Author Archive

Just when you think we might get a break from our daily dose of Sarah Palin mania, she just can't seem to stay out of the headlines, or the media can not leave her out of them. A few weeks ago it was a feud with David Letterman and now comes her surprise decision to quit as governor of Alaska. Many Alaskans are voicing their ... Full story

Short selling is one of the hardest things for novice investors to understand as selling something you do not own really doesn't make sense but the easiest way to understand short selling is to think of it as just the opposite of buying a stock. When you short sell a stock you are selling the a ... Full story

With the deadline for GM looming just 2 weeks away, bankruptcy is looking more and more probable. CEO Fritz Henderson still hopes to restructure before the June 1 deadline but the task maybe to large. Standing in GM's way are bond holders and unions who must accept lower than what is expected. GM is also looking at selling assets like Opel, Hummer and Saab to raise ... Full story

Yahoo has announced it will cut 700 jobs in a effort to turn the one time internet darling around. Yahoo has been sliding for years and its rejection of a take over offer from Microsoft has only made things worse as both companies are down well below what they were at the time of the offer. Recently the Yahoo has rallied on more rumors of a ... Full story

What is a ETF? There is no need to be afraid of ETF's,  short for Exchanged Traded Funds they are very similar to mutual funds.  With the big difference being they are traded on a stock exchange as the name implies. The funds themselves often mirror a stock index like the S&P 500, but they can contain ... Full story

The market continues to rally on G20 news and lack of any real bad news showing things are worse. As I wrote at the end of my last article several had targeted this rally to hit 8k on the DOW which we have now broken through, we may not close above it but close enough. One very interesting stat I heard yesterday is that on ... Full story

In past posts I covered the strategy of writing covered calls to reduce risk and raise income. This post I'm going to explain the call options sibling, put options. Where as call options give you the right to buy a stock at a certain price, put options will give you the right to sell your stock ... Full story

Well blink and you missed it according to some news outlets and financial experts who claim that the bottom of the market is in, you're forgiven if you have lost faith in their judgement given their track records and perhaps their own self interest in seeing a end to this bear market. We were due for a rally as nothing goes straight down or up and ... Full story

Well the answer is not easy for many people and the problem is that its not a option for many people who rely on their portfolio for income. In particularly income from stock dividends. Since many of these dividends have been slashed or disappeared all together, seniors and others living off this income are forced into ... Full story

Stocks continued the slide Monday, as they reached 1997 levels with still very few buyers to be found. Pessimism has taken hold and it appears that the Obama honeymoon will soon be over.  It feels like just a matter of time before the 7,000 level will be breached as there has been very little support after 8,000 was broken. The unfortunate thing is there seems ... Full story