Marty's May 26th Market Report (video)

Random Lemonade-ish Thoughts

The Higher Dollar Silver Lining:

The Great Corrector

Take a look at Sunday

What Now?

Well folks, it happened, as of this moment the major indices have accomplished what

Marty's May 19th Market Report (video)

The Far Worse Thing

Everyone seems to understand that the market

Thank Goodness for Greece!

I don

Marty's May 12th Market Report and Tip (video)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Spoke with a friend last Friday who said he

Don't Be Average

I once read somewhere that B and C high school students tend to enjoy more "successful" lives than the straight A-ers. And while I can't confirm or deny that statistic, although I'd sure love to believe it (which gives you a clue as to my GPA), I can say that being average when it comes to investing has clearly not been the secret to long-term success...

In April the U.S. economy created 290,000 jobs (230k coming from the private sector) - should be a game changer. But alas, given the problems in Europe, the news has fallen on deaf-eared traders...

I could here list a plethora of positive economic stats along with earnings results and estimates that would encourage the staid-hearted investor to pony up whatever cash he/she can and buy stocks like there's no tomorrow...

I could also list here a near-plethora of concerns around pending legislation, higher taxes, social programs, etc., that would encourage the faint-hearted investor to sell his/her stocks like it's the end of the world...

And no doubt, I'll give you all you can stomach on both sides of that fence in the weeks to come. But it's during times like these that I feel it's my responsibility to discourage emotionally-driven investment decisions. Or in other words, help you keep from making the classic investment mistakes...

So with that in mind, I pulled the following from my book Making Lemonade. Please take just a minute and give it a read, then forget about the market for now, and enjoy your weekend...

Forward

Over the past two decades, I have had the pleasure of helping literally hundreds of investors design and maintain their investment portfolios. In the process, I have discovered what I truly believe to be the secret to long-term investment success. Unfortunately, my discovery won

Don't Be Average

I once read somewhere that B and C high school students tend to enjoy more "successful" lives than the straight A-ers. And while I can't confirm or deny that statistic, although I'd sure love to believe it (which gives you a clue as to my GPA), I can say that being average when it comes to investing has clearly not been the secret to long-term success...

In April the U.S. economy created 290,000 jobs (230k coming from the private sector) - should be a game changer. But alas, given the problems in Europe, the news has fallen on deaf-eared traders...

I could here list a plethora of positive economic stats along with earnings results and estimates that would encourage the staid-hearted investor to pony up whatever cash he/she can and buy stocks like there's no tomorrow...

I could also list here a near-plethora of concerns around pending legislation, higher taxes, social programs, etc., that would encourage the faint-hearted investor to sell his/her stocks like it's the end of the world...

And no doubt, I'll give you all you can stomach on both sides of that fence in the weeks to come. But it's during times like these that I feel it's my responsibility to discourage emotionally-driven investment decisions. Or in other words, help you keep from making the classic investment mistakes...

So with that in mind, I pulled the following from my book Making Lemonade. Please take just a minute and give it a read, then forget about the market for now, and enjoy your weekend...

Forward

Over the past two decades, I have had the pleasure of helping literally hundreds of investors design and maintain their investment portfolios. In the process, I have discovered what I truly believe to be the secret to long-term investment success. Unfortunately, my discovery won

Marty's May 6th Market Report and Tip (video)

WOW!!

WOW!! What just happened? The market's been slowly grinding itself higher for months, we're thinking this is great, valuations based on earnings look very reasonable, companies are forecasting good to great results going forward, interest rates are low, there

Today's Volatility (quick note)

They say the market experiences a 10% correction (on average) once per year. And while I haven't officially tracked that stat myself, I would say, from personal experience, that the past 12+ months have been somewhat unusual - in that the market has had an amazing run without a double-digit (%) pullback along the way.

As you might imagine, after 26 years of investment counseling, I have witnessed my share of corrections. And my message, given today's 200+ point Dow drop, is that not once did a correction ever come (on the surface) for the sake of itself.

Never have I seen a headline stating "The Dow's off 200 Today on Great News from Greece". Or, "The Dow's off 2.5% Today on Great Corporate Earnings". Nope, the headlines always read of the crisis du jour, the fear spawned by X...

We

Today's Volatility (quick note)

They say the market experiences a 10% correction (on average) once per year. And while I haven't officially tracked that stat myself, I would say, from personal experience, that the past 12+ months have been somewhat unusual - in that the market has had an amazing run without a double-digit (%) pullback along the way.

As you might imagine, after 26 years of investment counseling, I have witnessed my share of corrections. And my message, given today's 200+ point Dow drop, is that not once did a correction ever come (on the surface) for the sake of itself.

Never have I seen a headline stating "The Dow's off 200 Today on Great News from Greece". Or, "The Dow's off 2.5% Today on Great Corporate Earnings". Nope, the headlines always read of the crisis du jour, the fear spawned by X...

We

Words Speak Louder Than Actions

Had a conversation the other day with a bright, young, passionate Central Valley California conservative. A person who would all-day-long profess himself a capitalist, who, with table-pounding zeal argues for smaller government and lower taxes, who tea-partys like it