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So far this year, the Sound Advice portfolio is up 15.4%, more than double the 6.7% rise in the S&P500. Twenty of the 26 Sound Advice model portfolio positions are up (14 by 10% or more), four are essentially unchanged, and two are down slightly.  We have an average gain of 33% based on the price at which each stock or mutual fund was recommended. We dedicated last month’s Issue (Sound Advice, January 5, 2012), to the concerns we had about Europe, and the dampening effect it will have ...

Since the first of January, the Sound Advice portfolio is up 10.3 percent (not counting dividends). Twenty-two of the 26 Sound Advice model portfolio recommendations are up, three are unchanged, and one is down slightly. The Green light given by the Sound Advice Diffusion Index of Leading Economic Indicators given in March 2009, very close to the bottom turning point of the market, remains in force. Accordingly, we have remained bullish on the market.  As we explained in the January 5...

In its first bond auction of the new year, Italy raised €12 billion. Most of the bond auction was €8.5 billion of 12-month bonds at a yield of 2.735 percent which was down sharply from 6 percent in recent months. The balance of the action was bonds maturing at the end of May at a yield of 1.6 percent. We note that these are very short-term bonds which were easier to sell. However, because the auction was considered a success, yields on the benchmark 10-year bonds declined to 6.6 percent on the ...

This is the final posting for 2011, a year—with one trading day left—that is ending with many of the same questions and challenges that dogged the economy and equities for most of the year: is America climbing out of a recession that statistically ended two years ago, or are we teetering toward a second episode? Has our domestic political structure become so poisoned that it has gone beyond gridlock into paralysis? Is Europe able to avoid a financial meltdown comparable or worse than what follow...

Explosive days such as Monday (11/28) and Wednesday (11/30) get everyone’s attention. When the most commonly watched benchmark, the Dow Industrials, shoot up as they did on Wednesday 490 points (4.2%) and 291 points (3.5%) on Monday, it leads the evening news and makes everyone feel better. We’re not back to where the market last peaked on 10/28 but neither have we given back much of this week’s gains. Over this week, the Dow has added 7%, the S&P 7.4%, the Nasdaq 7.6% and the pan-market Wi...

If the markets are the measure, we go into Thanksgiving with little to be thankful for. On the last day before the U.S. markets shutter for the holiday, we had the worst of the last six bad days with the benchmarks down anywhere from the Dow’s 2.1% and the Nasdaq’s 2.4%. The Sound Advice portfolio gave back 2%. There’s no secret as to why the market is so dour. To mix holiday symbols, all we are seeing are lumps of coal: Europe again is unhinged and the Congressional  Supercommittee, c...

The volatility storm continues, and most of that has been toward lower prices. The major benchmarks over the past week dropped anywhere from the Dow’s 2.9% to the Nasdaq’s 4%. The Sound Advice portfolio lost 4.1%. Right now, there is a tendency to assume the worst and sell. Consider how investors are reacting to headlines. Though we aren’t happy when our positions fall, we’ve learned that drops, when they reflect uninformed and/or panicky selling, offer opportunities, even when they occur in a ...

Well, it was another week that made those not in the market wonder why anyone would choose to dance with a cyclone. This morning, while I shaved at my gym, I was treated to a harangue from the guy next to me about why he never again would get involved with stocks because he just could not tolerate or begin to understand the jagged volatility he was witnessing. If you’ve kept your eyes closed over the last few weeks, more than half the trading days since the start of October have had the benchma...

The market has now been hammered on two successive trading days as all the ghosts and goblins from the last market dive have risen up. Sound Advice kept pace with the benchmarks. Front and center is Greece, which reminded us—as if we needed a reminder—that regardless of how resolute and ready the Europeans say they are to put an end to their solvency crisis, the whole thing could fall apart overnight.  In fact, it did just that as we slept and woke up today to a Greek government that i...

It’s been quite a week, marked by the appearance of resolute progress in Europe and real evidence that the U.S.  economy, after a shaky couple of quarters, is regaining traction. As we noted in last Friday’s post, “today’s unexpected jump [in stock prices] had more to do with that quaint, almost neglected investment aspect: profits and higher expectations. General Electric was the headliner, surprising Wall Street with far better than expected results, and alerting investors that perhaps t...