave this loose end open. If you stepped into a Wendy’s (NYSE: WEN) position about a year ago on my recommendation, I think it’s time to lock in your 40% gain and use those proceeds to invest in McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD).#-ad_banner-# A little more than a year ago, I concluded that “based on the company’s plausible growth forecast, shares could be worth somewhere around $7 by the end of 2013 or mid-2014 — about 60% higher than current levels.” The stock actually hit $7 in late July and has since reached a high of $8.05. But it’s time to lock in the gain. Don’t… Read More

While the markets seem to only be interested in rising rates and earnings, an entire sector has gone unnoticed and blown the doors off the market. The Dow Jones U.S. Railroad Index is surging with a 24% gain this year and has quadrupled since its 2009 low. Besides the general rebound in the economy, crude production is at 20-year highs, far exceeding… Read More

While the markets seem to only be interested in rising rates and earnings, an entire sector has gone unnoticed and blown the doors off the market. The Dow Jones U.S. Railroad Index is surging with a 24% gain this year and has quadrupled since its 2009 low. Besides the general rebound in the economy, crude production is at 20-year highs, far exceeding pipeline capacity and growth. That means a massive surge in demand for transportation by rail. An estimated 1.4 million barrels of crude and refined products were transported by rail every day in the first six months of 2013, an increase of almost 50% from the first half of 2012.#-ad_banner-# All signs pointed to another great year in 2013 and the sector again being a good investment. Then the unthinkable happened: Just after 1 a.m. on July 6, a freight carrier operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway crashed in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic,… Read More

While the markets seem to only be interested in rising rates and earnings, an entire sector has gone unnoticed and blown the doors off the market. The Dow Jones U.S. Railroad Index is surging with a 24% gain this year and has quadrupled since its 2009 low. Besides the general rebound in the economy, crude production is at 20-year highs, far exceeding… Read More

While the markets seem to only be interested in rising rates and earnings, an entire sector has gone unnoticed and blown the doors off the market. The Dow Jones U.S. Railroad Index is surging with a 24% gain this year and has quadrupled since its 2009 low. Besides the general rebound in the economy, crude production is at 20-year highs, far exceeding pipeline capacity and growth. That means a massive surge in demand for transportation by rail. An estimated 1.4 million barrels of crude and refined products were transported by rail every day in the first six months of 2013, an increase of almost 50% from the first half of 2012.#-ad_banner-# All signs pointed to another great year in 2013 and the sector again being a good investment. Then the unthinkable happened: Just after 1 a.m. on July 6, a freight carrier operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway crashed in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic,… Read More

While the markets seem to only be interested in rising rates and earnings, an entire sector has gone unnoticed and blown the doors off the market. The Dow Jones U.S. Railroad Index is surging with a 24% gain this year and has quadrupled since its 2009 low. Besides the general rebound in the economy, crude production is at 20-year highs, far exceeding… Read More

While the markets seem to only be interested in rising rates and earnings, an entire sector has gone unnoticed and blown the doors off the market. The Dow Jones U.S. Railroad Index is surging with a 24% gain this year and has quadrupled since its 2009 low. Besides the general rebound in the economy, crude production is at 20-year highs, far exceeding pipeline capacity and growth. That means a massive surge in demand for transportation by rail. An estimated 1.4 million barrels of crude and refined products were transported by rail every day in the first six months of 2013, an increase of almost 50% from the first half of 2012.#-ad_banner-# All signs pointed to another great year in 2013 and the sector again being a good investment. Then the unthinkable happened: Just after 1 a.m. on July 6, a freight carrier operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway crashed in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic,… Read More

While the markets seem to only be interested in rising rates and earnings, an entire sector has gone unnoticed and blown the doors off the market. The Dow Jones U.S. Railroad Index is surging with a 24% gain this year and has quadrupled since its 2009 low. Besides the general rebound in the economy, crude production is at 20-year highs, far exceeding… Read More

While the markets seem to only be interested in rising rates and earnings, an entire sector has gone unnoticed and blown the doors off the market. The Dow Jones U.S. Railroad Index is surging with a 24% gain this year and has quadrupled since its 2009 low. Besides the general rebound in the economy, crude production is at 20-year highs, far exceeding pipeline capacity and growth. That means a massive surge in demand for transportation by rail. An estimated 1.4 million barrels of crude and refined products were transported by rail every day in the first six months of 2013, an increase of almost 50% from the first half of 2012.#-ad_banner-# All signs pointed to another great year in 2013 and the sector again being a good investment. Then the unthinkable happened: Just after 1 a.m. on July 6, a freight carrier operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway crashed in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic,… Read More

Lackluster retail results have inspired recent headlines such as “Tepid U.S. Retail Sales Raising Doubts About Economy” and “Consumer Caution Hits Sales at U.S. Retailers.”#-ad_banner-# The latest wave of quarterly financial… Read More

The business of retailing is quite simple. You have a large base of fixed costs tied up in real estate, inventory and personnel, and you aim for a base of… Read More

You probably already know that hedge funds have been dominating the financial news headlines recently. I wish I could say the coverage of these unique investment vehicles has been positive, but the media has focused on the few bad actors in the hedge fund business and the sector’s overall lackluster returns. While there are bad apples in every business and solid due diligence should weed most of them out, it’s the lack of overall returns (or “… Read More

You probably already know that hedge funds have been dominating the financial news headlines recently. I wish I could say the coverage of these unique investment vehicles has been positive, but the media has focused on the few bad actors in the hedge fund business and the sector’s overall lackluster returns. While there are bad apples in every business and solid due diligence should weed most of them out, it’s the lack of overall returns (or “alpha,” as market-beating returns are called in the business) that has most investors concerned.  A few funds have bucked the trend, delivering market-busting returns year after year. But they are usually difficult to gain access to, have high minimum investments and charge outrageous fees.#-ad_banner-# There are ways for average investors to follow the lead of these successful hedge funds without directly investing. Obviously, this isn’t an exact replication, but enough clues can be gleaned to… Read More

Anytime a new CEO takes the reins of a struggling company, he or she is typically given a full year to implement a full turnaround. That’s the time in which the CEO can boost flagging employee morale, articulate a fresh game plan for Wall Street to assess, and put the wheels in motion for a sustained upturn in… Read More

Anytime a new CEO takes the reins of a struggling company, he or she is typically given a full year to implement a full turnaround. That’s the time in which the CEO can boost flagging employee morale, articulate a fresh game plan for Wall Street to assess, and put the wheels in motion for a sustained upturn in sales and profits. Yet when that one-year grace period (also known as the “honeymoon phase”) is over, investors tend to take a much more circumspect view. Talk becomes cheap, and financial results start to speak for themselves. July 16 marks the one-year anniversary of Marissa Mayer’s debut as CEO of Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), so the time is at hand for a steady path to much improved results. Considering that shares have rallied 70% since Mayer arrived 10 months ago, investors already appear… Read More

My job as chief investment strategist for Game-Changing Stocks requires me to look for “the next big thing.” Sometimes that means I’m looking through obscure government reports to learn about the latest technology the Pentagon is using that… Read More