The Case of the falling Wedge

http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:chart_analysis:chart_patterns:falling_wedge This is said to be bullish, but for the investor it is chinese water tourture...

Investors celebrate getting back to where they were in 2007

Also in running news, I celebrated running this morning as fast for a mile as I did five years ago---AND i MADE QUITE A RUCKUS ABOUT IT.

The new digital Bucket Shop on Wall Street

In the roaring twenties, in the midst of all the excesses of Wall Street, there were groups of traders that gathered together to pump their favorite stocks---whether one calls them the bucket shops or syndicates or whatever, they were the "pumpers" of their pet stocks---and if one just thinks about what that looks like today---it is the same...and the guys and gals are on the tv morning stock shows pumping their favorite stocks all the way up....until they go down...I call these guys the "Masters of the Pump and Dump"---it does sound like a filling station..I know...

"Clowns" with horns on Wall Street;

As a youngster, I vaguely remember a show on tv in the afternoon, with a clown who was silent, but had a horn that she or he honked in response to questions. On one of the stock market shows on television these days there is one host who has a host of various horns that he honks as side effects....with brings back another wisdom that I learned as a boy---never take your advise from clowns.

Pipeline stocks in focus--they win whatever the price of oil or gas

Today, in 2013, there is a huge push to make the US energy independent, and much of that drive is in natural gas produced by fracking, and when the gas is produced, it needs to be transported, and that is the rub, the bottleneck....there is not enough pipeline to get the job done. While investors in oil stocks or natural gas stocks have to worry always about the price fluctuation of the commodity, with a pipeline stock, which usually yields less, say from 4-5%, they win either way...no matter what the price of oil or gas, it still needs to be transported...Thus, I classify this type of stock, such as EPD, Enterprise Products, or PAA, Plains All American, as grandmother stocks..they have a little less risk and volatility than oil or gas stocks..you will see the beta as usually .50 or so. If you drive from Evansville to Janesville, on the right side, right after you pass the stage coach station of old, or Leydon Station, you will see the pipeline hub of PAA...Stay tuned.

Do You Want Income Now...or Later?

Bring back memories? That was the classic question that was on the top of the list for every young college graduate that turned Whole Life salesman after college graduation....and I remember the moment well...which is saying something since it has been over 45 years....I replied: "BOTH". In review...it was a good answer. As a young grad entering the world of work, and in retrospect, knowing very little, it was very appropriate to need income THEN when starting a family, and then LATER, when retiring....only a life insurance salesman could suggest, as they indeed did, that one had to make a choice...if ya eat tunafish now...you could be worth millions....nice....

A culture of stocks

When I was about ten yrs old, I began cutting grass to earn extra money..and yes i kept the change in several old piggy banks...but when I got about 13, my dad took the hundred dollars I had saved, and asked if I wanted to buy some stock in a new company called Control Data..It cost about $5 per share, and he said that he would add $25 to my savings and get 25 shares for me. So for the next 7 years or so, you can guess which section of the paper i began reading diligently. Control Data stock rose, split, rose and split over and over...and finally in 1967 in a time of financial distress, he sold it for me, and i took the check, for $3600 down to Minnesota Federal in St. Paul to cash. The cashier told me that it was too large a check for them to cash, and to cash something that large, I needed to call them in advance...I asked to speak to the manager...and got the cash.. From that moment on, it was stocks for me...it was a key moment...