New Print/Email features

I’ve added some new features to each page that allow you to print a clean copy and to email articles to friends — looks like they’re working so far, please let me know if you have any trouble with them.

Not bankrupt quite yet …

Last week we looked at Porter Stansberry’s Put Strategy and his assertion that General Growth Properties would go belly-up last Friday. Well, that mortgage debt of $900 million that came due on Friday for a couple of their Las Vegas malls still hasn’t been extended, renegotiated, or repaid, but the company hasn’t gone bankrupt [...]

“At $4, this is a dream stock at a bargain price …”

Tim Fields is telling us that the next big wave will be personalized medicine, and using genetic testing to customize treatments. We’ve heard that before from several newsletter editors, and it has been an investment theme for years. Will this little stock really revolutionize medicine and lead to untold riches for investors? First, I’ve got to figure out who it is for you.

New Site Design

Regular readers will notice that the site looks a bit different today — I’m in the process of redesigning and reorganizing the site to make it more effective, more useful, and easier to read.

I’m hoping that with this new design the text will be more legible, new functionality will be gradually added (including better print/email capability), and that it will be easier to find the last week’s articles all in one place. I’ve also tried to put more emphasis on both the comments on this site from readers, and on the discussion threads that are constantly updating at the forum — I know these submissions and opinions from readers are always interesting to me, and I hope they are also useful for you.

Things are still in flux to some degree,

Bankrupt on Friday?

Porter Stansberry, whose newsletters I write about from time to time, is revamping his new Porter Stansberry’s Put Strategy newsletter to focus not on his original plan — which was selling puts to buy bargains at even lower cost — but on betting on the demise of companies, and particularly (at the moment, at least) companies in commercial real estate.

And here’s the “tease” for the recent letter he sent out about this Put Strategy newsletter:
“America’s Next Major Bankruptcy (it’s not GM or CitiGroup)… Happens this FRIDAY at Midnight” –
What is this one?

December’s “Income Security of the Month”

A big part of the advertising that comes out for Carla Pasternak’s High Income Investing is by way of their writeups on the “income security of the month” — and, as she has done this month, she often recycles these ideas … it looks like today’s “Income Security of the Month” was also the income security of the Month for October.

Times are tough, everyone’s cutting back — so no need to hire another copywriter if you’ve got a perfectly good sales letter sitting around!

Some of the comments below first appeared in this space back then, which now seems a lifetime ago, but I’ve added some more info and done some updating.

“These special hybrid securities not only provide strong returns during market turmoil thanks to the ‘AAA’-rated portfolio of their parent company — they also provide unlimited upside potential since the shares are convertible at any time into stock of the underlying company.”

The One Stock to Buy for the Next Ten Years

The Motley Fool is sending out an ad that claims to have chosen “The Only Stock to Own 2009-2019.”
Now there’s a promise, no? The assumption of almost all pundits and pontificators, myself included, is that this awful market might represent a remarkable buying opportunity — at least, an opportunity for those who make the [...]

“The Teflon REIT: Bad News Doesn’t Stick”

Steve Christ, who I wrote about recently when he was flogging what he called “Safe Harbor Savings Accounts” (he also called them Safe Harbor Investment Covenants for a while), has a new teaser to offer as he tries to get you to subscribe to his Wealth Advisory newsletter.
He’s calling this next great idea from his [...]

“Global Titan Spins Off Hot Orphan” Oxford Club

The merry lads at the Oxford Club are at it again, promoting their subscription service with a nice long teaser ad that promises to turn you on to the next hot investing strategy.
And as usual, there’s a little truth and a lot of obfuscation — so let’s give it a look.
Here’s how they open:

“The $120 [...]

The 424 Dividend Boost — 12% Letter

“While most folks earn tiny 2%-6% dividends on Blue Chips (like Pepsi, Johnson & Johnson, and AT&T) savvy Americans are secretly “boosting” those small yields to dizzying heights – earning incredible 30%-50% on the exact same shares. Originally available only to executives at America’s richest Blue Chip firms, this income secret is now available to [...]