psusense

Market Calls I Got Right - and Wrong - In 2008

I just want to add that one of the decisions I took (in October) was to wait for the markets to stabilize before I invest in Satyam. Yes, the same SAY which has got into multiple scandals since then! I am happy that I decided to wait till mid January.
One thing with the inverse ETF's I just use trending to get in and get out. And being trigger happy as long as you are on a profit side, does not hurt if you get Stopped out.

Are Index Funds the Only Rational Choice?

BINGO!


On Dec 15 07:30 PM Nikola wrote:

> I think the reason why most people buy index funds is so they don't
> have to spend the time learning and analyzing the fundamentals, and
> watching the market to make sure they made the right choices.
>
> They'd rather be fishing. OR Playing golf or Bridge.
>
> And I think that's perfectly fine.
>
> Stock picking is for the little guy, and for the professionals.

Are Index Funds the Only Rational Choice?

What a long article when all you are doing is dig up convenient facts for some argument which does not compare time vs money returns. When you add your money to index funds over long period of time you are aiming to a:) get a better return than sitting on cash. 2) avoid loss of principal by placing it in stocks based on tips from uncles or cramers or CNBC jokers, or even seekingalpha "experts". Now add to the fact that when an investor has to choose 15 stocks (that is 15 businesses in several sectors probably spanning many geopolitical scenarios) the "investors" has to spend a lot of time for a unguaranteed return.
There is a reason why many people are conservative and prefer bonds and gold and other hard assets. Then there are others who invest in one or two established divy paying businesses (risky of course, e.g Enron). But still this a well researched issue and your article is not contributing too much new information, imho. Your article starts off being addressed toward "investors" which makes me think you are addressing the average investor. But towards the end you change your tune and say that the sophisticated investor should own stocks. New Flash: An investor becomes sophisticated when he/she chooses individual businesses to invest in- thereby picking stocks. So category A is not your audience, Category B, is way ahead of the curve to be reading your articles. I hope you don't have any connection to penn state..[random remark based on last name]

Our Biggest Infrastructure Need? Think Broadband

The comparison with south korea on broadband coverage is not the right one. You have to see the the density of population in S Korea is 498/sqkm, and in US it is 31/sqkm.
A more accurate comparison would be locate where over 75% population in the US lives and see if we can achieve over 90% coverage in that area. That said, the electricity grid and distributed generation both need to be built up stronger. Broadband would come right behind. The spread of the population makes it uneconomical for both cellphone towers as well fiber optic links to be placed everywhere immediately.

BofA: No More 'Typical' Wall Street Pay at Merrill

So, the big question is, *where* will Merrill's brokers find new employment?

'When There's Blood in the Streets', Buy Biotech Stocks

interesting post, I am long ISIS, and have been before in KOOL, GNBT, etc.. but what I am really hoping for is Santa Claus!