March of 1998 was a big month for Pfizer and its shareholders. That’s when the new little blue pill called Viagra was released. It was a breakthrough for the pharmaceutical industry — the first ever male performance enhancement drug. Viagra’s commercial release created a new multi-billion drug market virtually overnight. Millions of American men and women enjoyed the benefits of the drug, but the biggest winner was Pfizer shareholders. As Viagra delivered record sales month after month, Pfizer’s share price jumped 64% in 12 months. Take a look below. Today, I see this same pattern repeating itself in… Read More

March of 1998 was a big month for Pfizer and its shareholders. That’s when the new little blue pill called Viagra was released. It was a breakthrough for the pharmaceutical industry — the first ever male performance enhancement drug. Viagra’s commercial release created a new multi-billion drug market virtually overnight. Millions of American men and women enjoyed the benefits of the drug, but the biggest winner was Pfizer shareholders. As Viagra delivered record sales month after month, Pfizer’s share price jumped 64% in 12 months. Take a look below. Today, I see this same pattern repeating itself in the cannabis industry. The FDA is close to potentially approving its first ever cannabis pharmaceutical — a final ruling could happen by the end of 2017, less than 12 weeks away. #-ad_banner-#This would be a ground breaking approval for the entire pharmaceutical industry and particularly for the cannabis industry. It could also give birth to the first ever cannabis blockbuster drug. This drug could generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Just like Pfizer with Viagra, this drug could send shares of this promising young cannabis biotech soaring over the next 12 months. The Company Behind This Game-Changing Treatment… Read More

About the only point of agreement between the two Presidential candidates last year was the need for a massive infrastructure plan to repair America’s crumbling roads and bridges. Then-candidate Trump used a $1 trillion infrastructure plan as a cornerstone of his plan to “make America great again.” Investors responded by going all-in on infrastructure stocks, pushing the iShares Global Infrastructure ETF (Nasdaq: IGF) up 14.5% in the year through October 2016.  Against the push to replace the Affordable Care Act and reform the tax code, infrastructure spending seems to have been put on the backburner in 2017. President-elect Trump… Read More

About the only point of agreement between the two Presidential candidates last year was the need for a massive infrastructure plan to repair America’s crumbling roads and bridges. Then-candidate Trump used a $1 trillion infrastructure plan as a cornerstone of his plan to “make America great again.” Investors responded by going all-in on infrastructure stocks, pushing the iShares Global Infrastructure ETF (Nasdaq: IGF) up 14.5% in the year through October 2016.  Against the push to replace the Affordable Care Act and reform the tax code, infrastructure spending seems to have been put on the backburner in 2017. President-elect Trump told The New York Times in December that infrastructure would not be a “core” part of the first few years of his administration. A policy statement released in June was light on specifics and we haven’t heard much since. As it turns out, investors may not need an infrastructure plan to see a boom in infrastructure spending over the next year. In fact, recent events could mean years of rebuilding and increased revenue at infrastructure and related companies. #-ad_banner-#​A Year Of Unprecedented Natural Disasters On August 11, I warned investors about the potential for a blowout… Read More

Warren Buffett is by far the most successful long-term stock investor of all time. His value-centric approach has returned an astounding 1.9 million percent since taking control of Berkshire Hathaway in the mid-1960s.  Although Buffett’s portfolio has recently suffered a little, investors are still handsomely rewarded for following his advice and stock picks. Here are five of Buffett’s holdings that can set you up for an easier retirement.  1. Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) This consumer finance company was spun out of GE Financial back in 2015. It currently comprises about 0.30% of Berkshire Hathaway’s stock portfolio. Buffett loves credit… Read More

Warren Buffett is by far the most successful long-term stock investor of all time. His value-centric approach has returned an astounding 1.9 million percent since taking control of Berkshire Hathaway in the mid-1960s.  Although Buffett’s portfolio has recently suffered a little, investors are still handsomely rewarded for following his advice and stock picks. Here are five of Buffett’s holdings that can set you up for an easier retirement.  1. Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) This consumer finance company was spun out of GE Financial back in 2015. It currently comprises about 0.30% of Berkshire Hathaway’s stock portfolio. Buffett loves credit card and consumer finance companies — he also owns stakes in American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA). However, I firmly believe the best investment results, going forward, will be gleaned from Synchrony Financial. Here’s why: Synchrony is the largest issuer of private label credit cards in the United States. This means that retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Lowes, among many others, utilize Synchrony to manage their credit services. I love the fact that company profits are retailer-agnostic, meaning that regardless of who is winning the retail battle, Synchrony will continue to benefit from transactions. #-ad_banner-#Companies like Synchrony profit… Read More

Over the course of two decades in the professional investment business, I’ve stumbled onto stock ideas purely by accident maybe a couple dozen times. Sometimes I’m looking for one thing and find another. More than once, I’ve typed in the wrong symbol. That happened again recently. And after some digging, I decided that I had had to write about my find. There’s a better than decent chance that at some point, while growing up in the United States, your mom probably used Scott’s Liquid Gold furniture polish at least once. Here’s a television commercial from the… Read More

Over the course of two decades in the professional investment business, I’ve stumbled onto stock ideas purely by accident maybe a couple dozen times. Sometimes I’m looking for one thing and find another. More than once, I’ve typed in the wrong symbol. That happened again recently. And after some digging, I decided that I had had to write about my find. There’s a better than decent chance that at some point, while growing up in the United States, your mom probably used Scott’s Liquid Gold furniture polish at least once. Here’s a television commercial from the 1970s to jog your memory.  Think the brand is dead? Nope. Owned by some gigantic consumer products mega-cap like Procter and Gamble (NYSE: PG)? Nope. It’s still made in Denver, CO where it was invented at the turn of the 20th century. The company is still owned by the family that bought the original formula from inventor Lee Scott for $350 (not a misprint) in 1951.  #-ad_banner-#Even more remarkable, the company, Scott’s Liquid Gold, Inc. is publicly traded (OTC: SLGD). It’s a tiny company with a consolidated market cap of barely $25 million. Typically, I don’t dive into the extremely… Read More

Guns, cash and his entire coin collection — including his Indian Head Gold Quarter Eagle — were gone. Stolen. The perpetrator had taken an oxygen-acetylene torch to the door of his Fort Knox safe and snatched his precious belongings.  Of course, my grandfather was bummed that his stuff was taken, but what unsettled him most about the entire ordeal was the feeling of intrusion — someone invading his privacy.  New guns can be bought, Fort Knox replaced the vault for free, but what can’t be restored is that feeling that your privacy has been violated — knowing that a stranger… Read More

Guns, cash and his entire coin collection — including his Indian Head Gold Quarter Eagle — were gone. Stolen. The perpetrator had taken an oxygen-acetylene torch to the door of his Fort Knox safe and snatched his precious belongings.  Of course, my grandfather was bummed that his stuff was taken, but what unsettled him most about the entire ordeal was the feeling of intrusion — someone invading his privacy.  New guns can be bought, Fort Knox replaced the vault for free, but what can’t be restored is that feeling that your privacy has been violated — knowing that a stranger forced his way into your home and stole your property.  These sorts of intrusions, however, are happening more frequently than ever. But not in the traditional sense… #-ad_banner-#These new perps aren’t coming through your window or your back door and they’re not stealing cash or rare coins. You see, there is something more valuable to these new thieves than the things in your home. Instead of cash, collectibles and jewelry these thieves want your name, date of birth, Social Security number, credit card information and your driver’s license…  They want your identity.  By now, you’ve likely heard about the massive… Read More

The next big thing… It’s the holy grail for investors. I mean how many investors wish they had bought Microsoft in 1986? Or Apple in the 1990s?    If you were prudent enough to take a chance on either of these companies, a relatively small investment a few years back would have made any investor fabulously wealthy today. And it’s that kind of wealth creation that drives investors to seek the next big thing.   But too many investors make the process of finding the next big thing too complicated. After all, if it’s the next big thing, it shouldn’t… Read More

The next big thing… It’s the holy grail for investors. I mean how many investors wish they had bought Microsoft in 1986? Or Apple in the 1990s?    If you were prudent enough to take a chance on either of these companies, a relatively small investment a few years back would have made any investor fabulously wealthy today. And it’s that kind of wealth creation that drives investors to seek the next big thing.   But too many investors make the process of finding the next big thing too complicated. After all, if it’s the next big thing, it shouldn’t be impossibly hard to identify early on, right?   So what if you were told that more than 500,000 cars, capable of driving themselves, are going to come off the assembly line in 2018? Better yet, these cars will come off the assembly line at a cost of $35,000 — about the average price of a new car in America.   #-ad_banner-#But that’s not even the remarkable part…   You see, experience tells me that self-driving technology will not just drive itself — it will also be electric.    Even The Wall Street Journal agrees, saying, “The electric powertrain, unlike… Read More

As a lifelong resident of a hurricane-prone area, and having sat through more than a handful of them, I feel a little guilty promoting what some people refer to as “disaster capitalism”. At the same time, one of the greatest investors of all time, Baron Rothschild, proffered that one should “buy when you hear the cannon, sell when you hear violins.” I’ve referenced that quote multiple times in my writing and will continue to do so because it’s some of the best investing advice ever. After unloading an estimated 33 trillion gallons of water on the United States, mostly on… Read More

As a lifelong resident of a hurricane-prone area, and having sat through more than a handful of them, I feel a little guilty promoting what some people refer to as “disaster capitalism”. At the same time, one of the greatest investors of all time, Baron Rothschild, proffered that one should “buy when you hear the cannon, sell when you hear violins.” I’ve referenced that quote multiple times in my writing and will continue to do so because it’s some of the best investing advice ever. After unloading an estimated 33 trillion gallons of water on the United States, mostly on coastal Texas, Hurricane Harvey could be responsible for damage exceeding $180 billion. In the Houston area alone, it’s estimated that nearly 40,000 homes have been completely destroyed. Even more remarkable was the projected number of cars completely ruined by the floodwaters. Again, in just the Houston area, which is heavily auto-dependent, the total could be over 1 million vehicles. The number is much higher if the entire affected area is included. According to auto researcher Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price for a new car in the United States is currently $33,560. That means that replacing the lost cars… Read More

We are in the early stages of a quiet revolution that has bypassed many investors. It is akin to the original space race of the 1960s and early 1970s, just without the media frenzy. This time, rather than world powers vying for space supremacy, it’s corporations looking to be the first to profit from space industry and travel.  The public’s excitement regarding space exploration and exploitation is at a shallow level, but opportunities exist for farseeing investors to snap up stocks of emerging space-age companies. The leading investors on Earth are already heavily invested in space technology. The most notable,… Read More

We are in the early stages of a quiet revolution that has bypassed many investors. It is akin to the original space race of the 1960s and early 1970s, just without the media frenzy. This time, rather than world powers vying for space supremacy, it’s corporations looking to be the first to profit from space industry and travel.  The public’s excitement regarding space exploration and exploitation is at a shallow level, but opportunities exist for farseeing investors to snap up stocks of emerging space-age companies. The leading investors on Earth are already heavily invested in space technology. The most notable, and wealthiest, investor in this pace is Jeff Bezos of Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN). He has committed to investing $1 billion per year into Blue Horizon, a space tourism and payload launch company. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has invested in the rights to an upper atmosphere launch vehicle. Tesla founder Elon Musk has an ambitious goal to colonize Mars with his company SpaceX. Finally, Richard Branson has launched a space tourism business called Virgin Galactic.  Many companies in the new space race remain in private hands. However, several public companies are starting to look very appealing to investors looking for… Read More

According to Albert Einstein (or so legend has it), “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.” In other words, it’s wise to reinvest your interest so it can earn interest. This can accelerate how quickly your money grows. Compound interest, coupled with time, can be one of the most powerful wealth-building tools in investing. But that isn’t the entire quote… —Sponsored Link— 9 Dividend Stocks That Can Triple Your Income Only the strongest stocks pay regular 4% to 8% yields while growing your savings, too. Discover 9 stocks with… Read More

According to Albert Einstein (or so legend has it), “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.” In other words, it’s wise to reinvest your interest so it can earn interest. This can accelerate how quickly your money grows. Compound interest, coupled with time, can be one of the most powerful wealth-building tools in investing. But that isn’t the entire quote… —Sponsored Link— 9 Dividend Stocks That Can Triple Your Income Only the strongest stocks pay regular 4% to 8% yields while growing your savings, too. Discover 9 stocks with a solid record of RAISING dividends — and each one passed our strict tests with flying colors. Get the list, free. Here’s the rest — the part most people tend to neglect: “He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it.” Compounding works both ways. Just take a look at your next credit card statement. Credit card companies are required to show you how long — and how much interest you would pay — if you only made the minimum payment each month. And that’s assuming you don’t ever use the credit card again.  #-ad_banner-#It’s… Read More

The market has been intensely concentrated all year on the Federal Reserve’s plan to increase interest rates. That focus has weighed on rate-sensitive sectors and threatened to drive investors back into bonds for income. We are quickly approaching the September 19 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), one of the last three meetings of the year.  While investors aren’t expecting the Fed to raise rates at the coming meeting, they’ll be watching intently for any clues on future policy. Much of the market has been expecting the Fed to make good on its forecast of three rate hikes… Read More

The market has been intensely concentrated all year on the Federal Reserve’s plan to increase interest rates. That focus has weighed on rate-sensitive sectors and threatened to drive investors back into bonds for income. We are quickly approaching the September 19 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), one of the last three meetings of the year.  While investors aren’t expecting the Fed to raise rates at the coming meeting, they’ll be watching intently for any clues on future policy. Much of the market has been expecting the Fed to make good on its forecast of three rate hikes this year by raising rates in December.   However, there’s mounting evidence though that could lead the Fed to hold off on its path to higher rates. This economic evidence could be called out in the September press conference. Dovish language from Chair Janet Yellen about future rate hikes could mean a surprise boon for rate-sensitive sectors and stocks. Higher Rates Face Headwinds From Hurricanes, Fed Vacancies, And Inflation The market is estimating a 32% chance the Federal Reserve raises its benchmark target rate in December, according to the FedWatch Tool by CME Group. That’s… Read More