Archives: August 2007

Betting on a newspaper wipe-out

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 30

My most esteemed colleague and BW media columnist Jon Fine recently compared the performance of the newspaper industry this year to the depths of the Great Depression. Fine speculated that...

Be wary of all those stocks over Labor Day stories

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 29

As investors' attention drifts and the end of summer draws near in the last week of August, analysts turn to that evergreen topic of analysis, calendar trading. What usually happens...

Some smarties see value in junk bond rubble

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 28

At some point, despite all the hysteria, the markets will bottom. Rarely does each market segment hit bottom at the same time, however. After junk bonds dropped 3% in July,...

Follow the paper, commercial paper, to assess the damage

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 27

If you're not holding securities backed by subprime mortgages, that is if you're 98% of all investors, this summer has been a wacky ride for your portfolio but hardly a...

Long-term, homebuilders still beat the stock market

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 24

It's the dawn of the middle of the last decade - January 1, 1995. Go back in time, bring $1,000 and answer this question: which will be the best investment...

Where to Stash Cash

Posted by: Lauren Young on August 24

The WSJ had a story today that money is pouring out of bank loan funds amid troubles in the bank-loan market. Bank loans have been traditional safehavens for investors since...

Eye on Morningstar

Posted by: Lauren Young on August 23

Morningstar has been adding some interesting features to its site. Last week, I noticed a new Options channel, which is still in the Beta stage. The site offers content, such...

Catching up with bond market doom seers

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 23

I have an online story up called "A Season for Cassandras," about the vindication of folks who had been dismissed as wacky "perma-bears" thanks to the current credit and housing...

A little good news lightens the market's gloom

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 22

After weeks of gloom and doom pessimism, investors finally got some good news on Wednesday. A couple of mergers got off the ground, including the perpetually recycled rumor of E*Trade...

Conniptions over Cramer miss the mark

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 21

There are at least two critical parts to making money in the stock market. The first, the obvious one, is picking stocks which will do better than the market. The...

Still hot and in demand? IPOs

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 20

There's plenty of room to debate the merits of investing in initial public offerings but these debut stocks aren't typically in the conversation during periods of market turmoil. Maybe they...

Must-read book helps explain the current turmoil

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 17

With the name Pressman, it’s not infrequently that I get the joke “good name for a reporter.” Richard Bookstaber, whose new book, A Demon of Our Own Design, has become...

Black swans are everywhere suddenly

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 16

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author most recently of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and subject of one of Malcolm Gladwell's best-ever pieces in the New Yorker, is...

Tech IPOs are not bubbling over

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 15

Blame VMWare's super-hot initial public offering -- or don't -- but there's growing chatter that the quality of technology companies lining up to sell shares for the first time is...

Fake news shouldn't deter prudent investors

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 14

There's a dangerously misleading story in today's Wall Street Journal, under the headline "Small Investors, Too, Get Nailed by Arcane Trades," wherein we learn that some poor schlubs have lost...

What's floating on market's rough waters

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 13

With stocks gyrating over the past month, it's a good opportunity to review what's working -- or not -- in different pockets of the market. The iShares Russell 3000 Index...

Big Fido News!

Posted by: Lauren Young on August 07

Whoa. That's what I said when I read this this email from Jim Lowell of Fidelity Investor: "In a surprise and surprising announcement, Ellyn McColgan announced she is leaving Fidelity...

Magellan Awakens

Posted by: Lauren Young on August 03

I must be under a rock. Apparently, Fidelity Magallen is showing signs of life again. Somehow this escaped my astute eye, but luckily I bumped into Jim Lowell of the...

More Smart Moves for Investors

Posted by: Lauren Young on August 03

I spent a lot of time on the phone this week talking to advisers and strategists about smart moves for investors, given the recent volatility. Some of my reporting ended...

Is MSCI's IPO hot or not?

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 03

Initial public offerings, exchange-traded funds and spin-off spotting – three of my favorite topics to blog about. Today you get a three-for-one deal. Morgan Stanley filed this week to spin-off...

Absolute return mutual funds are not "risky"

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on August 02

We the media probably aren’t the first place you should turn for investment advice. We often rely on rules of thumb or over-simplifications. Two things bugging me today are the...