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Monthly Archives: July 2008

Greening College Campuses

July 28, 2008
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A few months ago, I wrote an issue of Cabot Wealth Advisory about the business of Green. I’m really interested in environmental issues and always on the lookout for when Green topics overlap with investing. I stumbled across an interesting article in The New York Times special Education Life section that talked about Greening college campuses and how this is affecting where students decide to go. One person interviewed in the story even said she hadn’t seen this much of a push for change on college campuses since Apartheid. The students are taking shorter showers and engaging each other...

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Forget the Cheese

July 27, 2008
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Forget the Cheese

I don’t want to give the impression of being on a soap box with all the lessons recently, but given the action by Crocs (CROX) on Friday, I just can’t resist. Ironically, I’m writing this on my balcony in Back Bay, Boston, on a sunny Sunday morning … wearing my Crocs flip-flops. No love allowed in the market! I think the biggest challenge most investors (including myself) have with the market is respecting its message. That is, they ask “why” too much, always wanting to understand a stock’s movement. And if there isn’t reason for the movement, they figure...

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A Little Relief at the Pump

July 25, 2008
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I went out at lunch today to get some gasoline before heading up to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire for the weekend and I got a very pleasant surprise. The per gallon price had dropped yet again to $3.91! This is down from $3.99 earlier in the week and about $4.12 at its peak in this area of Massachusetts. It’s sort of sad that a gallon of gasoline that costs $3.91 makes me so happy, but after watching the price skyrocket week after week (and sometimes day after day), it’s a welcome relief to see the price coming down....

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Back to Basics

July 24, 2008
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The New England Patriots began their training camp today, beginning what every team hopes will be a six-month journey to the Super Bowl.  I’ve always found the strategy and intricacies of football interesting; players and coaches literally spend 60 to 80 hours per week preparing for every game, evaluating their own team and other teams, installing new schemes and so on. But what do these professionals do for the first couple of weeks at camp?  Practice the basics!  That’s right–even though most players were on the team a year ago, even though they’ve been playing football for the past...

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I Found the Volume!

July 23, 2008
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I Found the Volume!

A few days ago I posted a lesson about looking for the stocks and sectors that display outstanding price and, especially, volume gains during the first few days of a new market rally.  Oftentimes, the stocks that show the best performance initially will go on to big gains in the months to come. And, interestingly, many times the groups that show extraordinary volume thrusts are unexpected.  Coal was a good example in January; who thought such dirty energy firms could thrive in a world that was going Green?  But thrive they did. Today, we have an equally unexciting sector...

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