6Vote!
SeekingAlpha.com (Free subscription) | 02/06/2010
Alan Brochstein , CFA submits: Five weeks into the year, I am sticking to my guns: The economy isn't good, but stocks aren't so bad. For those of you pressed for time, let me summarize concisely what follows: Turn off CNBC and read some SEC filings and listen to conference calls. OK. For the rest of you have some time to follow my thought process, I always think that the market is ripe...
3Vote!
Investors Paradise LIVE! Social Com (Free subscription) | 01/24/2010
Alan Brochstein, CFA submits: For those of you caught up in the antics on Capitol Hill, you may not have noticed something this week that I found quite extraordinary. As of Friday morning, I was able to identify 18 companies that resumed paying or increased their dividends in this holiday-shortened week. Here they [...]
5Vote!
SeekingAlpha.com (Free subscription) | 01/24/2010
Alan Brochstein , CFA submits: For those of you caught up in the antics on Capitol Hill, you may not have noticed something this week that I found quite extraordinary. As of Friday morning, I was able to identify 18 companies that resumed paying or increased their dividends in this holiday-shortened week. Here they are: Company Symbol Increase Carnival CCL Reinstate Standard Motor SMP...
3Vote!
Investors Paradise LIVE! Social Com (Free subscription) | 01/18/2010
Alan Brochstein, CFA submits: Class warfare continues post-meltdown, with the latest greatest idea to tax the larger recipients of TARP bailout funds, an idea that makes little sense to me. As I have stated before, the mess in which our country remains mired is not the fault of greedy Wall Street alone (though it [...]
6Vote!
SeekingAlpha.com (Free subscription) | 01/18/2010
Alan Brochstein , CFA submits: Class warfare continues post-meltdown, with the latest greatest idea to tax the larger recipients of TARP bailout funds, an idea that makes little sense to me. As I have stated before, the mess in which our country remains mired is not the fault of greedy Wall Street alone (though it sure shares the blame). We had a collapse in the regulatory environment,...
3Vote!
SeekingAlpha Retail Stocks (Free subscription) | 01/18/2010
Alan Brochstein , CFA submits: When prognosticators look at the past in order to predict the future, they usually pick between two schools of thought: Extrapolation or Mean-Reversion. In layman's terms, extrapolation is essentially "the trend is your friend", while mean-reversion is "the tide rises, the tide falls". Last year, a year of extremes in terms of both the...
3Vote!
SeekingAlpha Retail Stocks (Free subscription) | 01/11/2010
Alan Brochstein , CFA submits: This is a time of year when people feel compelled to make annual forecasts. If the past two years have taught us anything (that we should have known anyway), the market will do what it wants and then some. An old adage that I have found useful is that the market does whatever will hurt the most people the most. While I would like to think that the market...
5Vote!
SeekingAlpha.com (Free subscription) | 01/05/2010
Alan Brochstein , CFA submits: I find the business of professional investing to be very similar to the business of professional sports. In investing, the customers of a mutual fund want and deserve a competitive return on their investment for the price that they pay. ETF/Index fund guys are cheap and are willing to settle for mediocre, while others are willing to pay up for performance...
5Vote!
Sramana Mitra on Strategy (Free subscription) | 01/02/2010
Sramana Mitra’s Entrepreneur Journeys book series garnered many wonderful reviews in 2009. Thanks to all who shared their thoughts with us. Here are a few of my favorites: From Alan Brochstein’s review of Entrepreneur Journeys on Seeking Alpha: “I liked it so much that I sent it to all of my... ..
