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Monthly Archives: October 2009

Innovation in the Book Publishing World

October 3, 2009
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Innovation in the Book Publishing World

This week brought news of a major innovation in the book-publishing world. And Amazon had nothing to do with it. Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, unveiled the new $100,000 Espresso Book Machine, a publishing device that can print a paperback book at the push of a button. The machine is pretty incredible: It can print a professionally bound book in four minutes for about $8! Book lovers can request a tome that’s not in the store’s inventory and the Espresso can print it while they wait. Customers can also order books online and pick them up in the...

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NBTY: An Unexpectedly Exciting Stock

October 2, 2009
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NBTY: An Unexpectedly Exciting Stock

For my stock pick today, I’m going to go with a decidedly unexciting story … unexciting, that is, to the naked eye.  I’m talking about NBTY, Inc. (NTY), a worldwide leader in the manufacturing and distribution of vitamins.  Like I said, not terribly exciting, but as it turns out, business is rebounding sharply. The company sells more than 22,000 vitamin products through its 528 stores (442 of which are Vitamin World stores, with the others split among different brand names), as well as online and through other distribution channels.  The big growth here is in the firm’s U.S. Wholesale...

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October: Stock Market Myths and Legends

October 1, 2009
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October: Stock Market Myths and Legends

One thing that’s always attracted me to the stock market is that it has a long and storied history.  In fact, I vividly remember, when I first began working for Cabot back in 1999, eating lunch at our firm’s picnic table every day and re-reading 30 years of Cabot Market Letters, which we have archived in the office. Of course, as a history buff, my first move was to go back and look up all the dates of major, jaw-dropping events–the 1973-1974 bear market, the 1982 blast-off, the 1987 crash, the 1990 bear market and others.  Reading the Letters...

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Stock Market Has Best Quarter Since 1998

October 1, 2009
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This morning brought great news: The stock market just had its best quarter since 1998 and its third best since 1939. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Wall Street ended the third quarter near its high for the year and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its biggest quarterly gain since the fourth quarter of 1998. The Dow surged 15% in the last three months, rising 1,265.28 points to 9,712.28. The Dow is up 48% from its March 9 low and up 11% this year. The 28% gain over the past six months was the best performance since...

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