The Day Everyone Laughed at Me

On April 26th of last year, I participated in the first annual CNBC Stock Draft – a competition where we were given a choice of 20 stocks and then had to hold one of them until Feb 2nd, 2013. I had the first pick, could have gone with pre-IPO Facebook, Google, JNJ etc. Instead, I…

Qualcomm and Ford Earnings Consensus via Estimize

Over at Leigh’s site, Estimize, the non-Wall Street consensus takes a look at two big earnings reports coming next week, Qualcomm and Ford. You can click on the ticker symbols to head over for more information: Ford Motor Company (F) 17 Estimates Reports 01/29 Estimize EPS consensus has beaten Wall Street consensus in 3 of…

The Markets Have Moved On (BusinessWeek)

Roben Farzad’s article at BusinessWeek the other day about investors being better off sitting tight than reenacting the Stock Market Civil War day after day was a good read. Your boy has a quote in it: Indeed, on that total-return basis, including reinvested dividends, the S&P 500 set new all-time highs last year. As Josh…

Vanguard: People Need an Advisor

Vanguard’s always had a do-it-yourself ethos around their products and message, the idea that high-priced fund managers and stock pickers were inferior compared to the power of an individual investor using low-cost index exposure. But in recent years, its utility to the new breed of fee-only financial advisors and planners has exploded and a nice…

Is Full-Reserve Banking the Silver Bullett We’re Looking For?

Infinite Guest doesn’t drop a guest post over at Dealbreaker every day, but when he does I always learn something. This week he dissects a new paper that takes a fresh look at the “Chicago Plan”, an idea from the post-Depression about how someday fractional-reserve lending would be put out to pasture in favor of…