THE BIG IDEA
On a whim, I recently reviewed our car insurance.
Something didn’t feel right, so I went online and got a quote from another provider. It turns out they could cover our two cars with essentially the same coverage – for half the was...
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Pieces are in Place
We’re about five weeks into this market correction, and it’s been a pretty nasty one when looking at the major indexes—from high to low, the S&P 500 has fallen as much as 7.6% and the Nasdaq by 10.8%, with small- mid-cap...
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Time Likely Needed
In The Perfect Speculator (written by Brad Koteshwar), fictional trader Boyd Hunt said, “Everything in the market takes time. Learning takes time. Making gains takes time. Even losing big takes time because the market will occasionally offer small crumbs to remove (We...
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Tariff Grenade
In last week’s update, we wrote, “We are seeing some short-term things to keep an eye on … earnings season has [shown] plenty of poor reactions and few solid gaps higher … sentiment has turned complacent … upside momentum has been waning and...
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THE BIG IDEA
One of the big challenges for organizations in the fast-moving digital age is to understand what’s going on in their businesses right now.
Look at Facebook (FB). For a company that specializes in harvesting detailed user data and selling targeted ads you’d they...
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Growth Stocks Perking Up
Back in our younger days when we were first learning the market’s inner workings, we viewed the stock market as relatively uniform, even on a short-term basis. Obviously, there were times when divergences popped up (usually near market tops), but the...
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The unemployment-stock market correlation is a picture-perfect inverse on a chart. Now that unemployment can't sink much lower, where do stocks go?
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The Perfect Isn’t the Enemy of the Good
One reason the market is such an interesting place is that there are always differing opinions even among the smartest and most thorough investors. The late Martin Zweig once said that, if you had 100 market it...
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THE BIG IDEA
What if your doctor had a simple blood test that could predict Alzheimer’s Disease 15 years before any symptoms begin? Would you take it?
How about a test that could predict the likelihood of getting Parkinson’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, and dementia?
Let’s say Miracle...
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Short Term Remains Murky
Last week on this page we wrote that, while the longer-term outlook remained positive, we were starting to pick up on some cracks in the foundation—the broad market had stopped going up in late February and, despite a push to highs...
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Higher Prices Ahead
It’s mid-March in New England, which means we’re starting to see signs of spring—birds are flocking back, the gang of wild turkeys in our town are flirting and gobbling, the days are getting longer in a hurry and work boats are moving...
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THE BIG IDEA
Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “I’m fired up to buy stock in an Enterprise Work Management software company today.”
But not all investment ideas are sexy. Or make for a good story to tell friends. Or even sound a bit...
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The Evidence is Clear
There are many times—we’d even say most times—when the market’s evidence is at least somewhat mixed. Some major indexes might look good, for instance, but others are lagging. Growth stocks may be acting well, but the broad market is iffy. conversely,...
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It’s Not the News that Counts
One of the biggest banana peels that many investors slip up on is the desire to focus on the news, be it economic reports, high-profile earnings releases or important political rumors (like the current U.S.-China trade talks). But it...
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THE BIG IDEA
On June 21, 2018 Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issued his final decision before retiring, and reshaped the laws that will govern future taxation on interstate e-commerce sales.
For decades, states had been prohibited from collecting sales taxes on residents’ transactions when were...
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Going According to Script
A punishing, out-of-nowhere, three-month decline that takes apart many popular stocks and sends the indexes reeling. A wave of panic selling at the bottom that produces historic oversold readings and massive pessimism—even though many growth stocks show resilience during the weeks...
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We’re Optimistic
Just three weeks ago the market was on its knees, as the major indexes were down more than 20% from their highs, the average growth stock was in tatters and there were air pockets galore—the final four days of the decline saw Dow...
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THE BIG IDEA
Fortunately, most people don’t ever have to think too seriously about donating an organ, or receiving an organ transplant. Perhaps they ponder it for a few moments when getting a new driver’s license. But that’s often as far as the thought goes...
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Reasons for Hope, but Not for Buying
The market has been a bummer during the past three months, with two massive downlegs (12% to 16% during the first three weeks of October, and then after some choppiness, another 16% to 18% during the first weeks...
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Keep Your Powder Dry
Investing isn’t easy, but most people make it far more difficult than it really is. Every day all day, there are commentators and analysts on TV and dozens of articles pumped out by the online financial media dissecting recent earnings (FedEx...
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