March 2008

Given how wildly volatile the markets have been of late, I was remembering back to what it was like in late 2006 when the VIX (a measurement of volatility in the markets) was bottoming out around 10. There was a span of less than 1% move days in the S&P 500 that David Merkel and I kept tabs on. My last post ... read more

The financial discussion I have most often with people when they actually open up and talk about their lives is about how they’ve lost big money over the years in one sort of trading scheme or tip sheet or newsletter or TV show or another as they try to make the quick buck. There ain’t no such thing as a quick buck. You gotta be patient and conservative…and if you are and you work hard and ... read more

The multi-talented Mark Lieberman, senior economist at Fox Biz, just sent out this to all of us at the network: GDP grew at a 0.6% quarterly rate anualized in 4Q '07, according to today's "final" report, the same growth rate as reported in the advance and preliminary estimates. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, this is the first time all three GDP reports have been the same since BEA ... read more

Icahn's down pretty huge on this Motorola trade as far as I can tell, and he's gonna need it back to $15 or so to make any money on it, again as far as I can tell from having been following his activism in this name over the last few years.  But he's finally getting a large part of what he's been looking for, as Moto finally announces that it's going to be spinning off its handset division from ... read more

One of my favorite Thoreau quotes is "As if you can kill time without injuring eternity". I quote it often, and in my most recent relationship, I had quoted it in a discussion about why nothing good can come when you're out after about 1am or so. I'd used the Thoreau's wise words to underscore a bigger point as I often think of it in my own head, and that is that you've got to keep hard at it ... read more

I must have written hundreds of articles and blog posts for RealMoney.com, on these pages, for The Financial Times and elsewhere for the last few years about how Google's dominance will grow for a long time. Take a look at the Tech page on NYTimes.com today.   It's really all about Google, isn't it?  Fastest growing ... read more

Manic Monday (yes we have a case of them).....We have the following guests booked for this evening: -Steve Grasso, Stuart Frankel Managing Director -Rich Edson, Fox Business -Shibani Joshi, Fox Business -Christian Weller, Center For American Progress(Via Dc Remote) -Andrew Napolitano, Fox News -Ken Mansfield, fmr Beatle Manager, former Exec. for Big Apple Records Join Cody and Rebecca Gomez for ... read more