If there was an award for clever advertising for financial firms, Charles Schwab would be the hands down winner this year. They were responsible for “putting some lipstick on the pig” and now they are touting how independent and better they are. Charles Schwab is getting out of the discount brokerage business. They want to […]
A popular question on all the business shows at this time of year is “which direction will the market head in 2003?” J.P. Morgan Chase had a unique answer to this question. Carlos Asilis, a strategist at the firm’s brokerage unit, predicts the S&P will drop 12% to 800. Stuart Schweitzer, a strategist at J.P.’s […]
I received a spirited response to a piece I wrote back in September regarding the technology glut. What I found truly amazing is the sheer number of true blue believers in the cult of technology stocks. Sorry cult members. My job is to exorcise the demons and hand out another dose of reality to choke […]
The concept of an indulgence is based on the medieval Catholic doctrine that states sinners must not only repent of sins that they have committed; they must also confess these sins and pay some sort of retribution. Author and historian Richard Hooker states that the history of medieval Catholic doctrine is in many ways an […]
We broke a story back in October of 2001 about a broker named Chung Wu, formerly of the Houston office of UBS PaineWebber. Mr. Wu was fired after doing the right thing. His so-called crime was sending e-mails to clients suggesting that they liquidate their holdings in Enron before losing their proverbial shirts. Mr. Wu […]
Credit Suisse First Boston is a firm that has enjoyed the dubious honor of gracing the pages of our newsletter and has been the topic of conversation on our radio show on many occasions. Nothing like an encore! In an effort to dig up additional business, CSFB told a prospective client it would conduct more […]
Since our inception we have done our best to carry on the good fight for individual investors. We try to do everything possible to educate, inform, and warn of all the landmines, booby traps and pitfalls that can adversely affect individual investors. In September of 1997, I wrote an article that articulated one of the […]
I am still getting hundreds of e-mail messages a week from readers and investors still hoping and praying that their tech stocks are going to come back. WAKE UP PEOPLE!! There is no magical time machine that will transport your stock valuations back to 1999. All the hoping and praying in the world is most […]
Like clockwork, the investment public was hit this past month with more stories of lies, greed and manipulation. Once again, the arrogance and selfishness of our country’s largest investment houses have reared their ugly head. Unfortunately, most of these stories have been left off the nightly news programs. Dan, Peter and Tom, the alleged purveyors […]
Shifting Preferences and Corporate Policy In the 1960s and 1970s, companies paid out a significant portion of their earnings in dividends, as investors exhibited a strong preference for income. However, in the 1980s, and even more so in the 1990s, investors became unenthusiastic about dividend yields because they were dwarfed in size by the massive […]