Posts by Andrew Gordon
The Dispassionate Investor
From rags to riches. Redemption. An exciting story. A happy ending. These are things that make good movies, not good stocks.
Were you tempted to buy Bank of America, GM, or GE? Or wannabe giant-killer American Micro Devices that had Intel on the ropes for a few shining months?
Read MoreA 2-Minute Drill That Could Save You Thousands
Professional investors got taken to the cleaners by the former head of NASDAQ, hedge fund manager and scam artist Bernie Madoff. They should have known better. But before you point fingers at these supposedly sophisticated investors who lost billions to a cheat, ask yourself this: Do you do even the minimum due diligence before you invest in a fund? (I don’t care who told you about it. Trust no one except yourself.)
Read MoreThe Only No-Risk Way to Ride the Next Big Market Pop
Your next big investing dilemma is right around the corner. Should you – can you – take advantage of the next big stock market pop?
Read MoreThe Dividends That Don’t Stop
Getting steady income from dividend-paying stocks is getting harder. During the entire year of 2007, only seven companies in the S&P 500 cut their dividends, and only three did away with them entirely. 2008 was a different story. 39 companies cut their dividends, and 22 suspended them. 2009 promises to be just as bad.
Read MoreFollow the Cash
If you can’t turn on the lights, you can’t make money. That’s the dark reality of a company unable to pay its bills. And without cash lubricating an economy, businesses dry up. I saw it happen in Asia (where I did a lot of business as CEO of a trading company) in the late 1990s. One by one, Asian currencies came under attack by aggressive currency traders. Local currencies quickly sank to one-half to one-fifth of their previous values.
Read MoreYour Reason for Buying Determines Your Ultimate Investment Success
Buying into a company because it has bottomed is a non-sequitur. You can’t really know when it has bottomed. Even if it has dropped 95 percent, you could see it drop another 50 percent.
Read MoreNever a Bad Time to Spend Wisely
Splurging in the middle of a recession is a no-no by Wall Street’s lights. They’re very good at punishing companies that can’t rein in spending when the economy goes into a tailspin (like now). The thinking is, a company can’t increase sales in a recession and shouldn’t try. They can only hope to cut costs to sustain profits. But this particular piece of conventional wisdom doesn’t always hold true. In the recession of 1989 to 1991, many companies that dared to spend aggressively on advertising were amply rewarded…
Read MoreThe Other Measure of a Company’s Worth
Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is a popular measurement of a company’s true worth. I’ve always liked companies with a P/E below 10. But nowadays, I pay little attention to this number – for two reasons, and both involve the earnings part of the ratio…
Read MoreEconomy and Markets Often Go Separate Ways
Since we’ve had negative S&P 500 growth in every quarter of our current recession – which began a year ago this month – it may seem that a falling economy is always accompanied by a falling stock market. But this is not true.
Read MoreA Market This Ruthless Requires Attention
I’ve never seen the market so ruthless and so volatile at the same time. Wall Street is pouncing on weaknesses in sectors and companies. And because of the huge swings the market is making on a daily basis, when it attacks it really ATTACKS. Companies that had been fairly stable are going down 5-10 percent in one day… 30-50 percent in one week.
Read MoreGetting Rid of Credit Card Loans
My sister-in-law is starting her own business. Using her home as collateral (it’s paid off), she got a business loan. But before she started to spend that money, she called up several of the credit card companies she held cards with. This is what she told them: “I’m starting a new business. I’m going to be spending a lot of money. I can’t guarantee how much longer I’ll be able to make my monthly payments. But I have some money right now. And I’m willing to pay off 80 percent of what I owe you today if you’ll cancel my card in return.”
Read MoreLong Live the King
Without the ravenous Chinese maw gobbling up ores and coal and oil in great big heaping mounds, commodity-exporting countries are now feeling the pain. Welcome, Canada, to economic hard times. Welcome, also, Australia, Russia, and Brazil.
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