Today I would like to try to illustrate the difference between picking a good company and picking a good stock . I recently wrote about how I have a short position inAmazon.com, (NASDAQ: AMZN) and then went on to express my belief that Amazon has a bright future. No, I’m not off my meds. I just get this recurrent feeling of deja vu…
There has been a lot of buzz lately about the legalization of gambling in Japan. If Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gets his way, a $40 billion annual gaming market could be open for business by the end of 2014. This prospect has gaming companies such as Melco Crown Entertainment (NASDAQ: MPEL) , Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) ,MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM) , Wynn…
Well, I finally put my money where my mouth is and shorted Amazon this week. I’ve been talking shit about Amazon’s stock for weeks, and I finally pulled the trigger this week. If you don’t know where I stand on Amazon, I discuss Amazon’s historically high multiple here, and Amazon lost my “Battle of the…
Now that we’ve reached the halfway point of the year, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back and see which stocks have shined brightest so far in 2014. It’s been a good year for the market overall, as the S&P 500 is up 5.7% year to date. The Financial Sector…
With a population of 1.2 billion and a GDP growth rate more than twice the U.S. rate, India presents banking opportunities unlike anything seen in America. Does that mean that Indian banks are a better investment right now than their American counterparts? Let’s take a look at how Indian banking leaders ICICI Bank (NYSE: IBN ) and HDFC Bank Ltd.…
Last week, I justified my Northern Tier Energy trade by posting this chart: As of today, here’s an updated and zoomed-in chart of NTI. See if you can spot what’s wrong with this picture:
I don’t make many short-term trades. Most of the times I have opened and closed a position within a matter of days, I will admit that I got lucky. I’ve written about trading market catalysts before in my article about the annual Federal Reserve bank stress tests. Back in 2009 I bought Fifth Third Bancorp just prior…
Looks like the death cross club is about to get a new member: What does it mean for IRE shareholders? Well, it’s certainly not good news, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the future is totally bleak. Unfortunately, there are several more examples of recent death crosses in my portfolio, so here’s a quick…
In my article about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I casually mentioned that both stocks were delisted from the NYSE in 2010. But what exactly happens to the share of a stock after it has been delisted from a major exchange? Before I tell you the answer to this question, you need to take a…
The current average dividend yield of the Dow Jones 30 is about 2.7%, with telecom companies AT&T and Verizon leading the pack with yields of 4.4% and 5.3% respectively. While these yields can certainly be nice profit-generators for a portfolio, they pale in comparison to the yields of business development companies, such as Prospect Capital Corporation…