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(Following is the sixth in a series of article on gold by Chuck Cohen, a financial consultant and investor based in New York City.)

Last week, I explained why junior and exploration gold-mining stocks will be spectacular investments in the impending 21st Century gold rush. I will discuss specific stocks in the weeks ahead, but first let’s talk about how to accumulate them.  Because juniors are quite different from other stocks, the best approach to building a portfolio is to stick with a game plan formulated in advance.  For starters, you should look for stocks of companies that hold the most resources or have the greatest potential relative to their market capitalization. There are some companies that have a $10 million capitalization, with good results and the [continue reading…]

As California Goes, So Goes the Nation?

As California goes, so goes the nation? We had better hope not, since the state’s economy is imploding so swiftly that it threatens to take cities and towns from Eureka to San Diego down with it. Consider the plight of El Monte, a city of 125,000 in Los Angeles County that recently cut expenditures to the bone in order to close a $9.5 million budget gap for the fiscal year begun in July.  Working frantically against an inflexible deadline, local officials furloughed most of the city’s 375 workers, laid off 17 police officers and closed down an aquatic center for all but four months of the year. Then they got the bad news: Sacramento…

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Junior Golds Offer ‘Ridiculous’ Leverage

(Following is the fifth in a series of article on gold by Chuck Cohen, a financial consultant and investor based in New York City. At bottom are some specific stock recommendations.)

Very few Americans own gold in any form. Even though gold’s price has risen each year since 2001, about the only time we hear gold mentioned is in the ubiquitous “cash for gold” TV commercials. Don’t you wonder who has any gold or jewelry left to sell?  The way it’s shunned, you might think gold causes swine flu or greenhouse emissions. It is most baffling to me to see our profligate nation diligently avoiding the most rewarding investment of…

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Should They Risk Missing a Payment?

You can see the fine hand of government at work in the homeowner rescue package that has been struggling to get off the ground since its inception last spring. The goal was to  reduce foreclosures by lowering mortgage payments for homeowners who were struggling.  But struggling how badly? For would-be lenders, that can be a tricky question to answer, and they are understandably reluctant to commit to the program without clear guidelines from the federal government. As it stands, some homeowners are being told…

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Just Buy the Dips to Make Big Money

The lazy drift of stocks has become almost too boring to watch, although we dare not avert our eyes for fear of missing Wall Street’s next wilding spree. During the last four sessions, the broad averages have hit bottom early in the day after easing lower overnight. In each instance, the Dow Industrials were down about a hundred points before the selling dried up.  Then, four hours worth of see-saw action ensued. Finally, in the last hour or so, with…

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NYSE Embraces a Ruinous Idea

Sadly, another venerable American institution has lost its way: the New York Stock Exchange. We read the other day that the Exchange is building a fast-trade hub in northern New Jersey that supposedly will help secure its future in an increasingly electronic world. But raising capital for companies that could conceivably help Build a Better Tomorrow is nowhere on their agenda. In fact, “fast trading” will be about as helpful in achieving that goal as placing five hundred slot machines in the NYSE’s lobby. Instead…

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(Following is the fifth in a series of article on gold by Chuck Cohen, a financial consultant and investor based in New York City. At bottom are some specific stock recommendations.)

Very few Americans own gold in any form. Even though gold’s price has risen each year since 2001, about the only time we hear gold mentioned is in the ubiquitous “cash for gold” TV commercials. Don’t you wonder who has any gold or jewelry left to sell?  The way it’s shunned, you might think gold causes swine flu or greenhouse emissions. It is most baffling to me to see our profligate nation diligently avoiding the most rewarding investment of [continue reading…]

Bureaucracy, Taxpayers Headed for a Collision

The headline atop the front page of this morning’s Boulder Camera suggests a city struggling diligently to balance its budget: “Work-Week Options Eyed”.  Reading this, one might infer that the city is contemplating unpaid furloughs or some other means of reducing payroll outlays, right?  That would be entirely appropriate, given that Boulder faces a $5 million budget shortfall next year. But that is not what the story is about. In the first place, it is not the city that is “eying” changes in the work week, but the workers themselves. And what they have in mind is nothing so onerous as unpaid work days…

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Why Gold Should Anchor a Portfolio

(Following is the fourth in a series of articles on gold by Chuck Cohen, a financial consultant and lifelong resident of New York City.)

Recently I discussed some of the reasons investors often fall short. Today I want to help bring clarity to your investment goals and also explain why gold should hold a central place in your portfolio. If you succeed in these two areas, you’ll not only prosper, you will also be prepared for the incredible changes and shocks that I believe are coming.

As Richard Russell always stresses, succeeding in the stock market is a lifetime learning process. At age 84 or so, he is still working diligently at it. As we have all learned, making money in the stock market is not as easy as the hucksters would have us believe. Success comes not just from market knowledge but from learning from our mistakes. And it is…

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Fed Throttles Back, Having Achieved Little

The stock market carved out yet another bowl-shaped formation on the intraday charts yesterday, making everyone who bought the dip a lucky winner. Stocks have swooned in four of the last five sessions and closed higher for six consecutive days, but yesterday’s swoon was a little more dramatic than the others. Some attributed the selloff portion of the day to mounting concerns that President Obama’s tax proposals will soak not only the “rich,” but the middle class. Whatever misgivings investors may have had about this were…

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Even in Boulder, the News Is Lurid

With the dog days of summer fast approaching, we wondered whether every small-town newspaper in America is entertaining readers these days with the same sort of lurid stories that fill the Boulder (Colorado) Camera. Boulder is not exactly the kind of place where you’d expect to find luridness in newsworthy quantities. Half the people who live here are trust-fund babies who, one would surmise, spend their days hiking the local trails, writing…

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News Unlikely to Deter Bulls

Although two big companies, Microsoft and American Express, reported atrocious earnings yesterday after the close, we shouldn’t expect the news to slow the relentless rise of stocks for long. Investors were obviously blithely unconcerned about earnings on Thursday, showing their eagerness to buy stocks by pushing the broad averages to their most impressive gains in nearly two weeks. The S&Ps settled at 976, up 2.3% on the day, and looked like an even-money bet to achieve their biggest back-to-back weekly gain since…

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(Following is the fourth in a series of articles on gold by Chuck Cohen, a financial consultant and lifelong resident of New York City.)

Recently I discussed some of the reasons investors often fall short. Today I want to help bring clarity to your investment goals and also explain why gold should hold a central place in your portfolio. If you succeed in these two areas, you’ll not only prosper, you will also be prepared for the incredible changes and shocks that I believe are coming.

As Richard Russell always stresses, succeeding in the stock market is a lifetime learning process. At age 84 or so, he is still working diligently at it. As we have all learned, making money in the stock market is not as easy as the hucksters would have us believe. Success comes not just from market knowledge but from learning from our mistakes. And it is [continue reading…]

Gold As Insurance

(Following is the third installment in a series of articles by Chuck Cohen, a seasoned and highly successful investment consultant who lives in New York City. We will be featuring Chuck’s thoughts regularly at Rick’s Picks in order to expand our coverage, in particular, of junior mining shares, a core area of his expertise. In the coming weeks, Chuck will take up the topics of gold as a core investment, and gold as a speculative vehicle. Today he tackles gold’s usefulness as insurance against financial calamity“. RA)

No One-Size-Fits-All Strategy

In spite of the sharp drop in shares over the past nine years or so, most investors remain firmly committed to common stocks. Mutual fund statistics show that very few holders have pulled their money out of their funds. And the recent “Big Money Poll” in Barron’s shows that the big guys are even surer than  they were even at the very top.  It is clear that investors have been stirred, but far from shaken, by the decade’s decline and by our faltering economy.

And gold? To many investors and even professionals, buying gold is like traveling to Myanmar or northern Pakistan: Few dare to venture there. The truth is, that to our Ivy League and Keynesian educated financial community, gold is viewed as a superstitious…

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Money management

There are systems that are based upon money management alone.  The principle  is basically the 1/2 way to the wall principle.  If each time you go 1/2 way to the wall you will never get there.  I have heard so many say that they will take 10% loss or a 5% stop.  That like the 1/2 way to the wall theory is, if each time you take a 5% loss you can never be out of money.   A stop shouldn’t be based upon financial pain it should be based upon the fact that the chart says you are wrong.  I use a 2% risk factor.  That means if I had a $10,000 account I could risk $200 on each trade.  I would then look for a trade where a move of $200 would make me wrong.  So the trade is adjusted to that risk parameter.  If it requires you moving down to 60 min. chart or 15 min. chart to do that then that is where you should be trading.

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Ira’s Last Day

I will have to say that it has been fun meeting a whole new group of people.  Each of you is unique in his or her own way.   I have enjoyed the back and forth with Hunt.  My wife and I still remember him fondly and can’t figure out any reason for him to still live in Texas.  The chat room has been filled with grumbles of late claiming conspiracy theories.  Goldman Sachs has become the giant conspirator and the government and all of its agencies remain the great Satan.  There always seems to be someone or something that is doing you dirt.  Why don’t you take a look at how this can be your edge?  My philosophy has always been follow the money.  I don’t care if it is GS or the Fed.  Let them run it any way they want I’ll just get on board and take my little piece of the pie.  I am not greedy.    So I don’t care if gold goes to $1300 or back to $350, I will take my piece of the action and leave the rest to others.   Writing here has restricted my trading, but on Thursday I will start up again.   You should be able to consider the market as your private ATM machine and tap it any time that you need some extra money.  There are loses.    I know that I am not perfect and I know that the only one that is going to cost me money is me, not GS, the Fed or anyone on the floor of any of the exchanges.   Once you learn to accept the full responsibility for your actions you will find it a lot easier to trade successfully because you won’t be looking for someone to blame for everything that goes wrong with your account.   Each night you should go over your trades and see what you did right and what you did wrong.  Making money has nothing to do with right or wrong.  If you followed your system you did right, win of lose.   Rick will make mistakes and bad calls and I will make mistakes and bad calls.  If you don’t do anything you can’t make a mistake, and that is the greatest mistake of all.

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A Hula Dance in Our Future?

The Dow Industrials lurched 256 points higher yesterday, but a trader looking for action might have found himself bored to tears nonetheless. Indeed, anyone who failed to go home long the day before would have been left twiddling his thumbs Wednesday morning, since stocks bolted for the wild blue yonder on the opening bell. Like nearly all powerful rallies, the move began with a short-covering panic. However, this one was quite unusual in that it had begun on a gap at the start of after-hours trading the evening before. We can’t remember the…

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Just because there are a dozen great reasons to hate stocks right now doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t go much higher. Not only that, the bear rally could continue for quite a while – till 2011 and beyond, even – without distorting the bearish look of the long-term charts one bit. Take a look at the monthly chart below, which shows ten years’ worth of price action in the S&P 500 futures. Nine of those years have seen a bear market brought on by the collapse of tech stocks in 2000. But notice how, when the major bear phase ended two-and-a-half years later, the S&Ps embarked on a rally that lasted five years and which…

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(Following is the third installment in a series of articles by Chuck Cohen, a seasoned and highly successful investment consultant who lives in New York City. We will be featuring Chuck’s thoughts regularly at Rick’s Picks in order to expand our coverage, in particular, of junior mining shares, a core area of his expertise. In the coming weeks, Chuck will take up the topics of gold as a core investment, and gold as a speculative vehicle. Today he tackles gold’s usefulness as insurance against financial calamity“. RA)

 No One-Size-Fits-All Strategy

In spite of the sharp drop in shares over the past nine years or so, most investors remain firmly committed to common stocks. Mutual fund statistics show that very few holders have pulled their money out of their funds. And the recent “Big Money Poll” in Barron’s shows that the big guys are even surer than  they were even at the very top.  It is clear that investors have been stirred, but far from shaken, by the decade’s decline and by our faltering economy.

And gold? To many investors and even professionals, buying gold is like traveling to Myanmar or northern Pakistan: Few dare to venture there. The truth is, that to our Ivy League and Keynesian educated financial community, gold is viewed as a superstitious [continue reading…]

Just Jitters, or is the Bear Back?

Taking their cue from our cautiously optimistic, if factually challenged, Fed chairman, mainstream purveyors of news have been spewing propaganda for months about a “recovery” in the second half. But do investors actually believe this poppycock? We never would have imagined so, at least not before Thursday. But when the broad averages plunged on weak payroll numbers released ahead of the holiday, they buttressed the…

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Lower Bullion Prices Worth Your Patience

We told you last week to wait for better prices if you’re planning on buying gold bullion. That is still the case, although it looks like it may not be long before the promised bargains arrive.  A week ago, with Comex August Gold trading for around 824, we projected a minimum downside target of 899; yesterday the futures settled at 924.60 after making a two-week  low at 920.30 . Lest you get the impression that gold sat still in the interim, we…

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On Foundation of Lies, Recovery Is Impossible

Gold continues to hang tough in the midst of oil’s nasty selloff. Although August crude has fallen more than 14%, from last Tuesday’s peak of $73.38, a Comex Gold futures contract expiring the same month lost just 2.5% of its value during the same period, falling from $947 to $924. The fact that gold has not plummeted in sympathy with oil strongly hints that it will be quite feisty when selling in the oil pits finally lets up. It was triggered by fears that the alleged global economic recovery is much weaker than had been thought. One might have expected investors to be prepared for this turn of events, but apparently…

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Why Most Investors Fall Short

(The following commentary was written by Chuck Cohen, one of the smartest investors we know. After this three-part series ends on Monday, Chuck will be contributing to Rick’s Picks on a regular basis, focusing in particular on opportunities in junior gold stocks. RA)

When choosing a home, a car or even a vacation, most of us will research and reflect for weeks.  We will gather material, discuss it with our friends and family, and eventually come to an informed decision. But when it comes to our finances we can be strangely nonchalant and careless.  Instead of applying the same thorough diligence to investments, we tend either to passively follow the opinions of the mainstream media or hand over our…

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Why Does Gold Get No Respect?

(The following is the second part of a series of articles by Chuck Cohen, one of the smartest investors we know. After the series concludes on Monday with ”Gold as Insurance,” Chuck will be contributing to Rick’s Picks on a regular basis, focusing in particular on opportunities in junior gold stocks. RA)

Even after the recent rally, the stock market is still down about 35% since 2000, while the price of gold has risen almost 400%.  It seems logical, at least to me, to expect investors to have become a little intrigued towards gold. But strangely, that hasn’t been the case. Inexplicably, the long-term view towards stocks remains remarkably upbeat, as though the alarming problems of the past two years have vanished. Just look up the very recent Barron’s “Big Money Poll,” or read the comments of the same economists who never…

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(The following is the second part of a series of articles by Chuck Cohen, one of the smartest investors we know. After the series concludes on Monday with “Gold as Insurance,” Chuck will be contributing to Rick’s Picks on a regular basis, focusing in particular on opportunities in junior gold stocks. RA)

Even after the recent rally, the stock market is still down about 35% since 2000, while the price of gold has risen almost 400%.  It seems logical, at least to me, to expect investors to have become a little intrigued towards gold. But strangely, that hasn’t been the case. Inexplicably, the long-term view towards stocks remains remarkably upbeat, as though the alarming problems of the past two years have vanished. Just look up the very recent Barron’s “Big Money Poll,” or read the comments of the same economists who never [continue reading…]