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Sep29
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What do John Connor, Bruce R. Berkowitz, Kenneth Heebner, Daniel B. LeVan and Thomas Callan have in common? They top the chart for the annual Barron's/ValueLine equity mutual-fund survey in the 2006 edition. On a risk adjusted basis these gentlemen added the most value to their mutual-funds of any manager qualifying to be considered.
These men run the Third Millennium Russia, the Fairholme Fund, the CGM Focus Fund, the Boston Company International Small Cap Fund, and the BlackRock International Opportunity Inv A Fund.
Since it is a mantra on Wall Street that past performance does not guarantee future performance, why should we care about stellar past performance? It depends on whether you feel the managers at a fund make a difference and can adapt their strategies to new conditions.
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Sep28
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Warren Buffett said it was better to invest with a tailwind than against a headwind. As I've thought about this, it can apply to companies as well as industries. Let me give a couple of examples. General Motors and Ford...
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Sep27
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I wrote on investing in yourself last Friday. I wrote an article titled CFA - Worth The Effort which has generated more comments than any other post I have made. An anonymous commentator wrote that as an active trader of...
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Sep26
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Warren Buffett is renowned for his annual letters to his shareholders. You can find all of his letters at Letters to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. You can find information on the company BRK.A here. One of the lessons your management has learned...
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Sep25
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Years ago a friend of mine had a miracle product. It is a bacteria and enzyme that digests waste products and produces pure oxygen as a by product. It was safe and effective for use in restaurants, schools, etc. Like...
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Sep22
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Bond prices are hard to find. When I started in the business you had to build your own models to estimate where a corporate bond should price. The bid offer spread for corporate bonds was quite wide. A government bond...
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Sep21
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It's time to get out my soapbox and rally the troops. Prepare to be motivated! Cue the Sousa marches. Here's my message, "INVEST IN YOURSELF". Invest in being better at whatever you do professionally. Get a professional certification. Take continuing...
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Sep20
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So how big is the illegal naked short selling problem? Nobody knows for sure. Patrick M. Byrne estimates it may be as large as a billion dollars in illegal fails to deliver per day. The SEC thinks it is much...
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Sep19
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If you wanted to engage in illegal activity and drive down the price of a stock you might want some help. It would be necessary to have a broker who was cooperative. It would be useful to have some journalist...
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Sep18
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Today I will differentiate between naked short-selling and regular short-selling. In a legal stock short, you are selling something you don't own in your portfolio. The broker is required by regulation to hold stock in the amount of your short. If...
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Sep15
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Today I start a series of articles on Naked Short Selling. I hosted a lunch of our local CFA Society and Mr. Byrne was our guest. He gave a very illuminating speech on the practice of Naked Short Selling and...
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Sep13
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Stacey L. Bradford of The Wall Street Journal wrote an article published on 10 September 2006 titled, "You Can Save $100 a Month, No Sweat." She gives 18 ways you can cut expenses so you can save the money. Remember,...
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Sep12
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One of my favorite authors from The Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Clements, has written another winner. On 10 September 2006 in his column "Getting Going" he wrote an article titled "Sometimes the Magic Can Just Fade Away." He lists seven pieces...
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Sep11
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Welcome to this week's Carnival of Investing. We tried to do a themed carnival this week on Alternative Investments for the Individual Investor. Given the short notice I think we did pretty well. You be the judge. On with the...
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Sep 8
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What are Alternative Investments you ask? The short definition is that they are any investment not includes in a traditional portfolio of Stocks, Bonds and Cash. Alternative Investments include Real Estate, Commodities, Hedge Funds, Alpha only funds, Currencies and others....
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Sep 7
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This weekend the entire USA will meet Macy's. The parent company, Federated Department Stores (FD) is starting a nationwide television advertising campaign. Federated bought May Department Stores and more than 400 stores are being converted to the Macy's name. As the...
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Sep 6
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Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) has been featured in much of the financial press today. The reason is their decision to announce a major addition to their strategy. Cisco is going to add consumer products to their product lines. Cisco historically has...
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Sep 5
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I will be hosting the Carnival of Investing on September 11, 2006. I hope it will be a themed Carnival. I would like the theme to be "Alternative Investments for the Individual Investor." I need your help. Please tell me...
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Sep 4
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We welcome our guest author Bob Hansell again. He left this as a comment and reminded me of it again yesterday. I reread it and liked it so much I wanted to share it with everyone in a more prominent...
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Sep 1
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You want to help your children buy a house. You have various choices. You can use some of your 401(k) or IRA money to help with the down payment on their first house. You can give them a gift outright...
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