Steve

Trading Stocks is Like Trading Baseball Cards

Posted on by Steve

Hi. Enough with the greetings, I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to make you think! Everything you have been told about the Stock Market is bullshit and I’m here to prove it to you. There are a lot of topics I want to cover and instead of just saying “Mutual Funds Suck”, “Diversification is stupid”, “Buy and Hold should be called Buy and Hope”, “Notice how every ‘lesson’ about the Market begins with ‘If you had…”, “A stock has to go up to make money”, etc I’m going to just pick a topic today and I’ll get to those others sooner than later.

Today’s topic is: You don’t own anything but a piece of paper with ink on it.

Christian

Thoughts on the Price of Oil and Gas

Posted on by Christian

In a previous blog entry, about a month and a half ago, I commented on how oil will not reach 100 USD per barrel. I posed the argument that to reach a doubling of the oil price would require the price to reach 160USD, which would have devasted the economies of the world. Now oil is dropping and some have commented that the price of oil will jump back up next year. I am skeptical that oil will jump up again, and I will share with you why I think oil or gas will have hard time edging back up again.

Jason

Video Stock Review: AERT

Posted on by Jason

Here goes… my first attempt at a video stock review.

I take a look at Advanced Environmental Recycling Technology (NASDAQ:AERTA), which has had a recent sell-off due to a factory delay. Is this a buying opportunity or should we be jumping ship too?

Erin

Twist on Orman’s Parent Trap

Posted on by Erin

Crazy Parents. A Drain?Suze Orman’s latest Yahoo article titled The Parent Trap addresses the issues Boomers are facing with grown kids moving back in, as well as aging parents. I see another problem here, my own personal parent trap. Let me esplain…

My parents were crazy youngsters when hey had me, divorced when I was two, and then those crazy fools married again when I was in my late teens. Each had more children, and one parent even gained a whole other family. I have been on my own ever since.

Dan

Diversification Myths

Posted on by Dan

One of the things I’ve learned in the past month is that diversification – the “holy grail” of investing, is not what it is cracked up to be. In fact, I’ve come to realize that one of my immediate investing goals should be to reduce the amount of diversification in my portfolio.

I realize that this statement will have many of you yelling and screaming, or immediately unsubscribing under the assumption I am a fool. But hear me out.

Frank

Round ’em Up

Posted on by Frank

Thought I’d share a few articles I found over the past week or two, that I think are worth a read. We have two articles from BusinessWeek. The first one profiling great companies with which to launch one’s career. Lucky me I work for one of them ;-). Content is still King, but it seems (more…)

Avi

Yahoo! Takes Another Giant Plunge

Posted on by Avi

Yesterday’s WSJ (subscription required) reported that Yahoo’s CEO, Terry Semel, hinted of a slowdown in search ad revenue growth. Significant news – search ad revenue growth has always been on the incline. His statement preceded a 12% drop in the stock price for YHOO (rival GOOG took a hit as well, dipping the price blow (more…)

Jason

The Spontaneous Combustion of a Hedge Fund: Amaranth

Posted on by Jason

Natural Gas Fire?The big news this week has been the failure of the hedge fund Amaranth. Reports are stating that, in just a few days, the fund’s value fell about 50% from a high of $9.5 Billion. The fund is down “just” 35% on the year, thanks to a nice 25% gain last month. Most of the funds early gains and eventual losses were from heavy bets on natural gas derivatives.

At this level, many expect the fund to break up. The quick liquidation of the Amaranth’s assets (and everyone else who is worried by it) is playing havoc on the markets. Here is some interesting coverage I’ve come across:

Jason

Tools for the Startup

Posted on by Jason

toolbox
Back in July, I left my job to become a full time entrepreneur. In addition to helping InvestorGeeks grow, I spend my working day incubating a few projects through my design and development firm Stranger Studios.

At my old job, huge IT budgets were the norm. My salary depended on them. But everyone knows that the pioneers of Web 2.0 are capable of building huge applications and entire businesses on pennies. In any case, it is a lot cheaper than it used to be.

Below is a list of tools I use for my own projects and why I find them useful.