As much as my real estate broker insists that the bottom is in for residential real estate, the raw and unvarnished data still does not support that belief. This morning, the February S&P 500 Case Shiller real estate index put in new lows for nine major markets, as well as for both composite indexes. Overall, [...]

It would be easy to ignore what is happening on the other side of the world, especially when they involve the French. But to do so today in this interconnected and interdependent world would be extremely hazardous to your wealth. When a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, the tsunami hits Japan. That is exactly [...]

My Apple April $450-$480 call spread expired deep in the money at the close on Friday. Legally, these expire at midnight on Saturday night, so your broker won’t take these off your statement until the following Monday. The position should be zeroed out and you should receive a cash credit. You will also find that [...]

With all of the handwringing about the zero return on US equities for the last decade, I thought I’d better take a look at the long term charts. It’s very clear that we have been trading in a gigantic sideways narrowing wedge for the last 18 years, defined by 14,000 on the upside and 6,000 [...]

After spending all of this year ignoring the fiscal disaster that the US is facing at the end of 2012, markets are finally taking off the blinders. That might explain why the S&P 500 has dropped 4.3% so far from its April 1 peak and why it may have more to come. Remember the debt [...]

With gasoline prices staying stubbornly high, the number of hybrid and electric cars manufactured is soaring skyward. Toyota Motors (TM) is far and away the biggest beneficiary as the world’s largest manufacturer of hybrid cars with its Prius family that now extends to five models. Nissan Motors (NSANY) is expected to complete construction of a [...]