It’s time we focused on the absolute best business model of all time.
This would be where the customer/client pays the provider/seller a fat fee…
and gets nothing in return…
Or worse.
Hey…I didn’t say it was the best business model for the customer.
Don’t be surprised that this vanishing act is entrenched and enshrined in the land of smoke […]

Those of you of a certain age will recall the old Pogo Comic Strip….and the catchphrase…”we have met the enemy…and they is us”.
The object lesson today is how investors often sabotage their opportunity to harvest market gains through irrational and emotional tinkering.
It turns out that 70% of actively managed funds have lagged market indexes, so […]

Have you checked out your recent returns on your brokerage money market fund?
You are in for a shock.  So called “prime” money market funds…those that have traditionally had the fattest yield, clock in at well under a half percent.  Treasury money market funds pay practically nothing…and many have closed their doors to new money.
Mutual fund […]

Can there possibly be a greater scandal than the $50 billion Bernard Madoff Ponzi ripoff?
Sure. How about the SEC, who had been tipped off in great detail eight years earlier by intrepid investigator Harry Markopolos?
And did absolutely nothing to prevent this wholesale looting.
Be sure to check out the Wall Street Journal (Feb 3, 2009, […]

The idea of a hedge fund always made sense.
The ability to zig zag through a churning market, taking both long and short positions.
What soured me on the category was the obscene reach for fees. And the mandatory lockup periods preventing timely exits.
In an ideal world, we could invest in hedge funds that charged reasonable […]

It’s refreshing, in a way, that not all the animal spirits have been thrashed out of the financial product manufacturers.
No small accomplishment, in this dispirited market, as we continue to circle the drain, having pulled the plug on private ownership of the commanding heights of our economy.
ETF’s Really Overreaching
I refer to the juiced-up ETF’s (Exchange […]

Let’s quickly survey the market so see what is still left standing:
It’s a mixed bag, for sure. Here are the few indicia that, while down, have not been clobbered as much as the broad market averages. (Of course, considering all the volatility last week, this may be completely outdated by the time this posts.)

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Pop Quiz
Q. What’s worse than having your diversified portfolio down one quarter or even one third from the tops reached last October?
A. Having your concentrated solo stock position down 75%. 90%. Or more.
You need to read E.S. Browning’s article, “Loyalty Pays a Bitter Dividend,” in the Oct 1, 2008 Wall Street […]