The writing is on the wall for the slowdown in Chinese economic growth.  Unsustainable hard asset construction has been crucial for the cyclical buoyancy to many commodities such as iron, copper, crude oil, etc.  This Asian growth has been vital as the traditional economic heavyweights have been hindered through a severe recession, and several different...Read More

I enjoy this guy’s writings as I think he provides excellent commentary.  This article on what really matters in finding an attractive investment is particularly helpful to investors. http://www.gurufocus.com/news/168996/what-ben-grahams-mr-market-metaphor-really-means INVESTING IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS INVOLVES RISKS. OPTIONS ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS.Read More

In what seems like a pretty horrendous investment to me, HSBC is offering a structured note that pays 7% a year as long as AAPL doesn’t fall by more than 7.6%.  After the huge run-up in the stock a 7.6% drop in price would be nothing, and to give up the potential upside on this...Read More

The US Treasury announced that they have liquidated the $225 Billion of mortgage debt acquired during the financial crisis for a profit of $25 Billion.  Much of this debt was termed “toxic” and was the source of tremendous trepidation during the worst of the crisis.  It is important to keep in mind that price is...Read More

Citigroup locked in profits by selling a small stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.  This is significant due to the fact that Citigroup is continuing to improve their capital position by shedding non-core assets.  Due to the substantial losses Citigroup has incurred during the financial crisis, increasing profitability both increases capital through retained earnings, but also...Read More

This article was pretty interesting not that I think you should really make any investment decisions based on it.  We are taking advantage of the reduction in volatility by buying back some of our sold options which we have already made most of the profits on.  The hope would be that any increase in volatility...Read More

At TTCM we have long been advocating the undervaluation that we see in the Swiss drug maker Novartis.  The company is valued as though it has no growth prospects, but when you look at the pipeline, and the different components of the company, we believe that they have the ability to grow EPS by 7-10%...Read More

Further evidence of the improving economy is seen by the index of home builders confidence which has reached a five year high.  Housing inventory is going down and prices have been depressed due to the high rate of distressed sales.  While consensus is that the housing recovery will take some time, I believe that there...Read More

Reading this article really hits home because this is the type of stuff that gives my profession a bad reputation at times.  So many unscrupulous salesmen are using phrases like “your principal is guaranteed” to mask the risks and drawbacks of certain products.  In this example an insurance broker is peddling an annuity product to...Read More

The following article puts some historical perspective to the current issues in Europe.  The premise is that the best way for the weaker economies such as Greece, Portugal, and Ireland to be able to recover is through deflating their own currency.  The parallel is that countries that left the gold standard after World War 1...Read More