Decades ago, index funds were created with the view that many stock pickers have no real ability to pick stocks—therefore, those people would be better off simply owning an index of stocks and receiving the performance of the overall stock market. Since then, studies have shown that index funds have outperformed the majority of actively managed funds. There are now index funds and ETFs Read More

Two weeks ago, I received a spam email from Prescience Point Research, asking me to click a link (LINK TO THESIS) and see a short selling thesis on Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI: USA). I read about a third of the report, found the allegations regarding CBI to be intriguing but quickly lost interest. I have no position in the stock, don’t short stocks Read More

The greatest honor in the blogosphere is to be quoted by another blogger. I will now return the favor to my friend at Buyside Notes who has done an excellent job of expanding upon my Kashagan piece, to show all of the many reasons that oil prices will not be declining any time soon. I have found his writing to be very informative and Read More

  Yesterday, I walked into my local bank branch to get a reference letter needed for a travel visa (long story…) and I was immediately pounced on by tellers hungry for a commission. “Do you have a HELOC??” If you remember from Part I of this series, in December, I didn’t qualify for any sort of standard loan product since my irregular income meant that Read More

Do you remember Gadzooks? Probably not (yet it had over 400 stores only a decade ago). In five years, I’ll be able to ask you the same question about Wet Seal (WTSLA), Aeropostale (ARO), Body Central (BODY), Cache (CACH) and Pacific Sunwear (PSUN). You won’t remember any of these because, despite having spent tens of millions a year in marketing, they have no brand Read More