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…

In my recent article about managing risk, I disclosed that about 20% of my stock holdings are stocks that I quickly trade in and out of based mostly on technical analysis. These stocks may be volatile, but by placing tight stop loss orders on my positions, most of the major risk is eliminated. Since Motley…

In my recent article about the Apple stock split, I used Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) as an example of the type of successful company that issues stock splits. In fact, Walmart issued nine stock splits between 1971 and 1999! Thinking about Walmart’s long-term track record of consistent performance got me wondering about how the…

After researching a recent article I wrote on the aftermath of the financial crisis, I decided to dig deeper into the story that Bill Ackman (rockstar hedge fund manager, CEO of Pershing Square Capital, and on-again/off-again arch-nemesis of Carl Ichan) has been boosting a large position in Fannie Mae (NASDAQOTCBB: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (NASDAQOTCBB: FMCC) . To understand why Ackman would choose…