Greater and Lesser Fools Grizzled investors will tell you that if you feel euphoric after a trade, it wasn’t a good one. You should feel awful and be second-guessing yourself. That’s the sign of a great trade.” –Andy Kessler, “A Stock-Trading Dupe is Born Every Minute”; The Wall Street Journal (2/21/2021). Admittedly, three weeks does seem...Read More
Ground-scraping interest rates turn savers into speculators and quarantined millennials into day traders. They facilitate overborrowing, suppress market signals, misdirect investment dollars, and promote the dubious business of turning well-financed public companies into heavily indebted private ones.” –James Grant, “Powell Has Become the Fed’s Dr. Feelgood”; The Wall Street Journal 6/28/2020. Except for Jim Grant’s...Read More
Quantitative Easing for Stocks [Note to Readers: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway (“Berkshire”), or any other entity referenced. Edina Realty is a subsidiary of Berkshire.] With the Dow in free fall, investors are looking to the cavalry (the Fed) to once again...Read More
Dow Jones Drops 414 Points to Close at 22,445 Say what you will about the housing market’s up’s and down’s. But, I don’t know anyone who bought a home in early October for $270,000, that’s suddenly worth only $225,000 scarcely 10 weeks later. Yet, that’s almost exactly what’s just happened in the stock market. Just subtract...Read More
Buy/Sell Now or Wait? With the November election finally(!) on the horizon, at least some Buyers and Sellers are trying to decide whether market conditions — and by market conditions, most observers mean interest rates — will be more or less favorable once U.S. voters have spoken. The dilemma: whether to act now or wait....Read More
Contrarian Indicator: My Perfect, 7-for-7 Forecasting Record Want to make a fortune? Don’t follow my advice. Do the opposite. In the interest of full disclosure, herewith are all the market calls I got wrong the last few years (in my defense, so did almost every other so-called “expert”): 1. Stocks: Prediction: ↓ Actual: ↑ Explanation:...Read More