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Jul31
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Know More:
Bidding War, FAL, Falconbridge Limited, Inco Limited, N, PD, Phelps Dodge Corporation, TCK, Teck Cominco, Xstrata Plc, XTA.S
Love a good bidding war? Let's catch up on our favorite mining companies to see how the next chapter has turned out.
For those of you with short memories, Inco (N), and Xstrata (XTA.S) both wanted to buy Falconbridge (FAL). Teck Cominco (TCK) wanted to buy N but the offer was conditional on Inco dropping their FAL bid. Phelps Dodge (PD) got into the act by making a white knight offer for N. FAL wanted N to buy them and agreed to pay lots of money if the deal didn't happen. N wants PD to buy them.
It looks now like XTA.S will win the battle for FAL. FAL will pay N the money. N is then eligible for the TCK offer. TCK raised its bid for N today by 11%. The TCK offer deadline for tendering is August 16, 2006. More bidders may appear and PD may raise its offer although analysts don't think they have too much room to do so.
How will it all turn out? I'm all a twitter in anticipation.
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Jul28
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I wrote on April 12, 2006 and again in an interim report on May 31 about Starmine earning predictions. They got the direction of earnings surprises right in 8 of 10 forecasts. We wanted to wait past the end of...
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Jul27
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I was visiting my friend Ray H last night. Ray said I had never addressed why stocks are volatile and react to news so abruptly. I gave an off the cuff response that stocks are volatile because they are risky. ...
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Jul26
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Mutual fund performance improves when Portfolio Managers risk their own funds with other investors. According to Eleanor Laise of The Wall Street Journal in an article on July 26, 2006 titled "Another Way to Assess A Mutual Fund", "Funds whose...
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Jul25
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I’ve frequently written about how to calculate the savings you will need for any given level of spending. Like many in the industry I have used a figure of 70% of pre-retirement income as a good proxy for how much you...
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Jul24
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Jonathan Clements wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal which is published by Dow Jones & Co. (DJ) on Sunday July 23, 2006. The article was titled "Three Smart Places to Stash Cash Now". Mr. Clements recommends the following:...
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Jul22
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During certain parts of the economic cycle cash is the best place to have your assets. Is now one of those times? What do the markets tell us? 1. The stock market is flat to down for the year. 2. Short...
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Jul20
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Regular readers know I am a fan of index funds. I believe they are superior investments for the majority of individual investors. The S&P 500 Vanguard fund has beaten 60% of all actively managed domestic stock funds since 1996. Some...
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Jul19
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I work for a Not-For-Profit corporation. Our board has restricted the kinds of companies we can invest in. We are restricted from investing in gambling, alcohol, tobacco, caffeinated drinks, and adult entertainment. In the industry this is referred to as...
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Jul18
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A reader asked for an explanation of a Risk Tolerance Curve. I am happy to oblige. Risk tolerance can be considered in at least two ways. The first is how much risk (downward fluctuation) you personally are comfortable with. My...
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Jul17
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Most investors are familiar with "Dollar Cost Averaging" where you invest the same amount of money each month in the stock market. This allows you to buy more stock when the markets are down and less stock when the markets...
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Jul14
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In the hallowed halls of investment academics researchers rage self-righteously about whether market anomalies exist and are tradable. If you manage money, these are serious questions. If there are places in the market that are not efficient and if you...
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I'll admit it, I've been lucky. I married a woman who believed in budgeting. We've lived on a budget since we were newly weds. Our budgets at first were pretty basic. We only had enough income to meet immediate basic...
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Jul12
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How much should I take from my IRA each year when I retire? That's a good question. The answer is, "It depends." I'll walk you through an example. You will need the answers to some questions and I'll tell you...
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Jul11
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Investors often forget to factor in trading costs when choosing funds, brokers and trading strategies. Trading costs matter and can be the difference between out performance and under performance. In mutual funds it is important to look at the portfolio...
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Jul10
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I was reading Investor's Business Daily today and came across an add for Worden Brothers, Inc. TeleChart 2005. The add said the TC2005 software had been voted the best software in its class under $500 by the readers of Stocks...
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Jul 7
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Jason wrote this comment. I liked it so much I wanted to share it with everyone.When my father helped me open my Roth IRA at the age of 16, I purchased two large cap mutual funds. Even though I had...
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Jul 6
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Regular readers will have noticed that I get many ideas for articles from the newspaper. This post was triggered by an article in The Wall Street Journal on July 1, 2006 written by Mark Hulbert, founder and editor of Hulbert...
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Jul 5
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Imagine buying an airline ticket but not paying for it unless the airline delivered you to your destination faster than the average of all flights between those two cities that month. You pay for specific performance or as we say,...
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Jul 3
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The Wall Street Journal on 1 July 2006 on p. B1 has an article by Jeff Opdyke titled "Will You Be Able To Retire?" It is a great question. Mr. Opdyke quotes some startling statistics: 22% of current workers...
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