March 2012
7 posts
2 tags
Watson Pharmaceuticals in Talks to Buy Actavis...
A report released this week revealed that Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. is working on the acquisition of Actavis Group hf, a Swiss generic drug manufacturing company. The purchase could cost Watson Pharmaceuticals up to 5.5 billion euros, or $7.3 billion. Shares in Watson Pharmaceuticals jumped 8.8 percent following the news of this potential acquisition. This is the largest one day increase in...
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Zynga to Buy Draw Something Creator
Online app creator Zynga Inc. is set to acquire OMGPOP Inc., another application development company for $200 million. OMGPOP is the creator of the popular Draw Something app in which players draw a word or phrase and their friends try to guess what it is they drew using a bank of letters. The game currently has 22.4 million Facebook users who play at least once a month and is available as an app...
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Goldman Sachs's Value Drops After Op-Ed Story
Goldman Sachs Group’s market value plummeted more than $2 billion following an employee’s criticism of CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein’s management. This accusation, as well as one regarding the how the firm treats clients, was revealed by Greg Smith in an op-ed New York Times piece. Shortly after the article was released, shares dropped 3.4 percent. Even after the ending the day $4.17...
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Anthera Stock Falls After Drug Trial Ends
The price of stock in Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. fell 52 percent after the company announced the cancellation of late-stage trials for an experimental treatment for heart disease. Anthera’s treatment, called Varespladib, was supposed to work in conjunction with cholesterol-lowering medications to prevent the recurrence of acute coronary syndrome, however, in a statement released on March 9th,...
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Investing Tips
There are no one size fits all tips for investing. Each aspect of an individual’s life needs to be taken into consideration when developing an investment plan to ensure the best results for that individual or family. Although the investing tips are not universal, the questions everyone should ask to develop the investment plan that is right for them are.
You’ll want to set goals for...
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Investing in Commodities - Is it Worth the Risk?
If you’ve never considered investing in commodities before, you may want to think about it. Investing in these tangible goods, including oil, gold and corn, will diversify your portfolio and could protect you against inflation. While it’s highly impractical to buy barrels of oil or hundreds of ears of corn and store them somewhere, there’s a new option for individual investors...
6 tags
Clean Up with Retail Stocks
Although the recession is far from over, plenty of positive indicators show the U.S. economy is on the road to recovery. If you find yourself with some extra cash and you’re unsure what to do with it, you may want to invest all or some of it in the stock market. The various stock indexes have displayed a steady, albeit sluggish, rise in recent month and as the economy continues to improve,...
February 2012
10 posts
3 tags
Trading with Charlie Ditkoff at BAML
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) maintains a sophisticated investment and trading platform. Charlie Ditkoff, the firm’s Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking, can offer clients a vast array of products, services, and approaches to investing and trading, enabling them to build portfolios customized to their needs. With the company’s state-of-the-art technology, Mr. Ditkoff also can...
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Precious Metals, Stock Prices Fall After...
Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman, delivered his semiannual report on monetary policy earlier today. Bernanke implied that the central bank is not contemplating any additional measures to bolster the economy, stating that the Fed “expected the subdued level of inflation to persist beyond this year.” Although some people are worried about the recent spike in oil prices, Bernanke states the...
Tax Lien Certificates: Are They Worth It?
Tax lien certificates sometimes offer as high as an 18 percent return, but anyone choosing to invest in them as a way to earn easy money should be cautious. Counties levy tax liens on properties that have outstanding property taxes. The liens are auctioned off to investors and the money raised is used to pay the past-due taxes. Once the owner can afford to pay the taxes, as well as interest and...
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Dow Tops 13,000 for the First Time Since 2008
A sign that the economy may finally be on the upswing appeared today as the Dow Jones industrial average exceeded 13,000 during intraday trading. Dow Jones levels this high have not been seen since the economy took a turn for the worse in 2008. The Dow Jones index trades stock in 30 large companies, including 3M, American Express, AT&T, Coca-Cola and The Home Depot. The day started out with a...
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Own a Piece of the Empire State Building
Have you ever wanted to own a piece of a national landmark? Well now you can. Empire State Realty Trust Inc. (ESRT), the company that owns the historic building, filed for a $1 billion IPO this morning. The Malkin family, who currently controls ESRT, is offering this IPO in an attempt to simplify its real estate holdings. The IPO allows the Malkins to offer current investors stock in the ESRT.
Two...
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Stock Markets Ended the Week on a Low Note
In light of the turmoil in Greece, all three stock indexes dropped at the end of last week. U.S. stocks rose slightly on Thursday once Greek political parties agreed on a deal regarding the austerity measures, but fell on Friday as eurozone finance ministers stated that the deal was not enough. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 both fell 0.7 percent, ending the week 0.5 percent down. The Nasdaq...
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Cracking Down on Insider Trading
The House of Representatives passed the STOCK Act today with a vote of 417 to two. The act aims to cut down on insider trading by Congress members and other lawmakers who are privy to certain political intelligence. The version of the act that passed was a bit weaker than the original act. The main provision that was cut would have required anyone who had access to political intelligence to...
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Investing in Your Future
Anyone who is working full or part-time should be considering retirement savings. Starting early is the key to having enough money to live on after you retire. While most working Americans pay money into the Social Security program, the retirement age for Social Security is getting higher and the money you’ll actually receive is getting lower, so you really should not count on Social...
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Amazon.com Stock — Keep or Sell
If you own stock in Amazon.com, you may have noticed that the stock prices have fallen a bit over the last two days. This comes as a result of the fourth-quarter earnings report released Tuesday. The report for the fourth quarter of 2011 stated that the company’s revenue was not as high as analysts expected it to be. The Internet retailer did report revenue of more than $17 billion, which is...
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10 Dividend Stocks Expected to Outperform
Have you got a little money you’re looking to invest? If so, you may find yourself wondering about all the different investment options. There are stocks, bonds, mutual finds and plenty of other places to invest money, but you want the one that’s going to yield you the most money. If dividend stocks appeal to you, you may want to check out the top 10 list compiled by The Street, an...
January 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Samsung Smart Phone Profits on the Rise
Profits for smart phone maker Samsung are on the rise as the company increases production of smart phones and tablets. The company, Asia’s largest consumer electronics company, sold more than 300 million units last year despite being in direct competition with Apple’s iPhone.
Samsung’s smart phone sales for the third quarter of 2011 actually surpassed Apple’s and they were the top smart phone...
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Investing in Football Tickets
Yes, you read that headline correctly. Investing in football tickets is an easy way to turn a quick profit, if you invest in the right football tickets. In this instance, we’re taking about the Super Bowl, the mac daddy of all football games. Normally tickets to the Super Bowl average $1,000 each if you’re lucky enough to score them at face value. The price goes up significantly if...
December 2011
7 posts
2 tags
United States Mortgage Rates at Record Low
Freddie Mac and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) have both recently announced that the average rate on a thirty-year fixed mortgage dropped to 4.01%, the lowest it has been since at least 1971, the first year Freddie Mac started keeping such records. Some argue that today’s rates are even lower when compared to rates from the early 1970s since today’s mortgages are usually for...
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Steve Cohen Journey to Being SAC’s Top Dog
As the 35th richest man in America, Steve Cohen is a perfect example of an investor that has made money with money. He is an American hedge fund manager and founder of SAC Capital Advisors, which focuses primarily on equity market strategies. As of September 2011, his estimated net worth touched $9.3 billion.
But like most investors, Cohen came from humble beginnings. He grew up in Great Neck,...
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Benjamin Graham, Mentor to the World’s Greatest...
Benjamin Graham taught Warren Buffet everything he knows about investing. Judging by the success, stature and wealth of Buffett today, Graham was truly an excellent teacher.
Graham is known as a scholar and a financial analyst, and as the father of value investing. He has authored several books on investments, one of which – The Intelligent Investor – is considered as the best book ever written...
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How Ed Seykota Pioneered Systems Trading
Ed Seykota originally set out to be an electrical engineer. He pursued a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a Management degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management. But had he remained on this path, the world woulf never have gained one of the greatest commodities traders in the industry today.
Seykota began his career in trade in 1970,...
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Paul Tudor Jones: A Champion in the Trading Arena
Before Paul Tudor Jones became a wealthy trader, he was a welterweight boxing champion at the University of Virginia. The connection between the two could be easily misplaced. But trade, as he soon found out, is also a sport. Trade is a cutthroat arena, wherein traders have to surpass the ability and speed of others – very much like boxing. Jones managed to become a champion in both endeavors.
...
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A Decade in the Life of Julian Robertson
Julian Robertson is a former hedge fund manager and one of the greatest investors in the history of the industry. He was called the Wizard of Wall Street for many years. However, on April 1, 1996, Businessweek ran a cover story written by Gary Weiss, titled “Fall of the Wizard”. The story was critical of Robertson’s performance and behavior as founder and manager of the Tiger Management...
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Buffett’s Billions
Warren Buffett, a self-made billionaire, is one of the few rich people in America who believed that rich people should pay higher taxes. The second-richest man in America, Buffett made his first profit at the tender age of 6 after purchasing six-packs of Coca-Cola at the store his grandfather owned for a quarter and selling each bottle for a nickel. Turning a profit at an age when many children...
November 2011
10 posts
2 tags
Price’s Prowess
After receiving a Bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and training as a chemist, Thomas Rowe Price decided that he liked numbers much better than working with chemicals and got into Wall Street investing in the 1920s. Price saw the stock market as cyclical and believed in investing long-term in solid companies. This investing philosophy was not very common in his time; as a result, Price...
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Philip Fisher’s Formula for Success
Philip Arthur Fisher studied business at Stanford University but dropped out before earning his degree to work at the Anglo-London Bank in San Francisco as a securities analyst. He moved briefly to a stock exchange firm before founding his own company, Fisher & Company, in 1931. He penned the book Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits in 1958. It was the first finance book to make the New York...
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Madoff Made Out
A Ponzi scheme is an investment scenario in which investors are paid from either their own money or money from subsequent investors rather than from the profits earned by the organization. Typically, Ponzi schemes offer higher returns than comparable investments and a quicker return on investment. The earnings of the organization are lower than the investors’ payouts which eventually resulted in...
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Catching the Tiger by the Tail
Julian Robertson, a North Carolina native, founded Tiger Management Corp in 1980. He was born in 1932 and attended college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Upon graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy as an officer for two years. He went to work for Kidder, Peabody & Co., first as a stockbroker and later as the head of the company’s asset management division.
Robertson moved...
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Investing with Care
While there are more investment options available to consumers than ever before, the risk for losses, fraud, and scams is also greater. In 2007, the New York Times reported tens of millions of dollars in looted online brokerage accounts through identity theft and old-fashioned pump-and-dump schemes.
Online brokerage accounts, Exchange Traded Funds, FOREX currency markets, and gold can have a place...
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Mutual Fund Mastermind
Against the backdrop of World War II while Hitler was marching his troops across Europe, John Templeton at the age of 27, borrowed $10,000 and used it to purchase 100 shares of all the stocks trading for less than a dollar. While 34 of these companies eventually went bankrupt, the other 70 succeeded and Templeton later sold the stocks for more than $40,000. This strategy is the reason Templeton is...
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Bogle’s Folly
Born in 1929, John “Jack” Bogle was a child of the Great Depression. As a matter of fact, he and his family were greatly affected by the nationwide depression. He earned a scholarship to Blair Academy, a private boarding school located in Blairstown, New Jersey, after which he earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton University. His senior thesis formed the foundation for his career as a...
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Stock Investment Tips
An accomplished investment and trading professional with years of experience in the field, Danny Shabat currently owns and operates Shabat Investments, LLC, and Daas Management. Shabat also owns several businesses in the nursing home industry, including Heritage Nursing Home Inc. and The Waterford. For those interested in learning the investment basics utilized by Daniel Shabat, here is a quick...
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Do Small Businesses Really Create Many Jobs?
If you pay just a scant bit of attention to the news or to politics, you will no doubt have heard that small businesses are the nation’s job-creating engine. President Obama says it. The Republican presidential candidates repeat it. In fact, in their recent debate in New Hampshire, at least five of the Republican candidates spoke about how vital small businesses are to America’s economic well...
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Niche Crowdfunding: Helping One Small Step at a...
Anyone who pays attention to the evening news or to what is going on around the world could be forgiven for thinking that the world’s problems are so big that no single person can make much of a difference in anyone’s life. However, that type of thinking is now incorrect.
Niche crowdfunding is a new philosophy that gives the power to anyone anywhere to help any cause. The idea behind niche...
