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It was ten years ago when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. That was also in the midst of a bear market and that bear market was to become significantly worse. Lost among some of the headlines is the fact that stocks were already in a bear market when the Lehman crisis unfolded. That makes comparisons between now and then less significant. Now, Lehman was a Wall Street institution and the bankruptcy of important firms has always rattled investors. History Has Lessons for Today History shows that 2008 was not unprecedented. There were also problems with Wall Street firms in the past. According to Read More

  It’s been ten years since Lehman Brothers collapsed, plunging the global financial system into chaos. Regulators and legislators have taken steps to ensure that crisis won’t happen again. But, like the general who is always fighting the last war, legislation and regulation can’t address the next crisis. That leaves investors and financial analysts always on the lookout for the next crisis. They have had several scares over the years with nearly endless crises in the euro zone and deep market plunges in China. Lesser known problems could also develop into unexpected problems. While China grabs headlines, Europe could actually be the more ...
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Source: Alchetron.com   If you have been looking at stock charts for some time, you are probably familiar with the stochastic indicator. It is one of the most popular momentum indicators applied to charts and is widely used. But, even experienced traders may not fully understand what the indicator does. Defining Stochastics Stochastics is an indicator that has withstood the test of time. According to market historians, this indicator was believed to be developed by a market technician named George Lane although there is some question as to whether or not it was the effort of any single individual. What is known ...
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Political junkies often spend a great deal of time on web sites like Politico, The Hill and Roll Call. These are sites that describe what’s going inside Congress, the White House and executive agencies. They dig deep into the legislative and rule making process. Sites like that are useful for many individuals, especially if Congress or executive agencies are interested in their business. Energy companies, for example, are often subjected to new rules and the rules can carry costs. It’s rare to see an article on political sites that is good for a company. Congressional oversight or new rules from regulators tend ...
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  Traders might disagree on whether a stock should be bought or sold. They might disagree on the name of the pattern they spot on the chart. But, one thing they do seem to agree on is that indicators should be added to charts because these tools are useful. The price chart depicts the price action and traders have been searching for patterns on the charts since at least the early 1900s. By the 1940s, many traders had added moving averages which were designed to highlight the trend. Then, they began adding indicators to charts as shown below. This is a chart of ...
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  Trade war fears are now near the top of almost every investor’s list of fears. That’s at least partly because the possibility of a trade war appears to be unprecedented. Investors have become comfortable with the idea of globalization even knowing there are costs associated with free trade. The costs of free trade are often easy to overlook. One of the greatest costs of free trade, at least according to many pundits right now is lost jobs. But, job losses have always been an issue that is less concerning to those with jobs. Ronald Reagan recognized this in the 1980 Presidential election ...
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  As the S&P 500 index reached a new all time high, analysts went to work determining the likelihood of future gains. Some analysts are reviewing fundamental data including earnings and economic growth. Here, the picture is generally bullish. Standard & Poor’s estimates that earnings per share (EPS) for the S&P 500 index will be $170.52 next year and $193.36 in 2020. Using an average price to earnings (P/E) ratio of 17, the index could move significantly higher in the next two years. Now, the market price today is based on expectations for the future. That means traders are pricing future earnings ...
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  FAANG stocks have been popular in recent years. But most of the media attention seems to be focused on just two of the five companies. Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) seem to enjoy a disproportionate amount of news coverage. There’s also quite a bit of news about Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL), the parent company of Google. But, there seems to be less news about Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX). That’s perhaps because Netflix has quietly become a part of everyday life for millions of subscribers. A Company That Has Constantly Evolved Netflix is now an over the top media services ...
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