Cartoons

Is naked short selling a problem? The incentives for it seem direct and strong, while both regulation and enforcement against it seem weak. Just getting the facts about its extent is problematic. Here are three relevant questions: Keep Reading

…you may be seeing something like this: Keep Reading

Investors and traders face three hurdles on the track to success: (1) developing a workable strategy/methodology as a foundation for decision-making; (2) persistently performing the research needed to reconfirm/improve/adapt the strategy; and, (3) overcoming emotional temptations to ditch strategy and research by succumbing to fear or greed.  Keep Reading

In case you are sick of hearing about the January effect… Keep Reading

If your crystal ball has not been working so well… Keep Reading

Hedge funds now haul about $1 trillion in capital from opportunity to opportunity around world markets. Hedge fund managers have latitude to operate in ways that mutual fund managers do not in terms of leverage, shorting and types of assets traded (such as derivatives). What makes the best hedge fund managers successful? In their March 2005 paper entitled “Hedge Fund Performance and Manager Characteristics Education and Age Matter…”, Haitao Li, Rui Zhao and Xiaoyan Zhang correlate the background characteristics of hedge fund managers with the performances of their funds. Using a dataset encompassing 1,000+ hedge funds over the period 1994 to 2003, they conclude that: Keep Reading

It is very easy to: (1) set up an account with an online, discount broker; (2) get margin and option-trading privileges; (3) read about hot stocks and funds on the web; and, (4) start trading. Is this process too easy for the average investor? Keep Reading

Thinking about stock message boards… Keep Reading

In case your mutual fund’s got you down… Keep Reading

In case the market’s got you down… Keep Reading