Buying Opportunities Arrive As Agricultural Stocks Limp Into 2012

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 1, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) In my last post updating the current list of buy candidates for the “commodity crash” portfolio, I neglected to include fertilizer stocks. Phosphate and potash producers – like Mosaic (MOS), Potash … Read more

Insider Buying Major Fail: Jon Corzine and MF Global

I am a big fan of trading on insider buying (for example, see “The Market Is Ignoring These Insider Buys, But You Should Not“). So when I read that Jon Corzine had invested $3M of his own money in now bankrupt MF Global, shivers went up my spine. In “Why MF Global’s Collapse Matters“, Brett … Read more

Protective Puts Versus Puts for Profit

A friend and I have actively discussed how best to position ourselves for the near-term, bearish risks in the market. As my favorite technical indicator, T2108 – the percentage of stocks trading above their 40-day moving average (DMA), hit oversold territory, he asked my opinion about adding to his SSO put spread. Puts on SSO … Read more

Pity the Fool Who Does Not Sell His Gold…Through the Mail

Time for a little fun with gold. As a child of the 1980s, I took particular interest in a fun October 13, 2010, Bloomberg interview with A-Team star Mr. T., the celebrity pitchman for Gold Promise. Gold Promise is a service run by Cash America International, Inc. (CSH) that allows people to sell their gold … Read more

Sold My TIPS to the Fed – A Review of the Current TIPS “Debate”

Last week, the iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (TIP) surged to a fresh 2-year closing high on the same day the Federal Reserve issued its latest monetary policy statement. (TIPS = Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities – I will refer to “TIPS” when discussing the actual bonds and use “TIP” to refer to the ETF that uses … Read more