The key to China’s economic growth isn’t “how fast?” or “how much?” The most critical question is “what’s driving it?”. Most people think that China’s current economic status is a mirage created by government stimulus and relies on exports. However, examination of China’s economic growth over time reveals that consumption and gross capital formation...
McDonald’s went public in 1965, selling its shares for $22.50; now its stock trades around $90 a share. Fast food can be an occasional unhealthy indulgence – but fast food stocks can be a healthy dose of profit for your portfolio. Imagine you were one of the first to buy shares of McDonald’s Corp....
What has made the US so great? Free markets? Smart people? Capitalism? Democracy? A two party system? Silicon Valley? Cheap resources? Or was it having the reserve currency of the world since 1945? No, that would not have been enough. Was it taking that reserve currency off the gold standard on August 15th 1971?...
Two rare commodities that quadrupled in 2010 double again in 2011… three reasons they’re just getting started. This is the fifth consecutive month that commodities have outperformed the stock market — their longest streak since 1997. The key reason commodities outperformed stocks and bonds is the weak dollar. In the midst of the longest...
The stock exchanges of Colombia, Peru and Chile agreed last November to merge their trading, giving international investors access to roughly 600 stocks – more than any single country in Latin America. Earlier this month, the trio demonstrated just how serious they were, with the Peruvian and Colombian stock exchanges entering into a full-blown...
Most countries hold their reserves in dollars, which is a safe – haven of sorts, and that is why the dollar is known as the – reserve currency – of the world. To counter deflation’s bad effects, and to stimulate the economy – the US plans to spend billions of dollars over the next...
Facebook has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies, which implies that the social media darling is valued at a staggering $50 billion. This reminds me of the valuations being assigned to Internet companies leading up to the “dot.bomb” crash. There’s no way a...
Rare earths are a group of exotic elements of the Periodic Table (Lanthanides, mostly), with unique electrical, magnetic, optical and other properties. Without them there’s basically no clean tech, green tech, advanced electronics, electric cars, and much more. It’s not that rare earths are geologically “rare.” It’s more that they’re so darned hard to...
In her keynote speech on Monday, Nancy-Ann DeParle, Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, faced a hostile audience as she laid out the case for reform. The audience snickered when she pointed to the recent lower unemployment figures as proof that reform isn’t the job killer...
Just a few years ago, the energy investment idea du jour was to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to handle future imports to the voracious US hydrocarbon market. Remember Cheniere Energy, once the darling of newsletter writers? Now there’s talk of re-tooling some of America’s LNG systems for the exportation of natural gas....
The gold price soared nearly 30% last year – punctuating a spectacular decade-long run that has seen the gold price quintuple! So has gold finally reach a “bubble phase?” Is the great gold bull market on its last legs? In a word, No! If gold is in a bubble, then it’s one heck of...
The efficient, well-managed rescue of the 33 Chilean miners was an affecting spectacle for the world. It also should remind us that Chile is a well-run country, and that in an era when commodities are ever more important to the global economy, it is becoming an essential part of investors’ portfolios. The Chilean miners’...
The key to making a fortune in stocks (and avoiding getting obliterated) is having a basic idea of when stocks might have a long stretch of gains… and when they might do nothing. This isn’t easy to do. But when you look at it over history, a simple pattern does emerge… Each generation, the...
The Internet search giant was trading at 14 times 2011 earnings. While that’s a higher multiple than the average S&P 500 company, it’s not all that expensive for a tech company. The thing is, sales grew at a mere 7% from 2008 through 2010. That’s a huge drop after growing more than 50% annually...
Last weekend, I hosted a poker game with some friends. During one hand, I made a series of bets, which caused my opponent to think hard. One of the other players coached him: “He’s trying to tell you a story with the way he’s betting. The question is, do you believe what he’s telling...
Explosive growth in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina is fueling gains of 125%, 136%, 361% or more… and here’s how to play it… According to the World Bank, the economy of Latin America grew twice as fast as the United States last year. And it’s on track to do the same this year. So while...
In the cellphone world, it’s all about “apps.” In the oil and natural gas industries, it’s all about supplies. And in the healthcare sector, it’s all about pills. Lots and lots of pills: sleeping pills, anti-depressants, anti-oxidant pills. They’re everywhere. It’s big business for Big Pharma and the companies are very good at marketing...
Forget about Oil… Forget about Gold… Water is the Most Valuable Resource of the 21st Century. The world population is rising by about 80 million people every year. We are expected to reach eight billion people in the next 15 years. That’s a lot of thirsty mouths. In fact, the demand for water is...
A tiny $8 million company that has discovered $5 billion of uranium where no one else was looking. This is not only a fascinating story, it’s one of the most promising investments I can think of. It’s a small mining outfit that is literally turning trash into treasure. I think this company is going...
Now I want to tell you a story about a fungus of all things. A fungus that produces enzymes that unlock the sugar found in the cell wall of all plant life. It has already made my readers a ton of money and I expect it will make them plenty more going forward. For...
The $1.7 5 Medical Technology Stock that Could Break Through $20 Next Year This medical breakthrough stock play is one I feel really good about. Because it’s giving 50,000 people every year a fighting chance against a killer disease. It could be a huge step forward against America’s second-leading cause of cancer death —...
Expect some of the CIVETS economies (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) to be among the world’s hottest markets in the decade to come. They have the potential to generate the same kind of windfall wealth as the BRIC markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China did over the last 10 years...
Five Trends for the next 10 years in energy savings: 1. Cost-competitive clean energy Coal and oil have had well over a century to get costs as low as possible… Renewables are only now reaching scale, so they will soon be the cheap form of energy. Specially watch solar panel and wind power. 2....
Take Everything You THINK YOU KNOW About Energy Investing – and throw it out the window. The global energy sector is entering its most-promising stretch in decades – with more new technologies and more investment opportunities than ever before. The result of a global gas market will be shattering volatility—at first, as everyone tries...
Chile has been a pioneer for the last 30 years of great improvements. Mainly, due to four structural reforms: the creation of a retirement system based on private personal accounts (the AFP system), the opening of the private health insurance system (the ISAPRE system), the redesign of the labor code changing the terms of...
The Investment Opportunity of the Millennium The savvy investor John Templeton seized opportunities wherever he found them. And he built his small investment shop into the renowned money management firm Templeton Investments, now part of the $27 billion investment giant Franklin Resources. Before he died, Templeton made it absolutely clear what he believed was...
The Third Element could soon siphon off $10.4 TRILLION in oil revenues… and replace 148 billion barrels of black gold. The U.S. government is quietly spending billions to control this rare substance as a matter of national and economic security. The key to the world’s energy needs for the next 50 years… Lies under...
Have you heard of the “peak oil” concept? Simply put, this theory states that global oil production will hit a maximum (peak) level before declining. When oil prices hit a record high of $147 a barrel in July 2008, the focus increasingly turned towards the supply-demand equation and “peak oil” topic. Reaching a consensus,...
It’s no secret that signs of a major network crash have been appearing for the last few years… Now the cracks are widening, pushing the situation to a boiling point. Just look at what’s happening as we speak… * Just over a month ago, 32 million cell and Internet users were thrown into the...
For many investors who don’t have experience in Asia, figuring out what Beijing is up to is both puzzling and difficult. But a handy little tool called a “Form 13F” can help. In case you’re not familiar with it, the 13F is a disclosure document that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires...
The secret I’m going to share with you today is probably the single most important factor in determining the success of stock market traders. If you can master it, you can make millions in the stock market. This technique is simple, but it requires months of training and dedication to master. The trouble is,...
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If you’re keeping score in the contest between Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and China’s central government, you should be aware by now that everyone involved loses. * Google stands to lose anywhere from $400 million to $600 million in annual revenue, as well as a considerable foothold in the world’s largest and fastest growing...
Solar power doesn’t work at night. Wind power needs wind. Hydro runs into droughts. Geothermal works great, but it’s scarce. Alternative energies are a pain in the neck. They’re expensive and inconvenient. “Biomass” is America’s newest alternative power source. It doesn’t have any of these problems… With a market cap of $26 billion, Southern...
Former floor trader on the IMM, IOM, NYFE and LIFFE as well as a risk manager of a large, multinational corporation in Geneva, Switzerland, also author of best selling books on forex trading and trend following. In 1995, he founded INO and later co-founded MarketClub. With three decades of experience Adam Hewison have seen...
After climbing 9,589% since 2009 began, Diedrich Coffee (Nasdaq: DDRX) is valued at roughly $200 million today. Shares trade for $34 apiece. I’m not at all surprised. Diedrich, which is in the (big) business of roasting coffee beans and then selling them wholesale, boasts superb fundamentals. Sales just jumped another 51%. Return on Equity...
The way trading works (even for a pro) is that you’ll win some and you’ll lose some. However, the goal over time is to have the winning amount outweigh the losing amount. I’m often reminded of a famous group of traders called the “Turtle Traders” back in the 1980s. Many books have been written...
“People do not trade the markets; they trade their beliefs about the markets.” - Van Tharp The Big Picture Can you predict when a country will default or go bankrupt? In 1999, Alan Greenspan and Paul Guidotti published the Greenspan-Guidotti rule: To avoid default, a country must maintain hard reserves equal to at least...
You Weren’t There For The Wedding, Don’t Be There For The Funeral. This is an old horse racing proverb. The ongoing credit crisis continues to caste an ominous shadow over the stock market and the light at the end of the tunnel is very dim. However, there will always be speculation (including my own)...
Guy Cohen's Flag Trader Stock System - OVI Index Flag Trader Stock Consolidation Chart Pattern Trading Secret Flag-Trading System
I was recently asked to write the Foreword to Curtis Faith’s upcoming book, Trading from Your Gut, which is all about trading and intuition. This got me thinking about the different types of intuition that one can possess. Intuition is a concept with which I am quite familiar and which I believe is extremely...
The biggest and most reliable returns in the market come from the safest and most mature companies. These high-quality companies pay dividends. And they raise those dividends year after year. Buy their shares when they are cheap. Then reinvest the dividends. And Coca-Cola is the perfect example of how this strategy pays off: “Did...
ABB Ltd (ABB) continues to flex its global muscle. On Sept 18th, ABB announced it had won an order worth $25 million from Chile’s leading transmission utility, Transelec SA. Add this new contract to ABB’s pre-existing $25.9 billion backlog. The contract will call upon ABB to provide an SVC Light (Static VAR Compensation) installation...
Four Easy Ways to Trade the World’s Top Commodities If you’re looking to add some great potential gains to your portfolio, then consider what commodities can do for you. Four Commodities… Four Explosive Moves Want some examples of how explosive commodities can be? Just look at these moves for oil, natural gas, gold and...
I’m a big fan of Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL). I’ve written about it here on several occasions. Apple is so far ahead of its competitors in product design and functionality that it’s hardly worth the comparison, except in a few cases. But what about Apple as a company? What sets it so far apart...
Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit. by John Mackay “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” —Margaret Thatcher With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both...
Forget Microsoft-Apple or Microsoft-Google. A new rivalry is developing in the tech world. Google and Apple are increasingly squaring off over lucrative markets like the mobile computing field. And there are many examples of the competition between the two for the mobile market heating up. Exhibit A is the launch of Android-based mobile phones....
Billionaire John Paulson’s hedge-fund firm, Paulson & Co, filed its most recent 13F (institutional managers who manage over $100 million are required to report their long positions in the U.S. markets each quarter) for the quarter ended June 30, and he’s making a huge bet on financials… Paulson gained fame in 2007 after he...
$678 Billion Tech Explosion There is a proliferation of a new breakthrough that Popular Mechanics calls a “highly evolved…technology… changing the way humans interact with machines.” It’s a “touch” technology that will soon let you feel the texture of an iceberg thousands of miles away… test the firmness of a mattress over the internet…...
If you have massive coal reserves, an oil project in Kurdistan, or a boatload of gold bullion, China wants to talk to you. The Chinese government holds over $2 trillion in reserves. The dollar is an asset that has lost 33% of its purchasing power since 2002. And with the U.S. government creating boatloads...
The question as investors we have been focused on for some time is whether we end up with inflation, or deflation, and what that endgame looks like. It is one of the most important questions an investor must ask for the last 2 years, and getting the answer right is critical. The Crash of...
Gold Spot Price Analysis .1. Gold in USD (1 ounce = US$953.90) • It’s really getting interesting in the gold market. The big question is, “Will gold break through the US$1,000 level and advance to new all-time highs or will it once again fail while trying?” I am still quite skeptical at the moment....
John McAfee is, of course, the founder of antivirus software company, McAfee. His innovation was to give away the software for free, but charge fees for the upgrades and technical support. The company went public in 1992, and McAfee pocketed an enormous amount of money. Two years later, he sold his remaining shares. At...
Change is like a pin to the balloons of conventional wisdom. Just when people settle into their views, here comes the pin. For instance, it’s become widely accepted when talking about emerging economies to focus on the so-called BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China. But there is a very important region that...
Economic bubbles are generally considered to have a negative impact on the economy because they tend to cause misallocation of resources into non-optimal uses. In addition, the crash which usually follows an economic bubble can destroy a large amount of wealth and cause continuing economic malaise. But, bubbles could be great for savvy investors...
It seems that we are in a period of economic decline. This might get a little tiresome eventually, and then maybe a few will start looking for solutions. If I could know the Magic Formula of economic success, what woud it be. Here it is: Low Taxes and Stable Money. If you look at...
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Jim Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund before he turned 30 and retired at age thirty-seven. Since then, he has served as a sometime professor of finance at Columbia University’s business school, and as a media commentator worldwide. He is the author of A Bull in China, Hot Commodities, Adventure Capitalist, and Investment Biker. He...
“Buy when there is blood in the streets.” – Nathan Rothschild Back in his day, Nathan Rothschild was like Warren Buffett and Alan Greenspan rolled into one. Nathan was one of the founding members of the greatest banking dynasty in history. He and his family bankrolled wars, giant gold purchases, governments, and anything else...