Americans stopped having babies when the financial crisis hit in 2008. I exaggerate, of course; there were nearly 4 million babies born in 2012.  Yet this number was an 8% decline over the pre-crisis level, and this despite a rise in the number of women of peak childbearing age. When you look at the fertility...Read More

Jeff Reeves at The Slant did a write-up on Facebook ($FB) and GSV Capital ($GSVC) that featured some comments from my last newsletter: You’ve heard of Facebook, but you’ve probably never heard of GSV Capital. But if I told you GSV Capital is a major Facebook investor gapped up almost 50% in the last month, you’re...Read More

My style is a little different from most contributors to TraderPlanet.  At heart, I’m a value investor, and my holding periods for quality stocks can be months, years, or even decades under the right set of conditions. This is not to say I’m an ideological believer in “buy and hold” investing, however.  Absolutely not.  But...Read More

Sex. There, I got your attention. I find that when I start an article with the word “demographics,” eyes glaze over.  But when I start the same article with “sex,” the reader snaps to attention.  Funny how that works. Yet in the context of the economy and the financial markets, they are the same thing. ...Read More

There is a common problem among many trading and investing books.  They “have limited value to their intended audiences.”  Or, to be more direct about it, “They suck.” So says professional trader and popular financial blogger Brian Lund in the introduction to his new book Trading: The Best of the Best.  By and large, I...Read More