The financial world is completely upside down. Government bonds have negative yields. Banks are only avoiding charging negative interest rates (which would be charging you money for holding your money) by adding and hiking fees. The average mortgage rate is 2.67%. That’s a full 1% below the rate of inflation if you calculate inflation using…
DetailsDow Jones 36,000 may remain a pipe dream. But analyst expectations for 20,000 could soon be reality. In fact, as of last week, the consensus one-year estimate on Wall Street is now 20,003.93, up from an earlier projection of 19,914. And it’s not as farfetched as you’d think especially in such a low interest rate…
DetailsIt’s a nail biting fight to the finish. In just three months, either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be elected the next president of the United States. At the moment, 43% of voters are in favor of Clinton. Another 40% are likely to vote from Trump. Libertarian Gary Johnson has about 8% favorability while…
Details“I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market.” That’s what President Bush said in December 2008. The statement came after the disclosure of $8.5 trillion in various bailout schemes were deployed throughout the U.S. economy. The problem, however, is that didn’t save the free market. It was never intended to save the free…
DetailsU.S. economic growth is “pretty damn good.” That’s what billionaire investor Warren Buffett said in an interview this week. While he admitted GDP of less than 2% doesn’t match the quicker pace of decades past, he still believes the economy is just fine. When it comes to productivity, he noted: “If you don’t improve productivity,…
DetailsHow do I know if a stock is going to go up? That’s one of the questions I hear most often. It’s what everyone wants to know. Novices, pros, and everyone in between. The answer would seem like a tired cliche or maybe just me trying to be a jerk. I’m not though. It really…
DetailsWhat are you going to do here for three days? Well, you know. Get into the culture a bit. Maybe check out some museums. I’ve asked around about you and that doesn’t sound like anything like what I heard. Seriously, what are you going to do for the other three days? OK. Honestly, I’m going…
DetailsIn the March 2016 issue of The Cheap Investor, we recommended Monster Worldwide (MWW) at just $2.94 a share. At the time, the company had a strong balance sheet with $168 million in cash and a book value of $5.39 a share. Even with a large debt of $199 million, we were still attracted to…
DetailsJust last week, we got what some called a “stellar jobs report.” The U.S. announced employers added 255,000 jobs in July 2016, easily beating analyst expectations for an addition of just 180,000. At the same time, according to the U.S. Labor Department, the unemployment rate remained at 4.9%, which came in below expectations for 4.8%.…
DetailsAfter a brutal sell-off in the biotech sector, we found a great deal of severely undervalued names trading at extremely low prices. It’s why we recommended Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL) at just $1.95 a share in the April 2016 issue of The Cheap Investor. We liked this stock in particular because it was undervalued with a…
DetailsIn investing, the conventional wisdom is usually far more of the more and quite the opposite of the latter. Nothing more so than the cliched advice to “buy the dip.” There are countless historical studies which show buying dips leads to dreadful performance. I get it. If you liked it at $40, you’ve got to…
DetailsIt was one of the most powerful — most lucrative – moves of the last six years. Between January 2011 and July 2015, the NASDAQ Biotech Index (IBB) moved from a low of 95 to a high of 401, returning gains of 322% as compared to S&P 500 returns of just 67%. Then it all…
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