Question: How do you know ahead of time when a garden-variety correction is about to turn into a bear market rout? Answer:  You don’t. I would love to tell you that there is a tried and true way to make that distinction ahead of time, but there isn’t.  At best, you can look at past...Read More

For a year that started with one of the best first quarters in history, the second quarter has proven to be something of a disappointment. On the first trading day of June, the U.S. averages had their worst performance of 2012, pushing the Dow Industrials into negative territory for the year. The S&P 500 is...Read More

“Buy low and sell high” is the standard advice of any value investor. It can also be remarkably hard to put into practice. You see, we humans are herd animals, and we tend to think and act as groups, particularly during times of stress. Call it the primal human instinct to seek strength in numbers....Read More

By the time you read this article, Greece may or may not still be in the Eurozone.  But whether Greece is in or out, the European sovereign debt crisis will almost certainly still be raging on.  The focus of investor worry has, in any event, moved westward to Spain.  The Spanish 10-year bond yield hit...Read More

It’s a little early for Christmas in July, but now is the time for investors to be putting together their “Christmas lists” of sorts. Recently, I wrote a piece that described an old investment strategy of Sir John Templeton (see “An Anniversary We’d Prefer to Forget”).  Sir John would make a list of companies he’d...Read More