Archives for April 2011

The Industrials Previous posts have had much to say about "the industrials". I like these companies and, on some days, I even love them. A few have just raised their dividends. The May 2011 issue of Smart Money magazine states on page 20 that "industrial firms have profit margins of 8.2% on average which is slightly higher than their five-year historical average" and that "Many have shed unprofitable subsidiaries and improved productivity at … [Read more...]

Burton G. Malkiel wrote A Random Walk Down Wall Street and provided my industry with one of its most famed books on investing. My copy is torn, beaten and ready to be read again. Quotes from this text are common and I recently saw one in the AAII Journal dated March 2011 that provided the idea for this post. I have wondered for several years now how risk should be defined in light of all the economic events of the past decade or so. Questions … [Read more...]

Market volatility often prompts investors to ask me to raise cash in accounts. Market rises prompt calls requesting me to put it back to work in the market. It's not that simple. The concept of dollar-cost-averaging teaches us that putting cash to work can be pretty tricky. In theory, if you buy the same $100,000 investment in pieces of $10,000 over a 10 week or month period, you will most likely pay less per share on average than if you put the … [Read more...]

Little Things Matter The past few weeks have brought so much news that I'm lacking sleep from trying to read and comprehend it all. There are lots of things, lots of little things. First of all, we are in the midst of tax season. The questions pour in, the CPA's call, some of the clients have a look of dismay as they come through the door. Here's a little information that might help: Little Things Matter On December 17, 2010, the President … [Read more...]