Darwin's Finance — Financial Evolution: Education, Adaptation, Achievement

Weekend Reading: Tiger Woods “In the Rough” Edition

With the world obsessed over Tiger’s dilemma and the media frenzy that ensued, it’s just a reminder that even the best in the world can be brought down by bad behavior off the job. The latest is that Tiger’s taking a “hiatus” from golf. Meanwhile, US equities surpassed 2009 highs this week, Copenhagen continued unabated […]

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Will the ETF be Viewed as Another Financial Innovation Disaster?

Financial Innovation is usually both a blessing and a curse. In the vast majority of circumstances, an idea borne of market efficiency, lower risk, lower costs and more utility to investors ends up in complete disaster. Consider the following example. Recent Financial Innovation Example – Derivatives and Securitized Debt What started off as a great […]

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Yes, You Can Deduct Your New Car Sales Tax This Year!

I was helping my mom buy a car last month and I came across an article on the car sales tax deduction for 2009 that I must have missed in the plethora of bailouts, TARPS, TALPS and other acronyms that I wish were never invented. Regardless, the IRS offers some useful Q&A on what the […]

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Why I Passed on a 90% Pay Increase – What’s Your Price?

The other day, I was contacted by a headhunter (everyone calls themselves an “executive recruiter” these days even though I’m nowhere near an executive level position) with a very attractive proposition. He had a position that was roughly aligned with my current role and prior experience with another large bio-pharma where the total compensation with […]

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New Margin Requirements for Leveraged ETFs Whack Retail Investors but Don’t Address Ignorance

Did anyone notice a margin call in your account this week when you had a few thousand dollars in cash cushioning your portfolio the week prior? I did. I’ve had a proprietary trade on for some time now which employs leveraged ETFs overlayed with some other instruments for a market neutral play that’s been working […]

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Do You Invest in Companies You Find to be Morally Repugnant?

[picappgallerysingle id=”5157972″] Last week, I knew I had to fess up and admit I bought a newly launched Gold Juniors ETF which I was rather conflicted about, but too alluring to ignore based on my assessment. While I don’t think gold’s lofty prices are supported by fundamentals and I’ve trashed its prospects compared to other […]

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Weekend Reading – “Umm, Dubai, We’ve Got a Problem” Edition

With most of America celebrating Thanksgiving, it probably went widely unnoticed that Dubai is having trouble meeting debt obligations which is likely to have reverberations around the globe as investors brace themselves for another potential round of credit crunches, but this time, starting in emerging markets rather than the US from a housing collapse. With […]

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Advanta 11% Yield Investment Notes – Going, Going, Gone!

Advanta had been plastering their ads for high yield investment notes paying as high as 11% throughout my local paper and elsewhere for the past several months and I’d decided to investigate a bit further. Given the low interest rate environment we’re in and my presumption that any company offering such a premium over market […]

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$100 Signup Bonus at OptionsExpress Now!

There’s an impressive campaign going on now at optionsXpress whereby you can get a $100 signup bonus by simply opening a new account with a minimum of $500 by December 31, and make a minimum of 3 trades over the course of the following 12 months. How’s a 20% ROI over a month or so […]

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