Posts filed under 'General'
Q: Has Your Blog Name Changed?
Just a quick note. We decided to change our blog title to “The Underground Investor™” from “Zen of Investing” because we noticed that someone unaffiliated with our company is constructing a website with the title “zen of investing” in the URL, presumably to capitalize off of our regular blog traffic. To make it clear that this website with the “zen of investing” title has absolutely zero affiliation with SmartKnowledgeU™, LLC, and to avoid any future confusion, we have decided to change the name of our blog.
March 9th, 2007
February 25, 2007 - Here is a story that was running in the U.S. markets last week out of San Francisco:
“The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun a broad investigation into whether Wall Street bank employees are leaking information about big trades to favored clients, such as hedge funds, in an effort to curry favor and has requested a wide range of information from at least four major banks” including Merrill Lynch, UBS, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan. The SEC sought records regarding all stock and option trading data for themselves and their customers for the last two weeks of September. Basically the SEC said that they wanted to discover the extent of “front running” that exists, the act of insiders buying or selling stocks and options ahead of major large volume institutional purchases or sales that virtually guarantees profits. Read more …
February 25th, 2007
February 12, 2007 - If you look at this chart for Newmont mining (NEM) as of February 9, it illustrates that large institutional money is still not on board with gold yet and in addition, for this reason, this a solid anchor for your gold portfolio. How do I know from looking at this chart that institutional money is not on board yet? Because NEM is the most well known major gold stock (actually it may be the only one though I’m not sure) that is a component of the U.S. S&P 500 index. As such, this is the one stock that all institutional managers are familiar with and the one they will dump loads of money into once they finally get on board with gold. Read more …
February 12th, 2007
January 25, 2007 - This past week, I saw a professional newsletter that stated that there was almost nothing good to buy right now. That most major markets including leading emerging markets in China and India were overbought and that a buying opportunity would not present itself until there were major corrections. Though I mostly agree with that statement as it pertains to traditional stocks, this comment reflects how narrowly focused the overwhelming majority of self-proclaimed investment “gurus” out there tend to be. Read more …
January 25th, 2007
January 23, 3007 - Just taking a contrarian position all the time doesn’t mean that you will be right. It takes a much deeper understanding that can be achieved by utilizing the proper information channels that are now available as the information world continues to flatten. Last year, Steve Forbes, publisher of the noted Forbes wealth magazine, went on record at the Las Vegas Gold Show that oil prices would reach $35 a barrel in 2006. Read more …
January 23rd, 2007
January 14, 2007 - In Part I of this three part series, I discussed how the long tail of investment analysis and strategies can help one understand the direction of the U.S. dollar. Here in Part II, I’ll discuss:
How I’ve Used the Long Tail of Investing to Repeatedly Predict the Price Behavior of the Gold
In the SmartKnowledgeU™ newsletter I delivered to subscribers on July 25th, I stated “We believe gold is a great asset to own as you all know by now. In an article you all received several weeks ago, I mentioned that it was a great time to consider buying gold. Read more …
January 14th, 2007
January 11, 2007 - The sharp decline in energy prices in 2007 and the decline in gold has a lot of people running for the hills, including many hedge fund managers who don’t want to become the next Brian Hunter of Amaranth. I’ve stated this before and I’ll state it again. Precious metal ETFs and commodity futures are great for hedge fund managers but terrible for the average investor because hedge fund managers, for the most part, only care about trends and profits in their own wallet (but who doesn’t, right?). But by being able to buy and sell precious metals via ETFs, ETFs have increased volatility in these markets exponentially. Read more …
January 11th, 2007
Q: Is There More to SmartKnowledgeU™ than Just the Zen of Investing (ZOI) Blog?
Just FYI, recently, many people have asked me whether there is more to SmartKnowledgeU™ than just this Zen of Investing blog. The answer is yes. We will be launching a full-fledged online education campus with 23 separate learning modules, exercises, and exams that will enable the individual investor to identify the best risk-reward asset classes as well as the best companies to invest in using a revolutionary investing system that I developed.
Also, I do read all comments in due time and appreciate all comments, including suggestions. In fact one reader suggested that I write a blog entry regarding my favorite asset classes for the next several years. I haven’t yet written a blog entry addressing this request because I address this question in great detail on our coming website. So stay tuned. Our official launch date is just a matter of weeks away.
November 27th, 2006
Q: What Blog Entry Needs No Question?
I guess that latest blog entry wasn’t so light hearted as is the norm with my casual Friday blog entries, so here’s a late addition that should make you smile. This blog entry has no question because the picture to the right says it all. Recently, at a global economic summit in Vietnam, U.S. President Bush, Russia President Putin, Chile President Bachelet and Canadian PM Harper all donned traditional Vietnamese garb for a photo-op. And they all look more ridiculous than Bruce Lee in a Cowboy hat with a lasso.
November 25th, 2006
October 31-2006 -
Things still hectic on the SmartKnowledgeU™ front with time for writing more blog posts at a premium. But on tap is a discussion of the record Dow that isn’t, the record FTSE 100 that isn’t. If you don’t know what I mean, you’ll find out soon enough.
October 31st, 2006
Q: If You Engage in Any On-Line Trading, What is Essential?
Recently, E-Trade reported that Internet fraud perpetrated in client accounts cost the company $18 million in the third quarter while Ameritrade reported losses of $4 million so far this quarter due to similar events. The basic moral of this story is NEVER access your online account unless you employ firewalls with a Norton or Symantec internet security suite. Normally I set my internet security to tight. Occasionally I check the firewall statistics to check if anyone is trying to hack into my computers to steal information, passwords, etc. and there are literally hundreds of attacks on my computers daily from the U.S., Africa, the Phillipines - you name it.
Also, don’t make the mistake of accessing your online accounts while traveling on vacation in public intenet cafes and/or through unsecure wifi access. Many times, spyware installed on computers in public internet cafes will capture keystrokes and enable someone to steal usernames and passwords from financial accounts. If you must access your accounts while traveling, bring a laptop or wifi enabled mobile phone with you and ensure that your wifi network is secure. To read the full article regarding fraud on online trading accounts, click here.
October 29th, 2006
Q: How Do I Know that My Blog Entries are On Point?
I am keeping with my new tradition of keeping my Friday entries light and/or humorous. Last Friday, I blogged about Chris Gardner. This week, I really wasn’t sure what to write about until God gave me the idea. I wanted to respond to a very, succinct comment today about my Tuesday blog entry titled “How Will the Changing Global Economy Affect the Evolution of Your Blog?”. One comment sent to me about that particular blog entry was a mere three words:” You’re an idiot”. Now I learned when I was about five years old not to let words hurt my feelings. You know, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Last week, Will Smith taught me that there will always be verbal haters out there. He stated, “People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you, you can’t do it. Don’t ever let someone tell you you can’t do something.” Now dems some Godly words, Mr. Smith!
So yes, I realize that there will always be people that disagree with me. I’m okay with that. After all, I’m not, you know, God, so I don’t expect to be right all of the time. As long as I’m right far more than I’m wrong, then this blog will continue to be useful to most people. But then I looked at who sent me the comment, and that’s when my world started to crumble. The comment of “You’re an idiot” came from, Oh my…GOD!!! I kid you not. The guy who sent me the comment signed his name as “God”. And his email address domain was heaven.com, the associated URL was http://www-dot-church-dot-com (this stuff is way too good for me just to be making it up!), and even the number of words he used were just so… Read more …
October 19th, 2006
October 18, 2006 -
Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas billionaire casino mogul, recently agreed to sell a 1932 Picasso painting “La Reve” to Connecticut hedge fund billionare Steven Cohen for USD $139 million, a $91 million profit in just 9 years of holding the painting. That is until he was showing off the painting in his office to a bunch of friends, and in an animated gesture, wiped out a $91 million gain when his elbow plowed through the painting. tearing a couple of three inch long gashes.
However, the bigger point to take away from this story is that before Wynn’s blunder, he had found a buyer willing to pay $139 million for the purchase of a single painting. It is quite evident that the fine art market is still alive and healthy. In India, Tyeb Mehta paintings that sold for a mere $100,000 four years ago are now selling for more than $1.5MM. I don’t know where else you can find these types of returns. Read the full story here from a guest that was present in Wynn’s office when his elbow went crashing through the Picasso.
October 18th, 2006
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