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Visa Shares Soar on Fed Reversal
Published on 2011-07-02 15:45:26
Shares of Visa (V) soared to new 52-week highs and shares of rival MasterCard (MA) hit new all-time highs after the Federal Reserve announced its final decision on the regulation of debit-card swipe fees.The new fee—at $0.21—is a little less than > read more
Book Review: The Next Decade
Published on 2011-06-28 12:50:45
Long-time readers have heard me comment on the work of George Friedman, the founder of the Austin-based geopolitical forecasting firm Stratfor. I consider Friedman to be one of the insightful thinkers in the field today, and I wrote a lengthy, highly > read more
The Land of the Setting Sun
Published on 2011-06-20 09:00:29
Japan’s sovereign credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s in January. The rating agency lowered Japan to “AA-,” citing Tokyo’s lack of a coherent strategy for dealing with its soaring debt, which now stands at 200% of GDP. For > read more
The Luxury Toilet and the Rise of the Affluent Chinese Consumer
Published on 2011-06-14 07:32:40
In the interconnected web of the global economy, the rise of China has been one of the biggest drivers of the decade-long bull market in energy and commodities. But China is also making its presence felt in other less obvious areas of the economy. Y > read more
Visa and MasterCard Survive a Beating by Congress
Published on 2011-06-10 13:34:29
Visa (NYSE: V) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) took a beating Thursday as a Senate motion to delay the controversial provisions of the Durbin Amendment affecting debit card fees failed to get enough votes. The amendment would limit swipe fees to $0.12 per > read more
Book Review: The Next 100 Years
Published on 2011-05-27 07:00:58
There is a deep-seated belief in America that the United States is approaching the eve of its destruction. Read letters to the editor, peruse the Web, and listen to public discourse. Disastrous wars, uncontrolled deficits, high gasoline prices, shoot > read more
Choose Your Hathaway: Berkshire or Anne
Published on 2011-05-23 07:00:43
We’ve always admired Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett. He is, after all, the most successful investor in history and a legend in his own time. Mr. Buffett’s annual reports are fountains of investment wisdom that should be required readi > read more
Live on Fox Business News: Charles Sizemore on Dividend Investing
Published on 2011-05-17 13:47:21
The Sizemore Investment Letter’s Charles Sizemore discusses dividend investing live on Fox Business News: If you are unable to view the embedded video, please follow this link: http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4698180/tips-for-investing-in-etfs- > read more
Sizemore Investment Letter Quoted in Barron’s
Published on 2011-05-16 09:00:12
Charles Sizemore and The Sizemore Investment Letter were recently quoted in the Barron’s Market Watch column. It has long been our view that the bull market—we would say “speculative bubble”—in gold is a product more of emotio > read more
The Arab Spring and Demographics
Published on 2011-05-16 07:00:35
In January, the world watched in shock as a 26-year-old Tunisian fruit vendor lit himself on fire to protest the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked a revolution that spread across the Middle East like wildfire—today even threatening gov > read more
Soros is Selling Gold–Should You?
Published on 2011-05-05 15:18:10
All eyes are on gold, as the yellow metal has just dipped below the psychologically important $1,500 level. Major high-profile speculators — including George Soros — now appear to be taking some of their bets off the table. (See “So > read more
Review of John Mauldin’s Endgame
Published on 2011-04-28 21:52:57
“What were we thinking?” ask John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper in the introduction to their latest book. “In a way, we acted like teenagers. We made the easy choice, not thinking of the consequences. We never absorbed the lessons of the depr > read more
3 Myths That Will Pop the Gold Bubble
Published on 2011-04-22 10:00:09
Gold prices topped $1,500 per ounce yesterday, just days after Standard & Poor’s roiled the equity and bond markets by lowering its outlook on the AAA credit rating of the U.S. government. After a decade in which stocks went nowhere and the U. > read more
Sizemore Capital Management First Quarter 2011 Letter to Investors
Published on 2011-04-18 13:54:46
The following is an excerpt from Sizemore Capital Management’s First Quarter 2011 Investment Outlook and Commentary, reproduced with permission. To Our Investors, 2011 is shaping up to be another good year for Sizemore Capital Management and our c > read more
Book Review: The Pinch
Published on 2011-04-18 07:00:21
“We all know the story,” starts David Willetts in his book The Pinch. “The parents return home from a night away to find a teenage party has got out of hand and the house has been trashed… It plays to a deep-seated fear that younger people wi > read more
Charles Sizemore Live on Fox Business News
Published on 2011-04-13 16:53:53
Watch Sizemore Capital Managment’s Charles Lewis Sizemore, CFA give his thoughts on the market to Lori Rothman of Fox Business News If you cannot view the embedded video, please follow the link below: http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4640284 > read more
Trading Strategies: Defending Against a Downturn
Published on 2011-04-10 21:38:47
Charles Sizemore, CFA shares his investment strategies with MarketWatch: If you are unable to view the embedded video, please follow this link: Defending Against a Downturn Related article: Three Low-Risk ETFs for a Volatile Spring > read more
3 Low-Risk ETFs to Ride Out a Volatile Spring
Published on 2011-03-28 09:53:47
Investors got a shock in March as a series of popular uprisings in the Arab world morphed into an all-out civil war in Libya and an earthquake in Japan threatened to unleash the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Add to this the lingering Europe > read more
Perspectives on the Japan Earthquake
Published on 2011-03-18 21:23:22
Charles Sizemore, Editor of the Sizemore Investment Letter, gave his analysis of the developing crisis in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami and offered his suggestions of how investors can profit from an improvement in sentiment. BOSTON, Ma > read more
Why the West Rules—For Now
Published on 2011-03-10 12:51:28
It was the most humiliating day in the history of the British Empire. Britain had been conquered before—by Romans, by Anglo-Saxons, by Vikings, by Normans—but nothing like this. Never to a people so strange and foreign. On April 3, 1848, Queen Vi > read more
A Barrel of Oil or a Bottle of Wine?
Published on 2011-03-10 09:04:44
According to new research released by the International Monetary Fund, there is little difference in the two, at least from an investment standpoint. In their 2010 whitepaper, Serhan Cevik and Tahsin Saadi Sedik found that supply constraints have sur > read more
Visa: Investors Shrugging Off Dodd-Frank Worries
Published on 2011-02-25 06:13:09
Visa (NYSE: V) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) remain in a state of regulatory limbo regarding the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill. The amendment, which allowed the Federal Reserve to cap debit card merchant fees, will potentiall > read more
Vice Investing: Taking a Look at Hefner’s Playboy Buyout
Published on 2011-02-21 06:15:09
In a prior article, we noted that “sin stocks” often make good investments because the social stigma associated with industries like tobacco, alcohol, and gambling tends to depress prices, thus allowing investors to buy shares at value prices. Be > read more
Gold: A Bad Investment and Getting Worse, Part II
Published on 2011-02-14 06:30:27
“Find the trend whose premise is false and bet against it.” Attributed to George Soros I couldn’t help but remember Mr. Soros’s words when I read Thomas Kaplan’s recent opinion piece in the Financial Times. Kaplan, Chairman of Tigris Financ > read more
Visa: Profits Up, But Looming Risk Remains
Published on 2011-02-07 06:00:17
Global credit card colossus Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V) announced earnings for the quarter ended December 31, and the results were stellar. Year-over-year, Visa saw: Revenues up 14% Net income up 16% Fully-diluted earnings per share up 20% Shares outstand > read more
How to Choose the Right Dividend ETF
Published on 2011-01-31 07:00:43
The stock market hasn’t returned a single red cent in over twelve years, as measured by the S&P 500. Twelve years is a long time to go without earning a return on your investment, particularly if you are close to retirement. With the boom years > read more
Time to Load Up on Big Pharma
Published on 2011-01-25 06:00:24
It has been a long time coming, but the time is finally right to buy Big Pharma. The last few years have been rough for the sector; looming patent expirations and jitters over the potential effects of ObamaCare have caused investors to dump large- > read more
Gold: A Bad Investment and Getting Worse
Published on 2011-01-18 21:10:20
If there is one asset class best avoided in 2011, it’s gold. At the expense of sounding overly dramatic, gold is an investment whose fundamentals are rotting from within, and you do not want to be anywhere near it when the bottom falls out. In late > read more
Sizemore Capital Management 2010 4th Quarter Letter to Investors
Published on 2011-01-10 06:10:08
The following is an excerpt from Sizemore Capital Management LLC’s 2010 Year End Investment Outlook and Commentary, reproduced with permission. I am proud to announce that Sizemore Capital Management has logged another successful year. Our ac > read more
10 Expert Stock Picks for 2011
Published on 2011-01-04 06:00:56
Charles Lewis Sizemore, CFA participated in a panel of 10 investment experts in a recent Wall Street Journal MarketWatch article. Excerpt: Financial analyst Charles Sizemore is big on (NYSE: V) in the new year — but unlike other financial-related p > read more
John Law: Rake, Murderer, and Father of Central Banking
Published on 2011-01-04 06:00:38
I commented in a previous article that “if you think that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is unpopular, consider the tragic case of Takahashi Korekiyo, who served as Bank of Japan governor from 1911-1913 and as finance minister and prime minister in the > read more
Sizemore in the Media: Emerging Markets
Published on 2011-01-03 08:30:20
Charles Sizemore was recently quoted in Investment News: “How to ‘Backdoor’ Emerging Markets.” Excerpt: There are also some overlooked “back doors” into many of the emerging economies, according to Charles Sizemore, owner > read more
Swipe Shares of Visa in 2011
Published on 2010-12-28 06:05:24
After the rush of the Christmas holiday shopping season, many of us are reluctant to look at our January credit card bills. With Americans returning to the malls after nearly three years of deep recessionary conditions, this year will certainly be n > read more
Three “Backdoor” Ways to Play Emerging Markets in 2011
Published on 2010-12-22 06:00:12
Most experienced globetrotters have come across a copy of Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door in one of their travels. Appealing to budget-conscious students and backpackers, Steves’ book gives tips on how to avoid many of the expensive pi > read more
No Blood in Irish Streets – But Try Looking In Spain
Published on 2010-12-14 06:30:41
As investors, we should never let a good crisis go to waste. “The time to buy,” Baron Rothschild recounted long ago, “is when there is blood in the streets…even if it is your own.” I opened the June 2010 issue of the Sizemore Investment Let > read more