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Monthly Archives: October 2009

Dow 10,000 … Now What?

October 20, 2009
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Today I’m going to give you my two cents on Dow 10,000. Last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal headline read, “Dow at 10,000 as Crisis Ebbs.” No doubt the nightly news programs had a field day with that milestone the night before.  And no doubt, a lot of individual investors in the U.S. took that as a sign it was OK to start wading back into the market. Wrong. Odds are that in the short term, you’re better off selling now than buying.  The Dow is up 53% over the past seven months, and it needs a rest.  If you’ve...

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Dispelling Investment Myths

October 19, 2009
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Dispelling Investment Myths

Recently, I spent a little time dispelling the myth that October is a truly scary month in the market–as it turns out, it’s more volatile than the average month, but the returns are about average, and far more Octobers end with gains than losses. Today, because of some of the questions I’m getting from newer subscribers, and from some who attended my online seminar last week, I want to dispel a handful of other investment myths. How do investment myths get started, and why are they widely believed? Mainly it’s because the market is a contrary animal–what seems like...

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Cabot Market Letter’s Current Steward

October 17, 2009
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Cabot Market Letter’s Current Steward

Last Monday marked a special day for us at Cabot: The 39th anniversary of the first issue of Cabot Market Letter, our flagship newsletter. In honor of this anniversary, I’ve interviewed Timothy Lutts, Cabot’s publisher and Cabot Market Letter’s current steward, Michael Cintolo. I brought you Tim’s interview last week (you can read it here) and it generated some nice comments that I want to share with you today before jumping into the first part of Mike’s Q&A. Enjoy! (Please send us your comments on the anniversary of Cabot Market Letter by commenting. We’d love to hear from you...

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Freeport McMoRan: Copper Comeback

October 16, 2009
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Freeport McMoRan: Copper Comeback

One of the most well defined trends out there is the downmove in the U.S. dollar.  If you look at the chart of the Powershares U.S. Dollar Index Fund (symbol UUP), it’s been steadily skidding for months. Honestly, that is not my favorite scenario longer term–a strong economy usually needs a stable currency.  (It doesn’t have to be rising, just holding its value compared to both other currencies and hard assets.)  However, right now, the decline in the dollar is helping some U.S. multinational companies, as well as boosting the value of commodities, which were decapitated during last year’s...

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What Are Wall Street Analysts Thinking?

October 15, 2009
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What Are Wall Street Analysts Thinking?

Yesterday’s post reminded me of another voice people often trust, but really shouldn’t: Wall Street analysts. A funny thing happened to one of the stocks in the Cabot Green Investor portfolio last month. The stock is American Superconductor (AMSC), a designer of wind turbines that also sells the electrical components for its designs. American Superconductor also makes highly conductive electrical wire for utilities. In late September, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers cut the stock from a rating of Buy to Hold. That sparked a wave of selling that pushed the stock from 37 to 30 in just four days....

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