By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
When many investors look at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) and Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON), they see tainted companies that are probably best avoided.
That's a mistake.
It's no secret that buying beaten-down stocks is the key to maximum gains. But here's what most investors fail to understand: If you want to hit the investment home run, you have to go after the stocks that everybody else hates.
Like Goldman, Transocean and Monsanto.
.
To understand the investment case for these three stocks, please read on..
By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
Although we're in the midst of a U.S. Treasury bond bubble so big that pundits are calling for investors to short the government paper, resist the urge to jump in with both feet.
Doing so right now is nothing more than a "widow-maker" trade that will test both your patience and your pocket book. And yet, "shorting" the U.S. Treasury bond market is an opportunity you can't afford to pass up – so long as you execute the trade correctly.
For the best Treasury bond strategy to deploy right now, please read on…
By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
KYOTO, Japan – Japan's Nikkei 225 is half the relative price of the U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 and is the cheapest that it's been in nearly three decades. This has led many Western analysts to conclude once again that it's "time to invest" in Japan.
I don't "buy" it – and you shouldn't, either.
To understand the obstacles Japan still faces - as well as better profit plays to make - read on...
By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
The U.S. dollar has been one of the world's strongest currencies in the first part of 2010, posting double-digit gains through the end of May.
And little wonder. The Greek debt crisis continues to threaten Europe's overall health, and could unleash an entirely new contagion on the rest of the global economy. Then there's China, – the engine of world growth during much of the financial crisis – which now appears to face the near-term triple threat of slowing growth, accelerating inflation and workplace unrest. Add in concerns about commodity prices and global debt levels and it's easy to see why currency investors have sought the safe haven of the U.S. dollar.
In short, it appears that "everybody" knows the greenback is the best choice for safety, quality and security.
But is that really the case? To me, the dollar is looking more and more like a colossal short that could wind up being one of the biggest moneymakers of the year for traders gutsy enough to take a stand.
To see why the dollar could roll over – and to see how to play it – please read on …
By William Patalon III, Executive Editor, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz once said that "the best defense is a good offense." Although that bit of wisdom has been used everywhere from the battlefield to the gridiron, it could just as easily be deployed as part of a "defensive investing" strategy.
And in today's markets – whipsawed by worries emanating from virtually every major market around the globe – a defensive-investing plan needs to include protective stops, inverse funds, high-yielding dividend shares, "sin stocks, and investments in oil and other value-storing commodities," Keith Fitz-Gerald, the best-selling author who is Money Morning's chief investment strategist, said in an interview this week.
With the world markets in flux, Fitz-Gerald sat down with Money Morning Executive Editor William Patalon III to talk about defensive-investing strategies. What follows is the full text of that interview.
For the full text of the interview, please read on...
By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
What's more important: Having an investment strategy that performs strongly when the overall market is up, or having an investment strategy that guards against downside risk when the overall market is trending down, while keeping you in the hunt for inflation-beating, long-term profits?
Before you answer, consider the following:
That's right – more than $9.5 million! (Obviously the study is a little dated given recent events but the net effect isn't all that different)
By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
Germany did something on Tuesday that I've been hoping would happen for three years: It outlawed naked short-selling and speculation on European government bonds with naked credit default swaps.
The financial institutions that have been profiting from this type of speculation immediately went on the offensive.
German officials justified the surprise, unilateral move by financial regulator BaFin by stating that the "exceptional volatility" in government debt – if accompanied by massive short-selling and naked CDS trading – could result in excessive price movements that would actually "endanger the stability of the entire financial system."
To learn about the strategies you should employ because of Germany's move, please read on...
By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
SHANGHAI, The People's Republic of China – Given what you may have heard about Chinese property values in recent months, it may surprise you to learn that Chinese real estate investors are extremely value oriented.
And so are the institutional investors I've run into during my latest investment-research visit to this country. These institutional players want to lock up some valuable land parcels before 2020. That's the date by which 500 million Chinese citizens are expected to have moved into China's cities as part of the greatest urban migration ever recorded.
You can do the math: We're talking about a group that's 1.6 times the entire U.S. population … moving from China's countryside to its cities in the next 10 years.
To discover four ways to profit from this massive migration, read on...
By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
SHANGHAI, People's Republic of China – China just posted its first monthly trade deficit in nearly six years, a $7.24 billion shortfall for March that essentially torpedoes Washington's argument that the Asian giant is a "currency manipulator" of the worst kind.
The Obama administration's assertion that China is artificially keeping the yuan undervalued to gain a global competitive advantage isn't just misguided: It actually demonstrates that Washington lacks even a basic understanding of global economics. Given that the same U.S. leaders who have been pushing to hang this manipulator label on China and impose sanctions are the same ones who tried to end the financial crisis by creating a river of debt that will haunt us for years, I can't say that I'm surprised.
As the U.S. argument goes, pegging its currency to the dollar gives China a distinct advantage when it comes to less-expensive manufacturing and a strong export market. The implication is that somehow this is negatively impacting our economy, or – in a variation of the same logic – holding back our recovery. Washington points to the massive trade deficits we regularly run with that country as evidence of China's currency-market wrongdoing.
In reality, China's pegged currency has done two things. First, it's allowed the United States to keep its inflation rate at a much lower (and more-manageable) level than it should have been in view of the $14 trillion in debt that this country has taken on.
And, second, it's allowed China to fuel its own stimulus package while at the same time assuming a meaningful role in the ongoing global recovery.
Let's take a minute to talk about why this is true.
By Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report - • Print | Email
U.S. President Barack Obama generated a lot of hubbub with his decision to open up parts of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling.
We've all heard the criticisms that some of the geological surveys are as much as 30 years old, and the arguments that the ecological impact of drilling off the U.S. East Coast isn't worth the accessible oil, which some critics estimate could play out in as little as six months at current demand levels.
But even after more than a day of debate over the motivations for – and possible results from – President Obama's apparent energy policy about-face, one thing is very clear: This announcement has nothing to do with oil.
It's all about the U.S. dollar.
To find out why President Barack Obama really lifted the moratorium on oil drilling, please read on…
