Another week of fussing about macro issues that we can neither control nor predict, what fun! The Federal Reserve did exactly what the market demanded in cutting rates, but the market was still mad because they failed to promise that they would give us each a pony. President Trump seemed angered by the lack of […]
Here’s your assigned reading for the week: Go check out Stop the financial pornography! from Nick Maggiulli. A good reminder of how manipulated we all can be by attention-getting investment and economic news that doesn’t really have any relevance. Don’t worry, it’s short. So… what’s up this week? Leading the news for me, outside of […]
I’ve been seeing ads for the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor Canada service recently that catch the eye… mostly because they promise what we all want, the ability to find that one stock that will turn your small investment into a life-changing fortune. They do this by starting with the story of “Forty-dollar Frank” …. “When […]
I’m a little sad not to be in Omaha this weekend for the Berkshire meeting, but I’ll be watching some of the Q&A tomorrow to see how Warren and Charlie are looking and try to get some little nuggets of wisdom from them. The biggest news lately from Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) is that they’re at […]
This teaser solution was originally published on January 22, 2019, when we first saw the ad running. The ads have still been running in recent weeks, and we’re getting questions about it again, so we’re re-posting it here for your information. The ad has not changed, and my article below has not changed, though the […]
It seems we’ve officially entered a period of another “Fed Put” — Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statements yesterday were widely interpreted to mean that there will be no interest rate hikes this year, or maybe ever again, and that the Fed will stop its “quantitative tightening” in six months or so, leaving a huge and […]
I haven’t yet gotten to a few of my largest holdings in our Annual Review, so that’s where I’ll begin today — with the insurance conglomerates Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B), Markel (MKL), and Fairfax Financial (FFH.TO, FRFHF), as well as the somewhat related names Fairfax India (FIH-U.TO, FFXDF) and Boston Omaha (BOMN). I should be clear […]
The response was pretty overwhelmingly positive when I started sending out those “Trade Note” emails this week… so I’ll stick with it for a while, at least, and see how this goes. What does that mean? Same day buy/sell notes about my Real Money Portfolio will be sent to the Irregulars going forward, in hopes […]
I wrote on Monday about a Motley Fool Canada pitch for an Artificial Intelligence stock, and that tease pointed at one of two smallish tech companies from Canada’s Silicon Valley (Waterloo, Ontario)… I speculated that it was likely OpenText (OTEX) that Stock Advisor Canada was hinting at, given the clues dropped, but today we’ve got […]
While we wait to see what Berkshire Hathaway’s quarter looked like, how’s the rest of the portfolio holding up? Holy Cow, Starbucks (SBUX)! Haven’t seen that stock take this big of a pop after earnings in a long time, and sentiment seems to have changed so quickly to a “this is a safe capital return […]
Is this the beginning of a 30-60% decline in the stock market? A correction to blow off a little of the excess in the valuations of growth stocks that’s almost over? Something in between? Nobody knows, and it would be silly to spend too much time guessing. We should be prepared for either — which […]
I feel like I’m waggling back and forth on a strange tightrope, as I’ve been doing for about a year and a half now, and I sum it up kinda like this: I’m quite nervous about the valuations of the overall market and about the massive debt load for both governments and individuals in the […]
Have you been watching what’s going on with the trendy pot stocks lately? Holy crap. This reminds me now of 1999 more than it reminds me of the cryptocurrency bubble of this past winter — these larger marijuana companies, like many of the dot com companies (and unlike most cryptos, of course), are real businesses […]
Lots to discuss this week, mostly because several Real Money Portfolio companies reported earnings… and because I added money to two positions this week, and brought a new company into the portfolio. Enjoy! Shopify (SHOP) had reasonable earnings when they came out, but “reasonable” isn’t enough for a high-growth momentum stock that’s trading at almost […]
What’s on the docket today? An ad for Jim Woods’ Successful Investing, which seems to be a newly revamped version of that longtime “entry level” investment newsletter (founded by Dick Fabian — Jim took over the Successful line of letters when Dick’s son, Doug Fabian, left the newsletter business in 2017). The letter is being […]
Since we’re still close to being in the afterglow of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, when Warren and Charlie (and now Bill Gates, too) are trotted out on CNBC for hours at a time to share their avuncular wisdom, it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that we’re seeing a few “next Berkshire” pitches again. Here’s a […]
We’ve seen a long stream of earnings reports and other worthwhile bits of data on Real Money Portfolio stocks since I last wrote to you, including some that actually included some interesting news, so prepare for a lot of quick updates…. Medical Properties Trust (MPW) reported another quarter of ho-hum… pretty much met the forecasts, […]
It was a little ugly to go from frolicking on the Florida beaches with the Little Gumshoes to wandering the cold and rainy streets of Toronto, but my trip to the Fairfax Financial Annual Meeting was worth the chill. Since I was there for Prem Watsa’s chat-fest, I came in a day early to check […]
A few thoughts to share with you today, and I’m breaking it up into two different pieces — this first one includes a few updates on companies and a couple articles that caught my eye this week… and the second piece is my notes and reactions following the Grant’s Interest Rate Observer Conference, which I […]
Sometimes we just need to take a step back. On Tuesday, we were headed into a devastating trade war, with a third of our exports to China subject to punishing tariffs (in response to the tariffs proposed on more than 10% of their exports to the US)… by mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the trade war is […]
What do I think? That’s what a lot of readers are asking during these volatile days… and there is, of course, no easy answer. My thoughts are all over the place, so today’s Friday File musings are going to run the gamut. Tesla (TSLA) is a good example of how the market is treating investors […]
So… what’s happening this week? I have a few updates on Real Money Portfolio investments, including some updates following earnings releases this week and some notes about my hedge position, as well as some thoughts on a few insurance companies that are catching my eye and making their way onto the watchlist… and I also […]
The ides of February are dismal and dreary here in the wet and grey Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, but we remain hopeful of the sunshine to come. What do I have to share with you, dear Irregulars, as we seek a little brightness to end the week? Well, I do have a few buys to […]
Annual Review time! Earlier today I covered the changes that were actually made to the portfolio this week, and now I’m starting at the top of that portfolio with insurance stocks, and staying with that theme to also include a few insurance-related stocks that are smaller positions. Three of my top five equity positions are […]
Today I’ll start by stating the obvious: One of the great problems with being an investor is that you can’t know for sure beforehand what’s a dip and a buying opportunity, and what’s the beginning of a long-term decline or a crash. That’s what sticks in my craw about mechanical stop-loss trading, because it doesn’t […]
Well, we finish out the week with yet another dramatic performance from the market-dominating tech stocks. Alphabet (GOOG) did better than expected and popped a bit, climbing further through the day, almost as much as the gains Microsoft (MSFT) made on a more dramatic ‘beat’ of expectations (though analysts have always been better at estimating […]
When the market is doing well, holding hedges like cash and gold is going to hurt your portfolio performance when you measure against the S&P 500 or other common benchmarks. That’s the case for me right now, and has been for the recent past — though it hasn’t been enough to bring me below the […]
Weekly escalations in nuclear threats, record-breaking hurricanes… what is it going to take to shake investor sentiment for more than 24 hours? The S&P 500 is ending the week only down about a third of one percent, gold is up less than 2%, this is a market that is reacting to headlines pretty quickly… but […]
We’re all growing more and more immune to hyperbole, I hope, but the combination of hype-filled newsletter pitches, shallow commentary from attention whores on CNBC, and clickbait headlines is enough to put you off investing in the market at all… how many times can you hear words like “collapse” and “beaten down” and “nightmare” applied […]
I have one relatively substantial portfolio change that I telegraphed to you last week, and which has been spurred by a recent dip in one stock and good news from another. I have sold about two thirds of my position in AIG 2021 Warrants following the trigger of a stop loss in that position (because […]
Fridays are the day I write for you, my dear Irregular friend, so this time you’re getting a teaser solution that I’ve been inspired to write about today, plus a few updates on my Real Money Portfolio stocks. First, those (pretty minor) updates… One of the worst-performing stocks I own over the past year or […]
Things will be a little quiet here at Stock Gumshoe for the next week or so — I’m off to do my big fundraising ride for Dana-Farber tomorrow, and will then be taking several days off to recuperate next week and spend time with family… I’ll be back with the Friday File next week, but […]
I’ve got some notes (mostly brief, I hope) to share about the various quarterly earnings reports that have hit my Real Money Portfolio stocks this week… but I have gotten a pile of reader questions so I wanted to start with a look at Sandstorm Gold (SAND), which announced a pretty big deal earlier in […]
Charles Mizrahi moved over to Angel Publishing a year or so ago, so we’re seeing a lot more ads for his Inevitable Wealth Portfolio. And the latest one pretty well bangs us over the head with the huge promises… including a “make 109 times your money” in the next decade headline, which is a dramatic […]
Hello, merry Gumshoe-ers! I’m going to be on the road next week to attend two conferences, the Grant’s Interest Rate Observer conference in New York mid-week, and the MIT Sloan Conference on Friday — so I’ll be sharing some notes with you with my thoughts on what I hear at those confabs, with fingers crossed […]
Throughout January these Friday Files are taking on the form of my “Annual Review” of my holdings, which will culminate in a clearer listing of what I own and focus on, including portfolio allocations that I have personally, and a clearer delineation between the stuff I write about because it’s interesting, and the stuff I […]
I’ll write some more detail about this on Friday when I get to our Friday File for the week, but wanted just to note two personal purchases I’ve made. I bought some shares of Franco-Nevada (FNV), a very small position at this point as I wade into it during this fall in the price of […]
The market is down hard over these past couple weeks, thanks to worries about relatively steep valuations, the likelihood of an interest rate hike from the Fed next month and, much more than anything else, a full-on panic about the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency that would, one fears, bring an almost endless stream […]
A question from a reader today echoes the sentiment that I’m hearing from a lot of other folks, so I’m going to run with it… and that will lead me into looking at a teaser pitch for a bearish options trading service. Here’s the question: “I’m a believer in an impending crash. What do we […]
Charles Mizrahi has moved over to Angel Publishing, so we’re probably going to see a lot more ads for his Inevitable Wealth Portfolio. And the latest one, which I’ve been seeing for a couple weeks, pretty well bangs us over the head with the huge promises… including that “make 109 times your money” bit, which […]
Time for some “Idea of the Month” thoughts for you, dear Irregulars. When you think the investing climate is a little more nerve-wracking than usual, why not go with a master investor who’s also nervous and is preparing for an awful economy? I’ve spoken quite a few times about my fondness for insurance company stocks. […]
We originally covered a teaser ad very similar to this on October 30, 2013. The ad promising a “Next Berkshire Hathaway” is circulating again and generating more questions from our readers, so I’m re-analyzing it here for your information. The ad has been slightly updated with new numbers over the years, and this article has […]
Well, I told you yesterday that I’d be following up on the teaser from 12% Letter for their “Black Market Income” website that presents a variety of ways of increasing your investment income … so let’s do it! If you missed yesterday, I gave a quick run-through of several of the “loopholes” that Dan Ferris […]
Comments
You must have entered FRFHF incorrectly, as I find it via Robinhood, E-Trade and Schwab....
FFH is on the Toronto exchange, FRFHF is the over-the-counter symbol for trading in the US. Some brokers don't support ...
Neither FRFHF, nor FFH.TO show up as valid symbols. what would that be?...
Travis You said you own shares of Fairfax Financial Holdings. After reviewing this company What are you seeing that I...
I think he will get it right long term, but I won't wait forever and I do watch their actions pretty closely. The big p...
That depends on your perspective, I guess, and the addition of his daughter this year was a little troubling to me origi...
I can't answer that question very definitively, of course -- and any answer will be different given the squishiness of t...
@Travis I struggle to understand why Fairfax is so poorly covered on the news, plus, they get discredit articles like t...