From the monthly archives:

July 2009

Consumer confidence drops

July 10, 2009

When tracking the U.S. economy, one of the trends that is important is consumer spending and the confidence of consumers when it comes to the economy. A strong consumer confidence report–particularly in a weak economy–can be a positive sign for investors. There are a couple of indexes that do that. The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is [...]

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How to make money in all markets

July 8, 2009

In bull markets–or up phases–most stocks rise in value, while in bear markets–or down phases–most stocks fall in value. In secular (long-term) bull markets the up phase can last decades (like 1970-2000). The best posture during these bull markets is to buy good stocks and hold them. In secular (long-term) bear markets–predominantly down phases like [...]

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Our anti-business administration

July 7, 2009

Despite the good intentions of President Obama, his administration consistently supports actions that are anti-business. For example, the administration wants to raise the tax rate on: corporate income (the company’s profits), private equity investors (those who fund or acquire businesses), capital gains (profits derived from the sell of an asset, for example, if a company sells [...]

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Stock market in decline

July 6, 2009

In early June , the Dow Jones peaked at around 8800 and the S & P 500 peaked at 956. By peaking, we saw the highest closing prices in these key stock market averages (since the March 2009 low)– for the 30 stocks tracked in the Dow Jones and the 500 stocks tracked in the S [...]

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Inflation and deflation defined

July 5, 2009

Are you clear on the meaning of the terms inflation and deflation? Many define inflation as rising prices and deflation as falling prices. But that’s not exactly accurate. You see, the rising and falling of prices of goods and services is the “effect” of inflation and deflation. As described by Robert Prechter of Elliott Wave [...]

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Where are the green shoots?

July 2, 2009

After a 17-month decline in the stock market, stocks hit a bottom in mid-March 2009. Since that time, we’ve had a Spring Bounce where stocks have moved up in price. Then, on June 11, 2009, we saw a top on the Dow Jones–meaning the Dow Jones will probably come back down in price for awhile. [...]

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Emerging markets–a good or bad investment?

July 1, 2009

Emerging markets are defined differently, depending on who you ask, but to most, emerging market economies refer to countries with a developing, market economy–in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. Although the name “emerging markets” was used by a World Bank economist in the ’80s to replace a more negative term– “third world”–and although [...]

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