It has been an embarrassing time for most big Wall Street banks. In the third quarter of 2007, NYSE-reporting firms posted their worst quarterly performance on record, collectively amassing $3.8 billion in losses. Of course, their balance sheets...
When the search for alpha takes conservative portfolios such as the Harvard and Yale endowments into the land of bellies, beans and bullion, investors and their advisors take notice. Consider that David Swensen, in charge of Yale's portfolio (and...
Using a wide-ranging investing style, Peter Lynch dominated the fund world during the 1980s. The manager of Fidelity Magellan was known to pick stocks from all over the market: He would buy small bank stocks one year and large industrials the next...
THE QUALIFICATIONS: Anyone can nominate a friend or colleague who meets the following criteria: A minimum of three years in the industry as a producing retail registered rep or investment advisor rep. A minimum of one year with his or her present...
In His New Book, Donald Trump admonishes us to Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life (Collins, $26.95). Tired of thinking small and failing to kick ass, I ventured to the Javitz Convention Center on New York City's west side one weekend in...
Much has changed since Elliot Spitzer's efforts exploded the well-entrenched preferred list model for mutual fund distribution. Centralized home-office due-diligence teams are now in the driver's seat, with advisors selecting products for their...
Ignore the Next Big Thing? Who would do such a thing? The fee-based model, with its steady stream of revenue, is an attractive way of doing business for lots of advisors. And it has been billed as the newest rage for years now. But there are still...
As Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and other firms take write-offs of about $100 billion (and counting) due to the credit bubble, you might have had this gnawing feeling: This is familiar I've seen this movie before. And you would have been correct. You...
Financial firms have written down more than $100 billion in capital (at the time of this writing). And, the destruction of capital is expected to spread now that some bond insurers seem to be on the lip of insolvency. Not to pick on our friends at...
Maybe Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain just wanted to test his audience. At an investment conference today, Thain said that Merrill would abandon CDO underwriting and other structured-credit businesses, the very ones that led to the subprime meltdown...