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The Threat and Risk of Rising Interest Rates: Separating Fact from Fiction

Introduction The threat of rising interest rates is all the rage in financial circles today.  However, the seminal question is: How real is the threat, and how much impact will rising rates have on stock prices and investor performance?  This article will present my personal perspectives on interest rates and their potential impact on stock …

Suffering Stock Market Stress? Consider This Market with Negligible Volatility and Consistently Rising Values Instead!

Introduction It would be an understatement to call the recent stock market activity turbulent.  High stock price volatility makes investors anxious and some people even become downright frightened.  These emotional responses are often exaggerated for people in or near retirement.  Therefore, I contend that all investors need to find ways to keep their emotions in …

Retired Investors Don’t Buy Bonds Until?

Introduction The primary attractions supporting investing in bonds or other fixed income instruments have traditionally been high income and safety.  People invest their principal in bonds and receive a stated interest rate (coupon) over the life of the bond and are given the promise of having their principal returned at maturity.  Under normal times, bonds …

3M Co: Fundamental Stock Research Analysis

Before analyzing a company for investment, it’s important to have a perspective on how well the business has performed.  Because at the end of the day, if you are an investor, you are buying the business.  The FAST Graphs™ presented with this article will focus first on the business behind the stock.  The orange line …

Don’t Be the Equivalent of a Stock Market Racist

There is no shortage of pundits and prognosticators willing to offer their opinions (rarely based on facts) as to whether or not stocks are cheap or expensive, or as to whether the markets are going to rise or fall.  In every case, the opinions and prognostications are directed as generalities such as stocks or markets.  …

Dividend Champions a Rare Undervalued Opportunity

We believe that based on earnings, 2012 is starting out with the stock market undervalued. We believe in the long-term ownership of great businesses purchased at sound and attractive valuations. Consequently, we view the stock market as merely the store that we shop at in order to buy the businesses we want to own. Furthermore, …

9 of the Second 10 Best Performing Dow Stocks are Fairly Valued

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Second 10 Best Performers There is a lot of discussion taking place today about whether or not stocks are good long-term investments.  Most of it is slanted towards the negative with dire forecasts of poor future returns. Implied in these forecasts of doom are opinions that stocks are overvalued today. …

VF Corporation: Attractive Valuation With a Growing Dividend

Introduction and History VF Corporation (VFC) is the world’s largest apparel company with solid brands that are sold in more than 150 countries throughout the world. The company traces its roots back to 1899 when eight men formed the Reading Glove and Mitten manufacturing company in Reading, Pennsylvania. In 1911 one of the eight men, …