No matter what anyone promises you today, this week, or this year, your taxes are going up. I don’t care if you are still licking your wounds from the January 1 payroll tax rise, or the federal tax hike for millionaires, which in my case took my rate up from 35% to 39.6%. At least [...]

Global Market Comments April 30, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (TRADE ALERT SERVICE POSTS TWO YEAR 90% PROFIT), (MAY 8 LAS VEGAS STRATEGY LUNCHEON), (IT’S OFFICIAL: THERE’S NOTHING TO DO),  (SPY), (TLT), (JNK), (DINNER WITH ELIOT SPITZER) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treas Bond (TLT) SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond (JNK)

The Trade Alert Service of the Mad Hedge Fund Trader has posted a 90.6% profit since the inception of the service 30 months ago. That compares to a modest 21% return for the Dow average during the same period. This raises the average annualized return for the service to 36.2%, elevating it to the absolute [...]

Come join me for lunch at the Mad Hedge Fund Trader’s Global Strategy Update, which I will be conducting in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday, May 8, 2013. An excellent meal will be followed by a wide-ranging discussion and an extended question and answer period. I’ll be giving you my up to date view on [...]

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why New York’s former governor and federal prosecutor, Eliot Spitzer, wanted to invite me to dinner. He wasn’t flogging a book or promoting a movie, and he certainly wasn’t running for office again. But I went anyway, thinking perhaps the notorious “Client No. 9” might let [...]

Global Market Comments April 29, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (MAY 8 LAS VEGAS STRATEGY LUNCHEON), (THE HARD NUMBERS BEHIND SELLING IN MAY), (SPY), (WHEN THE DEMOGRAPHIC HEADWIND BECOMES A TAILWIND), (ONLY BUY COMPANIES YOU HATE) (BP) (GS), (C), (PFE), (MO) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) BP plc (BP) The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) Citigroup, [...]

Come join me for lunch at the Mad Hedge Fund Trader’s Global Strategy Update, which I will be conducting in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday, May 8, 2013. An excellent meal will be followed by a wide-ranging discussion and an extended question and answer period. I’ll be giving you my up to date view on [...]

If I had a nickel for every time that I heard the term “Sell in May and go away” this year, I could retire. Oops, I already am retired! In any case, I thought that I would dig out the hard numbers and see how true this old trading adage is. It turns out that [...]

Regular readers of this letter are well aware of the enormous headwind facing all assets classes caused by the retirement of 80 billion baby boomers, which started in earnest at the beginning of 2012. With only 65 million Gen Xer’s of the following generation, who is going to buy the assets of their retiring parents? [...]

Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams argues that you should invest in companies you hate, because only the most unprincipled and rapacious firms make the greatest profits. Moral bankruptcy is a great leading indicator of success, and the best ones can get you to balance your wallet on the end of your nose and bark like a [...]

Global Market Comments April 26, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (WHY I’M COVERING MY BOND SHORTS), (TLT), (TBT) (STEVE JOBS’ LAST LAUGH), (AAPL), (GRAPES OF WRATH REDUX) iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treas Bond (TLT) ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (TBT) Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Nothing beats instant gratification. Bragging rights are nice too. On Monday, when I strapped on this trade, angry readers emailed me to tell me that I was truly out of my mind. Apple was an ex-growth company, had lost its ability to innovate, shed its “cool” factor, and had fallen behind Samsung with its large [...]