In the last 48 hours I have received two unsolicited offers to buy property we own. The first was for our second home in Vermont, a handyman’s special I bought in 2004 and sank nearly a decade of blood, sweat and tears into completing...
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Proxy season is moving into full gear. As a shareholder, you are one of the owners of your companies, so you get to vote on major decisions. Shareholder votes are, of course, much like public government elections, but in most cases your vote a..
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The bull market rolls on—but it’s not a perfect bull market. In fact, it’s showing signs of age, with divergences and rotations that alternately reward and retard various sectors from time to time.
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It’s been another mostly constructive week as many of our stocks inch higher and the economic picture continues to improve.
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This is an unusual environment to say the least. The market is looking ahead to the highest GDP growth in decades as vaccines end the lockdowns and restrictions. And forecasts continue to rise. At the same time, trillions in government stimulus will flood the...
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EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, is a straight-forward measure (not a perfect measure, though) of a company’s cash operating profits. But, like seemingly all metrics published by company managements, it is usually adjusted for unusual items that may be non-recurring.
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The leading indexes continue to hit record highs, telling us the bull market that began over a year ago, though it is showing some signs of age, remains intact.
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There’s no doubt things are looking a little better out there as many software, MedTech and other growth stocks retested their March lows late last week then turned north. The timing of that short-term reversal, coinciding with the end of the first quarter, definitely...
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Determining a company’s underlying value is difficult, and clearly more of an art than a science.
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The bull market is still intact, but the signs of fraying that often emerge during long topping actions continue. Still, by focusing on the right stocks, we can do well.
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The Big Idea
For over a year we have been forced to hold back from doing so many things we all took for granted.
Now, with vaccination rates rising quickly, spring in the air and summer right around the corner there is massive pent-up demand travel,...
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Stop-losses, or more fully, stop-loss orders, are trading orders that are placed to execute a sale automatically if a stock falls below a specified trigger price. The idea is that these orders can prevent a small loss from becoming a large loss. It also...
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The market divergence that has been evolving since early February continues, with the Nasdaq in particular looking weak while the more conservative indexes like the S&P 500 remain near their highs.
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It continues to be a very tough market, and with our exposure to small- and mid-cap growth stocks our portfolio continues to feel pressure. After some signs of stabilization last week the sellers are back in control this week and many names look to...
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There’s no doubting the dominance achieved by mega-tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google and the other members of the “FANGMAN” club (Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia). Over the past decade or two, these have created entirely new industries, grown to unprecedented size and shareholders...
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While leading growth stocks have been hit hard (and some have rebounded), the major indexes remain in uptrends and cyclical stocks and “reopening” stocks have attracted new buyers.
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Neither the broad market nor the S&P 600 Small Cap index have done much over the last week. But both received a small boost yesterday after the Fed upgraded its 2021 growth outlook and said it didn’t expect to raise rates until 2024.
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Being a contrarian investor often means buying stocks that are outside of the current zeitgeist. Many investors would look at a list of new buys in a contrarian’s portfolio and wonder just what, exactly, the contrarian was thinking. “Why don’t you just buy stocks...
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The broad market remains in a diverging pattern, so there’s still a very good chance that a long-term market top is being formed.
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As promised in yesterday’s Special Bulletin today we’re looking past the big picture stuff to focus on our stocks. With one quick note … we just may have a three-day streak going! Yields have backed off and a lot of stocks from different are...
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