One Sure Thing When it Comes to Investing (Really) “Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates for Third Time in 2019” –Headline, The NYT (10/30/19). Let me see if I’ve got this straight: If the economy is strong, corporate earnings are growing, unemployment low, etc. . . . the market goes up because the fundamentals are good....Read More
Never Mind That Late 2018 Stock Market Swoon “Making money in the stock market is easy: only buy stocks that go up. If they don’t go up, don’t buy ’em.” —-Mark Twain I finally figured out why investing — in the stock market or anywhere else — is so vexing. Because there are only two...Read More
Trying to Save His Own Skin . . . by Threatening Everyone Else’s “Impeach me if you want to see a stock market crash.” –President Donald Trump; AOL.com (1/19/2019). [Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway (“Berkshire”), or any other entity referenced....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
Relief at Gas Pump No, it doesn’t make up for the vertigo-inducing gyrations (mostly down) on Wall Street the last six weeks or so. But, it’s a little consolation: dramatically lower gas prices. At Costco, the price for regular (87) octane gas recently was $2.159. For Costco members (I am), it’s actually even lower: net...Read More
“Program Trading Gone Wild,” the Sequel? What’s behind gyrating stocks the last three weeks or so? (I know, it seems much longer). Here are two theories: One. Age-old human emotion — fickle, fear-and-greed driven human psychology — is the culprit. In particular, less experienced “retail” investors who chased high-flying tech stocks, and are now freaking...Read More
