Archive for December, 2006

  • Economics Discovers Its Feelings
    , December 31st, 2006 at 8:10 pm

    Here’s a fascinating article from the Economist: If people are bad at recalling their feelings, they are worse at predicting them. They fail to anticipate [...]

  • Footnote of the Year
    , December 31st, 2006 at 6:12 pm

    Michelle Leder has awarded the Footnote of the Year: But in the end, it came down to this post from April 10 on Aaron’s Rent [...]

  • S&P Expects Q4 Earnings Growth to Slow
    , December 31st, 2006 at 5:39 pm

    S&P released this on Friday: The fourth-quarter operating earnings for the S&P 500 is on track to post its lowest year-over-year gain in over four [...]

  • Deanna Brooks Wins Playboy Stock-Picking Contest
    , December 31st, 2006 at 2:50 pm

    Congratulations to Deanna. Her portfolio was up 43.43% for the year. Deanna’s five stocks were Hauppauge Digital (HAUP), Pfizer (PFE), Yamana Gold (AUY), Petroleo Brasileiro [...]

  • The National Mall
    , December 30th, 2006 at 10:10 pm

    I saw President Ford’s funeral procession earlier today. Even the monuments seemed to be in a somber mood.

  • 2007 Buy List
    , December 30th, 2006 at 6:55 am

    Here’s my 2007 Buy List. For tracking purposes, I assume it’s a $1,000,000 portfolio and each position is worth $50,000. Here’s each stock, ticker, starting [...]

  • The 2006 Buy List
    , December 29th, 2006 at 7:33 pm

    The 2006 trading year has come to a close. All in all, it was a very good year for our Buy List. The 20 stocks [...]

  • Stock Exchange to Close on Tuesday
    , December 29th, 2006 at 11:18 am

    It’s official. The markets will be closed on Tuesday in honor of President Ford’s funeral. Trading will resume on Wednesday.

  • Stocks Against Bonds
    , December 29th, 2006 at 8:36 am

    December has brought a major change to the financial markets, although it’s largely gone unnoticed. For the first time since June, the stock and bond [...]

  • 10 Best Business Movies
    , December 28th, 2006 at 9:53 pm

    From The American: Barcelona Jerry Maguire Lost in Translation Once Upon a Time in the West The Shop Around the Corner Trading Places One, Two, [...]

  • Jeff Matthews Ridicules Amazon So We Don’t Have To
    , December 28th, 2006 at 5:06 pm

    Jeff Matthews notices a theme in Amazon’s Christmastime press releases: 12/26/2006 “Amazon.com’s 12th Holiday Season is Best Ever” 12/26/2005 “Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that the [...]

  • Dow 12,500
    , December 28th, 2006 at 12:15 pm

    Yesterday, the Dow closed above 12,500 for the first time ever. But the Dow has actually been a laggard. If the Dow had merely kept [...]

  • Markets and Morality
    , December 28th, 2006 at 9:34 am

    Here’s a quick thought exercise. Assume that in your town or city, or even country, voters are evenly divided between two public policy decisions. Let’s [...]

  • Bill Miller’s Streak to End
    , December 28th, 2006 at 8:23 am

    After 15 years, Legg Mason’s Bill Miller will lose to the S&P 500. He made some bad calls this year on housing and tech. Miller’s [...]

  • Three Days Left
    , December 26th, 2006 at 5:21 pm

    With just three trading left in 2006, the Buy List is up 10.76% for the year compared with 13.51% for the S&P 500 (this doesn’t [...]

  • Cintas
    , December 26th, 2006 at 3:27 pm

    Last week, Cintas (CTAS), the uniform maker, missed its earnings by a penny a share. So the stock is down about 300 pennies. Now we [...]

  • Corporate Profits and the Economy
    , December 26th, 2006 at 9:40 am

    Since September 2001, the U.S. economy has grown by about 31%, but corporate profits are up by 132%. Corporate profits now represent over 12.4% of [...]

  • Merry Everything!
    , December 25th, 2006 at 7:36 am

    I want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday, and a healthy and profitable New Year. I also want to thank all my readers for their [...]

  • Forbes Profiles W.R. Berkley
    , December 24th, 2006 at 7:09 pm

    Forbes takes a look at W.R. Berkley (BER), one of my new additions to the Buy List: From its founding in 1967 commercial property casualty [...]

  • I’m Glad I Don’t Own This Stock
    , December 24th, 2006 at 2:57 pm

    A letter to the editor in today’s Washington Post: The largest employer in the world announced on Dec. 15 that it lost about $450 billion [...]

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