Is Santa On His Way?

There is an indicator for everything.  There is a prediction based on who wins the Super Bowl.  There is a prediction based on the length of skirts for a particular year.  The list goes on and on. 
The unusual nature of some of these indicators is their accuracy.  For instance, there is the January Barometer. Every [...]

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Fire!

Unemployment is mysteriously reporting only a loss of -11,000.  Poof, just like that we transition from 100,000 and 200,000 plus jobs losses each month to just 11,000 without even a transition.  The unemployment rate has come down from 10.2% to 10%.  So what do these numbers really tell us about the economy?
Really nothing…
The unemployment rate [...]

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Wake Up and Smell the Risk

Cracks in the foundation are starting to rear their ugly heads and investors need to wake up smell the risk.  In my latest client newsletter, I wrote about the great disconnect that exists between Wall Street and Main Street.  On the one hand, you have Wall Street who just assumes that this is a normal [...]

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The Ultimate Bubble of Hope

We have had all types of bubbles in the history of the investment markets.  According to Jeremy Grantham, there have been 28 different types of bubbles from gold to art to real estate to stocks and even tulips.  Yes, there was an enormous tulip mania.  Bubbles are created out of a mania.  Manias are created [...]

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What the Economic Data is Not Telling Us

It was announced Friday morning that 190,000 jobs were lost, which is higher than economists predicted.   That is significant for one reason.  At this stage in the game, we should NOT be seeing this amount of jobs being lost.  Companies get to the point where they stop laying people off because they have already cut to [...]

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Financial Crisis Alive and Well

Every Friday, all across the country, bankers hold their breath.  This is the day that the FDIC chooses to show up and take over banks that are on the verge of failure.  This past Friday, FDIC employees were especially busy when they showed up at 9 different banks.   The banks had combined assets of 19.4 billion [...]

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What the Government Bond Markets are Saying About Stocks, the Dollar, and Gold

Did you ever wonder why mortgage rates have been so low this year?  Well, let me take you on a journey.  Mortgage rates are influenced by government bond interest rates.  Government bond interest rates are influenced by the price of Government bonds.  If bond prices go up, then interest rates go down.  In order to [...]

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Break Out the Dow 10,000 Party Hats

Being in the business of money management, you are almost held hostage to financial television. You have to watch a certain amount of it to catch breaking news. Besides the CNBC cheerleaders celebrating Dow 10,000, that level is nothing more than a round number with 4 zeros. Sorry, President Obama, it is neither a milestone [...]

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Potential Market Myths

A client of mine forwards me an e-mail from time to time that he receives from another financial advisor.  These e-mails are typically very positive on the state of the market.  I also find that they are filled with what I would refer to as market myths.  I thought I would share some of these with [...]

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Unemployment Starting to Look a Lot Like the 30’s

Unemployment numbers came out last Friday and they paint a very concerning situation.   The unemployment rate is 9.8% and the economy lost another 263,000 jobs.  That is 22 months in a row of job losses.  I looked back at historical data that I have that goes back to 1939 and cannot find a string of [...]

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Unemployment Numbers Due This Week

This should be an interesting week in the markets.  We have the end of the quarter which typically produces some volatility for the market.  We also have the very important unemployment report that will be due out on Friday.  The unemployment indicator has become one of most important monthly indicators.  Although employment is considered a lagging indicator [...]

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Cash Levels of Mutual Funds Can Be a Good/Bad Indicator

There all types of indicators that you can look at in the stock market that can give you an idea of what might lie ahead.  Many of the indicators that I follow would suggest that we are nearing the end of this stock market rally which began March of this year.  One of the areas [...]

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Unprecedented Times Create Unprecedented Events

A recent article in the Dallas Morning News states that we just don’t have anything to worry about going forward regarding a “double dip” recession.  A double dip recession is one where you go through one recession, the recession concludes, and then it comes back again.  Of course, that would mean that the stock market [...]

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The Main Question Might Be Getting Answered

Back in March of this year when the stock market found a bottom, I posed a question that I felt would be “the” question for investors. Is this a bear market rally or is this the beginning of a bull market?
I have felt all along that this is nothing more than a bear market rally. [...]

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Hurricane Jimena Offers a Good Example of What Might Lie Ahead

I just got back in town yesterday from a trip with my wife Cheri.  We were celebrating 10 great years together.  So, I am a little out of touch with the economic data that has come out last week.  Plus, this is a slow time of the year.  The real action in the stock market [...]

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