What does shampoo have to do with stock markets?

by Henry Becker 08.25.2010
Thumbnail image for What does shampoo have to do with stock markets?

As any reader of my blog knows I pay attention to the technical indicators of the market as well as the fundamentals. There are many technical indicators ranging from crazy ones based on the Super Bowl, blimps, and even (go figure) politics. But there are a few indicators that have a solid history [...]

Read the full article →

Are you prepared for what comes next?

by Henry Becker 08.19.2010
Thumbnail image for Are you prepared for what comes next?

What do boy scouts, military commanders, parents and financial planners have in common? They must be prepared or at least have a plan for anything. The headlines are splashed with calls for inflation, deflation or worse yet – another market crash. The question is are you prepared? Life is full [...]

Read the full article →

Not the Red Cross…The Gold Cross

by Henry Becker 08.17.2010
Thumbnail image for Not the Red Cross…The Gold Cross

As with many things in life sometimes it is helpful to question why you do the things you do.  After a torturous 18 months in the markets, I decided it was time to look at my investment strategy and question if I could refine it.  As any reader knows I follow trends in the market [...]

Read the full article →

Will this earnings season follow the others?

by Henry Becker 07.16.2010
Thumbnail image for Will this earnings season follow the others?

The last three earnings seasons have all resulted in lack luster performance in the post earnings season.  The disturbing part of the matter is that in the last three earnings seasons there was optimism behind the market and earnings were actually coming in ahead of estimates for the most part.  Why the estimates were being [...]

Read the full article →

Do you know rare earth elements?

by Henry Becker 07.16.2010
Thumbnail image for Do you know rare earth elements?

The first part of this post is a short science lesson to frame the subject. Rare earth elements (REE) are a collection of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table. These elements are the 15 lanthanides along with scandium and yttrium. Why are these elements important? A recent article from the [...]

Read the full article →

Does your portfolio need food?

by Henry Becker 06.23.2010
Thumbnail image for Does your portfolio need food?

In the viscous market we are seeing it pays to look for stocks that hold up well in weak markets and strained economic circumstances. With the possibility that some global markets could be dragged back into recession investors must plan for tighter spending by consumers. Your action plan should be to look for [...]

Read the full article →

Is your advisor misinformed?

by Henry Becker 06.22.2010
Thumbnail image for Is your advisor misinformed?

You will want to sit down for this one. The modern financial services industry and their computer generated investment models, have been driven by 50 year old, flawed research. Let me take you on a little financial services adventure in this post. It all started back in the 1950s with a man [...]

Read the full article →

Podcast Episode 7 – Liar’s Risk

by Henry Becker 06.07.2010
Thumbnail image for Podcast Episode 7 – Liar’s Risk

In this beginning of the week episode I will share my thoughts on mitigating liar’s risk and share a web page that is a free one stop shop for all the market data you could want.

Read the full article →

Can ETFs mitigate liars risk?

by Henry Becker 06.07.2010
Thumbnail image for Can ETFs mitigate liars risk?

From the time we learn to speak we are taught to tell the truth. The problem these days is that many companies (and countries) do not want to face and in many cases tell the truth. Why on earth would companies and governments want to be less than forthright?  The answer is simply [...]

Read the full article →

Do you understand gold and the dollar?

by Henry Becker 05.13.2010
Thumbnail image for Do you understand gold and the dollar?

Since the onset of the global financial crisis that started in 2008 many of the rules of thumb have gone out the window. This has caused professional and retail investors a great amount of head scratching and headaches. The biggest problem with a breakdown of rules of thumb is that far too many [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries