You probably consider this title salacious, but "extreme" isn't even my word. It's Bill Nygren's. He said on his fund's fourth-quarter conference call, "The values that we're seeing today in financials and retailers are extreme."
This is your red-letter day, dear reader. If you hadn't happened on this article, your life might have unraveled in a most unfortunate way. You might have -- gasp! -- invested in mutual funds! As Shakespeare might say, "Heaven forfend!"
I am always looking for a good deal, whether that means buying an extra box of Frosted Flakes when they're on sale or pouncing on undervalued stocks. The idea that anybody would sell a stock for less than its worth may seem silly, but legendary value investor Ben Graham tells us, by way of allegory, how we can look out for these situations.
Stop rubbing your eyes. Do not adjust your set. Growth-stock investing is back.
Really.
It's natural for you to be skeptical. Growth stocks tend to be high-beta pills that fall sharply when the market tanks, and we're not exactly in a roaring bull market right now. Then again, the past few months have been kind to those willing to pay market premiums for companies growing their prospects quickly.
Actions speak louder than words, as the old saying goes. So why does the media focus so much attention on what Wall Street says about companies, instead of what it does with them?
In its short life as a public company, the New York Stock Exchange, a.k.a. NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX), has (almost) done the (next to) impossible. With the exception of one small slip at the end of 2006, it's never missed an earnings estimate. Tomorrow, before "the markets" open, the world's biggest stock market opens up on its latest roll of the dice.
At the very mention of gold, ideas of value, stability, and growth immediately pop into my head.
This is largely thanks to the decades for which the precious metal has been marketed as an attractive investment and a great way to hedge inflation, recession, and almost every other economic bogeyman.
As global markets converge, it becomes more important for investors to keep track of world events. That's easier said than done, of course. It's hard enough keeping tabs on our own markets, let alone what's happening with Brazil's Bovespa exchange.
For the vast majority of us, trading stocks is a fool's game.
Really It's a game best left to professional traders who wake up at 3 a.m. to check the pulse of foreign markets. It's best left to folks who subscribe to the Dow Jones Elementized News Feed, which allows traders to trade even before their brain has had time to process the information they're trading on.
It's time again to check the most notable insider purchases of the past week. After reading through numerous filings using insider tracking tool Form 4 Oracle, here are my top five today.
