NEW YORK (Fortune) — Very few of the esoteric funds touted during the last boom protected investors from the severe downdraft of 2008, but some stumbled far less than others.
Continue reading Permanent Portfolio Fund – A Secure Mutual Fund

Shares of Dendreon (DNDN) skyrocketed Tuesday after the Seattle biotech company announced positive results in a clinical trial for its prostate cancer drug Provenge.

The stock nearly tripled in early trading before pulling back slightly, indicating that a potent mix of a short squeeze and increased hopes that the Food and Drug Administration will approve the drug were at work on the volatile stock.
Continue reading Stocks to watch – Dendreon (DNDN)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Oil ended just shy of $50 a barrel Thursday as investors weighed a glut in supply amid dour sentiment about the economy. Crude oil for June delivery added 77 cents to finish the day at $49.62 a barrel.
Continue reading Still thinking of investing in oil?

There are many misconceptions in investing; whether in stocks or bonds or in building an investment portfolio in general. Carl Richards at Behavior Gap has an interesting article in getrichslowly.org

Continue reading Basics in investing

This will be a very quick post. I am trying to see how fast I can churn out a quick 300 to 400 word post entry on Finance. Let’s see how fast I can do it.

Apparently, these days, stocks are getting to be a bad investment. This is true if you’ve put most of your money in stocks that are traded in the United States. This is because the market is not realyl very optimistic. People try to be optimistic because that is the culture that has been ingrained into this great country but in reality, you have party pooper economists who still think that the economy is about to crash again into a double dip recession or depression. Double-dip is the catch phrase of the moment and it is seriously starting to annoy me. Financial reports are starting to annoy me. Companies are reporting big profits and growth but a lot of those profits are coming from cost cutting. When you cut costs, you cut jobs and you cut consumption. You are taking money away from the market. This is seriously wrong and I don’t know what anyone can do to fix this. Even if I type up seventy words per minute, that will only mean I can take only 5 minutes to make a 350 word articleat full thoroughput. Ironic. Therefore, if I were to invest in stocks right now, I will think that I will be prudent to move the stocks to Asia. That’s right folks. The money is moving east to the countries with huge domestic markets, optimistic consumers, and people who are driving exports. This is the new world order. Asia is coming out. The best stocks are Asian stocks. People are getting rich overnight it’s insane. So people if you ask me, do what you should do and take your money out of Wall Street where profit is the bottom line. Move out of your parents’ house and got to Asia. The money is there. The people are there.

The first world order is going to be gone in a while. People don’t like to work there. Asian stocks powered by Asian workers who work 60 hours a week will be the new powerhouse. There is no such thing as rewarding laziness here.

By definition a high-yield bonds is a high paying bond with a lower credit rating than investment-grade corporate bonds. It also has a lower credit rating than Treasury bonds and municipal bonds. The upside of this is that because of the higher risk of default, these bonds pay a higher yield than investment grade bonds.

Based on the two main credit rating agencies, high-yield bonds carry a rating of ‘BBB’ or lower from S&P, and ‘Baa’ or lower from Moody’s. Bonds with ratings above these levels are considered investment grade. Credit ratings can be as low as ‘D’ (currently in default), and most bonds with ‘C’ ratings or lower carry a high risk of default; to compensate for this risk, yields will typically be very high.

An intersting article at financialhighway.com asks the question: Are Canadian Bank dividends safe?

With Canadian banks being a significant dividend payer, they still rank pretty high in the investor’s list. But is it stable enough to hold.

This prompted me to do some due diligence and research a little more about possible dividend cuts. The banks are currently paying out between 55% AND somewhat over 65% in dividends; I think we all agree the bank earnings will continue to drop for the next few quarters. This brings up two important questions: how low will they go? And how low can they go before we see potential cuts? The first question is one that nobody can answer with any certainty, so I will focus on the second question.

Link

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks slumped Tuesday, with the Dow industrials ending at a 3-month low, as the government’s bank rescue plan failed to reassure investors burned by the 14-month old recession.

Treasury prices rallied, lowering the corresponding yields, and the dollar slipped versus other major currencies.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 382 points, or 4.6%, closing at its lowest point since Nov. 20, the date considered by many experts to have been the low of the bear market. The Dow had lost as much as 422 points in the afternoon.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX) index lost 43 points, or 4.9%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 66 points, or 4.2%.

The TARP announcement “was a huge disappointment,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital. “There’s been an incredible buildup for weeks and then they release a plan that has little in the way of details.”

The permanent portfolio fund is a type of investment that is made to offer a solid performance whatever of what is going on in the market. Here are the basics of permanent portfolio funds and what they have to offer you as an investor.

Permanent Portfolio Fund

The idea for permanent portfolio funds that you have a mutual fund that could withstand any market conditions. This was accomplished by investing in many different types of securities. Putting emphasis on investing in things that you could find outside of the stock market.

A permanent portfolio school of thought was to invest in an equal proportion of stocks, bonds, cash, and gold. Therefore, the original investment mix was 25% of each type of investment. In today’s conditions the current composition of the fund is 25% precious metals, 10% Swiss franc bonds, 15% real estate and natural resource stocks, 15% aggressive growth stocks, and 35% in government securities such as T-bills. In this way investors funds regardless of what happened in the economy feel more secure. Although with this fund you have to expect a slow and steady growth curve. This type of fund has been proven to gain value steadily over time. We encourage you to try it, if you want to create a fund that is somewhat secure and has steady gains as time goes on. At best, you will have an asset that will have paid out some income at the same time have grown in value with a relatively low-risk investment approach that lets you keep your money over the long-term. It sounds very viable especially in these volatile times when the stock market tends to fluctuate and the stability and strength economy is somewhat unsure, the permanent portfolio may work for you.

A deteriorating economy brings two benefits for profit-minded colleges. Rising joblessness creates an army of potential degree-seekers, while falling advertisement rates allow for cheap pitches. Of course, students must be able to come up with tuition. A giant fiscal stimulus bill pending in the U.S. Senate carries $16 billion of proposed increases for federal student loans, grants and work-study programs. Even without the fresh funds, Carmel, Ind.-based ITT Educational Services (ESI:  128.87, +0.78, +0.60%), which operates 105 technical institutes in 37 states, seems to be getting on fine. In its fourth quarter the company achieved a 29% jump in new-student enrollment — its 26th consecutive quarterly increase. Sales for the quarter rose 21% and earnings per share improved 34%. Shares have gained 45% in six months, and now fetch an immodest 21 times this year’s earnings forecast.

http://www.smartmoney.com/