Broker Ad
at 2005-11-12 23:55:01
Click here to see the worst broker ad ever (via Michael Covel).
Industry Groups Over the Long Term
at 2005-11-12 23:55:01
Professor Ken French is a well-known finance professor at Dartmouth. At his Web site, he keeps an impressive data library. One of the items that I like to look at every few months is the how certain industry groups have performed over the long run. Here’s the annualized return for several industry groups for the past eight decades.
Smoke 13.69%
Beer 13.51%
Banks 12.80%
Drugs 11.93%
Hardw 11.45%
Aero 11.37%
Oil 11.33%
Food 11.28%
Chips 11.22%
Meals 10.99%
Chems 10.91%
Boxes 10.84%
Fin 10.64%
Mines 10.53%
Rtail 10.49%
MedEq 10.40%
Autos 10.38%
Mach 10.33%
Insur 10.21%
Coal 10.16%
ElcEq 10.06%
Other 9.95%
Clths 9.83%
Hshld 9.78%
BldMt 9.67%
Telcm 9.31%
Books 9.23%
A Loophole for Hedge Funds
at 2005-11-12 23:55:01
Next year, hedge funds have to register with the SEC. Funds will also have to provide more information, plus they’re subjected to periodic audits. However, there's one loophole that many funds are using.
But the SEC's rule only applies to advisors that permit investors to redeem their interests in a hedge fund within two years of purchasing their stakes. The agency concluded that the average "lockup" period for hedge funds is 12 months, so the 12-month period is the time frame covered by the rule.
"We're aware that some hedge-fund advisers are planning to extend their lockup period and we'll evaluate the situation when we have a better picture of the situation in February," said Robert Plaze, associate director of the SEC's investment-management division. However, the SEC's registration rule proved quite contentious, even within the agency, so in the near term it
The Market Today
at 2005-11-12 23:55:01
Finally, a strong day for the market! The S&P 500 is at its highest level in two months. Our Buy List had a solid day across the board. While the S&P 500 gained 0.84%, the Buy List was up 1.82%. Twenty-three stocks were up and only two were down. Today’s big winner was Golden West Financial (GDW) which jumped 5.2%. We also got nice returns from Progressive (PGR) and Quality Systems (QSII).
We got new highs from AFLAC (AFL), Fair Isaac (FIC) and St. Jude (STJ). Varian Medical (VAR) is oh-so-close to a new high. Commerce Bancorp (
Thoughts on Dell
at 2005-11-12 23:55:01
Yesterday was D-Day—Dell reported earnings. At this point, Dell’s image among the financial media is somewhere between Kim Jong-il and thyroid cancer.
If you recall, on Halloween Dell said it was going to report earnings of 39 cents a share, which was at the "low-end of expectations." The media went into gleeful outrage and fell beneath the low-end of my expectations, which—let’s face it—is already pretty darn low. As for Dell’s stock, it promptly dropped 8% on volume of 105 million shares. Apparently, the low-end of expectations was...well, not expected.
Speaking of low-end, that’s the rap against Dell. The company can’t compete in the market for cheap PCs. Plus, their sales growth is slowing, their customer service is horrible and they’re pursuing nuclear weapons. No wait, that last one I think is Kim Jong-il. But you get the idea.
Over the last few days, I’ve gotten about 20 gabillion e-mails asking me why I’m not panicking over De
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