A new academic report by Professors Vikas Agarwal, Naveen Daniel and Narayan Naik entitled Why is Santa So Kind To Hedge Funds? studied the performance of hedge funds returns for the month of December. The professors looked at 7,535 hedge funds from 1994-2002 and what they found is in their words is a “December spike.” […]
One of the more popular items being sold on the free lunch/dinner seminar circuit is the equity indexed annuity. It is our opinion that EIA’s are a seriously deficient financial product. I do not even like calling it a product; it is more of a high fee/commission gimmick. According to an April 2 report in […]
So you bought into the hype. The slick talking hedge fund manager nailed you hook, line and sinker. You put up your money and hoped that the hedge fund manager was just a tenth as good at making money as he said he was. A year down the road, you get that gut feeling that […]
I am so popular. I get invited out to dinner to swanky French restaurants, the Ritz Carlton, and golf clubs by people I don’t even know two to three times a week It seems like every investment guru in the state of Florida wants to wine and dine me. The unfortunate reality is that I […]
There are very few financial commentators that have the ability to entertain as well as inform. One of my favorites is Mark Gilbert from Bloomberg News. Several months ago he used the innocuous world of bovines to eloquently describe several areas of the financial world that have become conspicuously popular. Here is our off-beat take… […]
I have noticed an increase in the volume of programs on sports networks that deal with the issue of who or what is number one, and why. “Who was a better quarterback? Montana or Elway or who was a better pitcher Clemens or Gibson?” This is a harmless and sometimes interesting endeavor that often makes […]
Human sacrifice is alive and well on Wall Street. Relax; Mel Gibson is not going to be shooting any gory scenes on the corners of Wall and Broad, nor is Mola Ram from the Thuggee cult going to be standing on the steps of the Federal Building shouting “Kali Ma!” and literally ripping the hearts […]
I had some nutty professors in my day. Being a Political Science major I was often subjected to some sensitive pony-tail, tie-dye wearing, cannabis smelling teacher’s assistant who liked to spend the entire class preaching the many evils of the United States of America and how ashamed each and every one of us students should […]
I hate dolls. This is not some sort of macho rant, I am genuinely frightened of them. They give me the creeps,specially those new American Girl dolls; they look possessed. Anyway, I was trying to decipher the origin of my irrational fear and I think it might have something to do with a movie I […]
Outrage doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings after finding out about this story this past month. The NASD announced that it has fined two Fidelity broker dealers a whopping $400,000 for preparing and distributing misleading sales literature promoting Fidelity’s Destiny I and II Systematic Investment Plans, which were targeted at U.S. military personnel. These […]