Time for the Bloodletting!
6/23/2008 By MarketMinder editorial staff
What do you get when you combine the subprime mess with recent hedge fund debacles? An archetypal regret-shunning hootenanny!
Zigzags and Wild Polygons
6/12/2008 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Stocks have experienced some downward volatility of late. Times like these call for yogic breathing and maybe a little energy work.
A Question of Semantics
1/28/2008 By MarketMinder editorial staff
The question of “correction” vs. “bear” is really a question of semantics.
America for Sale
1/16/2008 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Fears surrounding foreign governments’ investments in US firms is unwarranted. Capital is capital—the freer it flows the better.
Top Market Stories of 2007
12/31/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
A look back at the top market stories of 2007.
Groundhog Day 2008
12/18/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Many of the market gurus have made their 2008 stock market predictions. Before making your own, we’d advise some critical thinking and skepticism.
You Call that Volatility?
12/17/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
There’s nothing unusual or alarming about recent market volatility. Though we may not remember it this way, market volatility is normal and should be expected.
Odds On
12/14/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Those looking for the “odds” of a recession are barking up the wrong tree. Economies are not games of chance.
Feel the Flow
12/11/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Investors dread decreasing home prices will translate to lower net worth and slower consumer spending. But the Federal Reserve’s latest report on the US household reveals the largely unappreciated strength and vigor of the American consumer.
Recession Quiz
12/6/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Folks seem to believe the US is headed for a recession. We’d bet most of those folks would fail our quiz.
Proof of Theory
10/18/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Investors would be wise to abandon theories and stick to the facts when making portfolio decisions.
Fear
9/11/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Acts of terrorism are vile, tragic and significant. But they’ve accomplished little in the way of decimating the free-market capitalist economies of the west, which today thrive at a near unprecedented pace six years after 9/11.
They’d Rather Be in the Casket
8/27/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
A recent survey shows folks fear an impending credit crunch more than the specter of terrorism. Meanwhile, T-bill rates are climbing back toward the Fed Funds rate—both very bullish signals.
Who Wants to be Normal?
8/21/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
When you were young, did you dream that one day you would grow up to be fairly normal? Maybe you really set your sights high and hoped to live an amazingly average life? No? We didn’t think so.
High Comedy
7/24/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
All joking aside, a good sense of humor is vital for investing success.
Height Fright
7/19/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
New market highs trigger an instinctual, but potentially dangerous, reaction in investors—fear of heights.
Revisionist History
7/6/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Russia’s attempt at revisionist history is a classic example of a common investor bias.
Danger: the Only Safety
7/5/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Stock market history features a litany of dangerous ideas and thinkers in the quest to know what others don’t.
Buyback Bonanza
6/14/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Well, here we are, midway through June.
52 Card Pick-Up
6/8/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Two brothers, ages ten and four, are killing time on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
I Can Has Cheezburger?
6/5/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
More than awkward grammar and poor spelling, that odd phrase is (perhaps regrettably) a rapidly spreading meme.
Loopy Mind Models
5/18/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Mind-bending doesn’t begin to describe it.
Obsessing Over Black Swans
5/1/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
These days there just isn’t a lot of big news.
A Perverse Fantasy Life
4/27/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Most of life is fantasy.
Stay in May
4/23/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Here it comes.
Demand? No Such Thing.
4/20/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Equity prices are ultimately determined by basic supply and demand.
Anchors Away
4/10/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
The streak is over.
Jelly Bean Investing
4/5/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" says Homer Simpson, one of our favorite sages. Rarely has such wisdom come from one so yellow and two-dimensional.
This Ain't a Scene…it's a (Cognitive) Arms Race
3/22/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Why are free market-based systems the optimal framework for an economy? One way to understand it is through the brain’s evolutionary composition.
New Century, Old Worries
3/12/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Have you noticed how quickly theories about the current market correction are being spawned then subsequently abandoned? We went from China, to the carry trade, to hedge funds, to the new "Daylight Savings Y2K", to subprime lending all in about two weeks.
To Seek The Grail
3/2/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
"Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king born of all England.
Stone Age Forecasting
2/26/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Do you know Abbey Joseph Cohen? How about Richard Bernstein? If you’re an enthusiastic investor who follows the popular press, you probably do.
Fun With Numbers
2/22/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
- Over 100 million Americans drink coffee every day…that’s over 36.5 billion cups in a year! At about 50 beans per cup, that’s over 1,825,000,000,000 beans a year! At that rate, how could we possibly hope to re-grow enough beans for the next year’s brew? It’s too much of a strain!
When Good is Bad
2/15/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
The mission of most investors is to find the best companies to put their money into.
I ♥ Investing
2/14/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Around here we always say "your brain can trick you.
How Big is Big? Part II
2/6/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Yesterday in this space we talked about framing and understanding how big big really is.
How Big is Big?
2/5/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Is this a big number? $87,000,000,000 What about this one? $2,900,000,000,000 Are they both big? Is one big and the other bigger? Surely they couldn’t be small! Ponder that for a moment…we’ll get back to it.
Knowing and Understanding
2/2/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
- What I cannot create, I do not understand.
- Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
Hawkish Behavior
1/20/2007 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Nobel prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman is at it again.
Avoid Some Yearend Pitfalls
12/29/2006 By MarketMinder editorial staff
If you’re like most people, you’re probably indulging in a bit of yearend introspection as 2007 approaches.
Brain Discord
12/9/2006 By MarketMinder editorial staff
We have to live with ambiguity and discord every day.
Standard of Misconception
12/7/2006 By MarketMinder editorial staff
We aren’t going to wax political, or even philosophical, on income inequality or standard of living inequality in the world.
Reckless Teen Investors
11/4/2006 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Sharon Begley’s science column in today’s Wall Street Journal is an insightful look into the psychological underpinnings of reckless teen behavior.
North Korea Can't Nuke Stocks
10/11/2006 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Fears are rising around the world over the purported testing of a nuclear weapon in North Korea.
What Happened to the Big Storms?
9/22/2006 By MarketMinder editorial staff
Here we are in mid-September of 2006 and not a single hurricane has made landfall in the US.