Concerns regarding the "shadow housing inventory" continue to grow as evidenced by the following analysis provided courtesy of Amherst Securities and recently appeared on Yahoo! Finance.  The housing inventory overhang continues to weigh on home prices and thus underwater home owners (i.e. banks who have far too much of this stuff on their books due to foreclosures).  This situation continues to be a drag on economic growth as banks are unwilling to lend (create new ...

Despite a widespread belief that the worst of America’s financial crisis is behind us, what lies ahead for the economy and stock market is not so clear. The so-called green shoots have neither fully blossomed nor turned to seed, leaving many investors in a wait-and-see mode. To help understand whether the second quarter marked the beginning of a sustained recovery or something else, Fidelity Viewpoints asked Jurrien Timmer, director of market research at Fidelity and co-portfolio manager ...

Conventional wisdom, at least for as long as I can remember, has been that traders sell stocks in May and "go away" for the summer only to return after Labor Day (the official end of summer) to re-enter the market. As put forth in an article by Prieur du Plessis that can be found here on this Investing Minds website, it has been shown that over time the best period to be invested in equities is the six months from early November through the end of April of the following year.

Since we ...

A common options strategy used by investors to enhance their short-term return is to write covered calls.  By doing so, they take in premium and lower the entry price on their investment.  I want to tell you about another strategy I recently employed to essentially achieve the same objectives, but for different reasons.

Back in late September/early October, as the market traded near its highs, I began to become uncomfortable with my long ETF (SPY) position which at the time made ...

Is it time to start thinking about preferred stocks as a way to supplement yield and counter the volatile swings in today’s market? No other investment security toils in such obscurity as preferred stocks.  Yet today there is reason to give these securities a serious look.  Preferred stocks are financial instruments that combine the characteristics of both debt (fixed dividends) and equity (potential appreciation).  Some quality REIT preferred stocks have yields exceeding ...

Anymore, seems like it takes forever for me to get around to writing in this blog.  Guess I was getting over my food coma from Thanksgiving.  Have been intending for days to comment on the oversold condition in the market and the opportunity to pick up some great values in the U.S. stock market.  Wouldn't you know the market would have to go and rally over 500 points (DJIA) in two days before I ever had a chance to say a word. All things considered, and rally aside (S&P ...

After years of being an investor and an avid market practitioner, I have finally learned my lesson. Owning stocks is a bit like being a passenger strapped in the back seat of a car where the driver is the CEO (I guess this is why investments are often called vehicles).

As you know, drivers come in all flavors and unless you know the driver well enough and have ridden with them before, the ride can be quite bumpy, frightening and downright dangerous.  Being a shareholder of a company ...