From the category archives:

Stock Market Commentary

Study: Smart Investors MUCH Better Stock Pickers than Dumb Investors

I came across a neat research paper from UCLA and a few others universities seeking to address the topic of whether investors with a high IQ actually exhibit superior investment performance over others.  This study strikes at the heart of the notion that stock picking is a random walk and no one investor can reasonably [...]

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How to Get Your Market Losses Back Now! (Read on)

Now, that’s a disingenuous title for an article.  But I see it everywhere following the 2008-2009 stock market crash – from prominent money mags at the bookstore to web investing outlets and blogger posts.  And it sure is enticing to click through and read on.  There’s a simple reason you can’t and won’t easily “get [...]

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How Stupidity on Wall Street Violated the Most Basic Laws of Physics

As a physical sciences and astrophysics buff, I was struck by the irony in some of man’s greatest and most enigmatic physical laws in contrast to some of the dumbest behavior imaginable by Wall street, politicians and main street for that matter.  I couldn’t help but compare some of the most famous physical laws we’ve [...]

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Price to Earnings Ratios Gone Wild – A Measure for Investors to Follow?

I came across this visual and thought it was worth sharing.  With data from Robert Shiller’s Irrational Exuberance, this BusinessWeek chart highlights the massive secular trends that span years at a time where Price to Earnings ratios of the companies that comprise the S&P500 rarely actually stay around the mean of 16.3, but they do [...]

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Corporate Pension Plan Shortfall – The Next Crisis?

US Corporations are walking a thin line with Pension Plan Shortfalls that may well translate into the next global crisis.  Now that the mortgage crisis is behind us (that is, until the next wave of defaults hit due to more interest rate resets and the reconfigured mortgages that fail anyway – and commercial mortgages to [...]

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Why were the Risk-Averse so Heavily Invested in Stocks?

Akin to how our grandparents’ generation is known for their thrift and frugality from living through the Great Depression, our generation may very well be known for a similar sort of risk-aversion…a changed generation of humility and financial conservatism, after seeing the worst financial conditions and stock market deterioration in our lifetime (note: in our [...]

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Stocks Making New Highs in Surprising Places

What if I told you a year ago that the Dow Jones Industrial average would have lost over 50% of its value and that the leaders in the market would be selling pasta and, while the big three automakers were decimated, an auto parts supplier would also be a shining star.  In my latest update [...]

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Using Google Search Trends to Exploit Market Moves

In thinking about market trends and how demand for goods and services (and hence subsequent share prices) is driven by human psychology, media coverage and herding, a lightbulb went off.  I wondered if there was a correlation or leading indicator in Google search trending for various terms and subsequent share prices.  It’s evident that for [...]

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Gold ETN GOE up 421% in 1 Month – What Gives?

There’s no doubt that Gold’s been hot, to the tune of 16% up in the past month.  However, even the most ambitious leveraged ETF can deliver a 2X return on gold prices via (UGL).  In order to obtain a 421% return on GOE during this timeframe on an ETF/ETN, you’d be talking a leverage factor [...]

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