These words were penned with a great deal of authority by Mark Hulbert, Editor, Hulbert Financial Digest… a compendium of investment letter writer opinion. In fact, in all my days as a broker the only thing that I was able to warrant as ‘guaranteed’ were United States Government securities. Thanks to recent shenanigans in Congress, even this…
Session 119–This Bubble is “Beyond 1929 and 2007.”
This is the investment landscape, according to economist/portfolio manager, John Hussman, highlighted in MarketWatch, “The Tell”, July 27, 2014. It is but a sample of what seems to be a barrage recently of ‘bubble talk’. One article cites data that indicates large doses of ‘bubble talk’ may be a predictor of bad times ahead; or, at a…
Session118–“Obama’s First 2000 Days”
Are we having fun yet? Whether you bought into the negative financial and political media rhetoric that accompanied our forty-fourth President into office or whether you did not, will, in large part determine your answer to this question. “2000 Days of Obama: How have stocks fared?…” (MarketWatch, July 14, 2014), answers this question and more…like…
Session 117–Are you nervous yet?
As of the close Friday, July 18, the answer, as it pertains to the market, seems to be NO. This, I’m sure, is much to the chagrin of the media, in particular the folks at CNBC, who did all they could the previous afternoon to whip the news of the day into a panic. How do…
Session 116–Dow 17,000: Is it too late to buy?
I got this question from a twenty-something, young attorney over the Fourth of July weekend…not dissimilar from many questions that I have received from other investors, young and old, over the past few years. His main concern had to do with market mechanics and the potential for a sharp decline as a result of a…
Session 115–“Forget the first-quarter shocker: economy OK”
And what did Jeffry Bartash mean when he referenced the “first quarter shocker?” His ‘shocker’ was the first quarter plunge in GDP, decreasing at an annual rate of 2.9%. And why was this a shock? I’m really not sure. I guess Bartash and many Wall Street types, including economists, were in hibernation during the cruel…
Session 114–When good news is bad news
It would seem that is the case right now. We’ve had some good news in the last couple of days and it was met with a decent selloff today (6/24/14). Now the commentators are falling all over themselves trying to figure out why yesterday’s “flash PMI”: Markit, showing manufacturing expanding at the fastest rate in four…
Session 113–How to be a successful pundit
Be well-spoken, authoritative and, most importantly, wrong most of the time. In the absence of any real, new or compelling gambits for the media to obsess upon, kortsessions.com is having trouble finding material to illuminate or debunk. On top of this, I think this beautiful, dull (lacking volatility) market is, likewise, dealing the media fits….
Session 112–What a difference a ‘Frack’ made
Who would have thought Iraq erupting into sectarian / civil war would have , at most, been the cause of a two-day, 200-point decline in the Dow Jones Industrials (so far)? Not that it should be a surprise Iraq would fall into chaos upon the departure of U.S. forces, it shouldn’t. Saddam Hussein, the…
Session 111–Death of an Indicator
Recently, not a day has gone by when investors have not been bombarded by mentions of the CBOE’s Vix Indicator (the “Fear” indicator) and the scarily-low levels where it’s been trading …a very bad omen for the market (“What’s lurking under the low Vix?”). Some of CNBC’s talking heads are referring us back to the…