Contrary to clothing companies, which tend to have a steady flow of customers, footwear companies come in and out of vogue. Far too many companies place their efforts on trying to attract the highly profitable teen niche. Yet trying to appease a capricious teenager’s taste is an uphill battle. While… Read More

Hedge fund billionaires are known for two things: Making highly profitable investments that frequently outperform market averages and pushing stocks higher behind huge trading size and… Read More

“Black Friday” is considered the most important day of the year for many retailers. But if the current trend continues, then it’s only a matter of time before a new champion sits atop the throne.#-ad_banner-# In the past few years, consumers have increasingly turned to online shopping so they can avoid the madness of deal-thirsty shoppers lining up outside traditional brick-and-mortar operations. That was on full display recently, with e-retail sales jumping 29.3% on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, while store sales were virtually unchanged, according to Internet intelligence firm comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR) and payment processor Chase Paymentech. And… Read More

“Black Friday” is considered the most important day of the year for many retailers. But if the current trend continues, then it’s only a matter of time before a new champion sits atop the throne.#-ad_banner-# In the past few years, consumers have increasingly turned to online shopping so they can avoid the madness of deal-thirsty shoppers lining up outside traditional brick-and-mortar operations. That was on full display recently, with e-retail sales jumping 29.3% on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, while store sales were virtually unchanged, according to Internet intelligence firm comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR) and payment processor Chase Paymentech. And that’s not including Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, which many online retailers use to unleash great deals and drive sales growth. Total sales on Cyber Monday reached $1.98 billion, a 17% increase from last year, according to a report from Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE).  But bullish online sales on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just a glimpse of a larger trend changing the way consumers shop. About 66% of consumers prefer Web retailers while 73% of survey participants complete almost 50% of their shopping online, according to a recent survey conducted… Read More

Many traders now understand that buy-and-hold strategies can suffer from steep losses for years at a time. This knowledge was probably acquired from expensive first-hand experience. In a strong bull market that lasts for… Read More

Third-quarter earnings season was an unmitigated disaster. With the economy stumbling along due to weakness in Europe and China, and margins reaching a multi-year cyclical high, more than a few companies disappointed the Street with… Read More

With the United States in the edge of a fiscal cliff and Europe now officially in a recession, investors are jumping into more defensive stocks that can hold up in this hostile investment environment. Read More

It’s no secret Wall Street was, for the most part, rooting for Mitt Romney to win the presidential election. After all, Republican candidates are generally viewed as more business friendly, and Romney was no exception. But even if you believe President Barack Obama’s… Read More

We talk a lot about “Forever Stocks” here at StreetAuthority. In fact, we practically pound the table talking about why we think they’re one of the single best ways we know of to make serious long-term gains in the market. If you’re not familiar with Forever Stocks, to put it simply, they’re companies with strong business models that you can buy, hold, and basically forget about. You can sleep easily at night owning Forever Stocks. But there’s a reason we talk about Forever Stocks so much. It’s because it’s not just us who think this is the best… Read More

We talk a lot about “Forever Stocks” here at StreetAuthority. In fact, we practically pound the table talking about why we think they’re one of the single best ways we know of to make serious long-term gains in the market. If you’re not familiar with Forever Stocks, to put it simply, they’re companies with strong business models that you can buy, hold, and basically forget about. You can sleep easily at night owning Forever Stocks. But there’s a reason we talk about Forever Stocks so much. It’s because it’s not just us who think this is the best way to invest. Some of the wealthiest people on Wall Street agree. In fact, that’s how many of them made a fortune. Take Warren Buffett for example. He’s famously said, “I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for 10 years.” This is how Buffett made a fortune off of stocks like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Kraft (NYSE: K) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) — he bought them and held them… Read More

Now that President Barack Obama has been reelected, many fear his vision of big-government planning, spending and taxing. But what is so bad about big government anyway? #-ad_banner-# The problem is, with a growing government comes growing expenses. And these days the United States is sitting on the edge of… Read More

Initial public offerings (IPOs) are legendary for producing big gains for early investors. Stories about technology and pharma IPOs surging higher permeate the Street, enticing many investors to dip their toes into the volatile waters of a newly-listed security. #-ad_banner-#But the reality is that you don’t have to be a… Read More