Archive for 2008
« Previous EntriesANNOUNCEMENT: The Winner of the Latest AFM Giveaway!
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008I had quite a few entries into the first AFM Library Giveaway that I posted last week. The randomly-selected winner of the library of five books listed on this page is commenter #9, Stacey.
Stacey’s been a reader of AFM for years now and I think this is the first time she has [...]
WSJ Editorial: We Can Lower Oil Prices Now
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008I read a very interesting opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled, We Can Lower Oil Prices Now. The author of the editorial is Martin Feldstein, who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan and is a professor at Harvard and a member of The Wall Street Journal’s board [...]
One Unplanned Consequence of Our Kitchen Renovation
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008Remember our kitchen renovation from last year? Well, I recently discovered an unplanned consequence of that renovation. I found it out after I signed up for an online account with our electric company and started looking at our billing history. Here’s a comparison of our energy usage in 2008 and 2007:
Bottom line: [...]
Bozo’s Question of the Day
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008Today’s Question of the Day comes to us from AFM reader, Bozo:
Given all the pros and cons as of late regarding the stock market, and the classic analysis of John Bogle (formerly of Vanguard) on index investing and “not trying to time the market”, it might be fun to ask:
“Have you tried to catch ups [...]
2008 vs. History
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008I know you’re probably getting tired of looking at this stuff but I thought these two graphics I put together are interesting.
The first one is a bar chart comparison of this year’s monthly total returns for the S&P 500 Index vs. the long-term average for that month. As you can see, it hasn’t been [...]
It’s Official: June Stunk!
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008Take a look at this table I downloaded from Standard & Poor’s website:
The financial services sector alone was down over 18% for just the month of June!
Of course the question on everybody’s mind is:
Is this a buying opportunity?
Well, I’m not one to time the market but a recent article ($) in the Wall Street Journal [...]
How Big of an Impact Has the Falling Dollar Had on the Price of Oil?
Monday, June 30th, 2008OPEC’s starting to tick me off. First they say they are ‘unhappy’ about high oil prices. Then, Bloomberg.com reported recently that OPEC’s President is predicting oil to go to $170 per barrel by the end of the year:
OPEC President Chakib Khelil predicted that the price of oil will climb to $170 a barrel [...]
Oil Speculators Aren’t The Problem
Monday, June 30th, 2008There’s a very interesting Fortune article entitled In Defense of Oil ‘Speculators’ that I recommend checking out.
I am not an expert on the energy markets, and therefore I appreciated this article, which explains in simple terms some basic economic and futures trading principles - and common misconceptions. Here are a few interesting [...]
We’re Looking at the Second Worst June in S&P History
Sunday, June 29th, 2008As of Friday’s close, the S&P 500 Index is down 8.55% on a total return basis for the month of June. If things don’t improve during Monday’s trading, this June’s performance will be the worst June performance in S&P 500 Index history and the second worst in the S&P Index’s history. Remember, the [...]
OT: Wal-Mart’s Changing Its Logo
Saturday, June 28th, 2008From this:
To this:
Source: Wall Street Journal
According to the Wall Street Journal, the logo will be white letters on an orange background followed by a white sunburst. Another big change is that “Wal-Mart” will now be “Walmart”.
It’s definitely different. I suppose it does make Walmart look a little more up-to-date. Unfortunately, they still [...]