Wall Street

Article Index

How to See Through Every Big Lie Wall Street Throws at You

By , Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report -

You know I'm no fan of Wall Street, but even I have to hand it to 'em: They have done a masterful job convincing regular folks that investing is difficult.

Those professional illusionists that perform from one end of the Las Vegas Strip to the other can't hold a candle to this bunch.

They baffle folks with obscure jargon, they make people terrified of volatility, and even more insidiously, they manipulate investors into acting irrationally.

The Street spends billions on advertising intended to convince you that it's hip to trade and invest, that you can do it from your car, that you can make great buys while you're picking up your kids or doing your job. In fact, I'll bet you've seen the same groovy commercials I have trying to convince you that's the case.

What they don't tell you is how they separate investors from their money...

Let’s Go After Monster Gains While Wall Street’s No. 1 Scam Blows Up in Its Face

By , Chief Investment Strategist, Money Morning • @ShahGilani_TW -

I spent more than 35 years on Wall Street, in the trenches. I built a fortune helping my clients make billions before stepping away to run high-profit trading research services for my subscribers ­and expose the Street's dirty little secrets.

So believe me when I tell you I've seen a harebrained Wall Street scheme or two: the savings and loan crisis... the "crash-proof" portfolio insurance craze that led directly to the Black Monday market crash in 1987... subprime loans and toxic, mortgage-backed securities in 2008.

Those are just the biggies; there were dozens of other, smaller schemes that didn't crash the entire market - but wiped out plenty of investors.

Dumb, dangerous ideas... On Wall Street, they're more contagious than a cold.

All it takes is one firm to try out an idea. If it works, even in the short term, it catches like a virus, and then everyone's doing it... to the tune of tens, even hundreds of billions of our dollars at risk.

I'm going to take you inside the latest "I can't believe they thought this was a good idea" craze sweeping Wall Street. Be warned: If you have even a shred of common sense, you'll be outraged.

Now, I'm not doing this to shock you - although you're better off knowing what's going on here.

I'm telling you this because there's a dead simple way for any investor to cash in big time when this scheme inevitably backfires on the greedy bankers pulling it...

How to Achieve Financial Freedom Without Wall Street

By , Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report -

I've got to be blunt. Your financial success depends on it.

Wall Street is feeding you a narrative that's fatally, dangerously flawed when it comes to financial planning.

They make the assumption that you're going to live this way or that and, in doing so, produce a whole bunch of fancy charts, full of calculations intended to show you how much you need to save to meet their projections.

The hope is, of course, that you'll become a valued, or should I say valuable, client - meaning you're going to generate tons of commissions to line their pockets for having prepared a deep look into your financial affairs.

The reality is very different.

Those same fancy-pants charts - which, by the way, can cost you a "planning fee" ranging from $100 to several thousand dollars - usually have the opposite impact: People realize they're so far from meeting their "goals" that they give up without even trying.

I've never liked that, but then again, I've never played by the rules, either.

That's why I'm so excited to tell you this...

Watch Out for the Financial Industry's Latest Scam

By , Money Morning -

Annuity sales are rising thanks to the demise of the "fiduciary rule," a Labor Department rule requiring brokers to act in the best interest of their clients.

Sales are up 25% already, a clear sign Wall Street is foisting these expensive products onto investors who don't need them.

Since we don't want our readers falling for Wall Street's money grab, we're giving you three tips on how to avoid the scam...

Ten Years On: Who Let Lehman Brothers Fail?

By , Chief Investment Strategist, Money Morning • @ShahGilani_TW -

Ten years ago on Sept. 15, in 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. failed in spectacular fashion.

The implosion of the $600 billion-in-assets investment bank immediately triggered the financial crisis, which led directly to the Great Recession.

But none of that had to happen.

Lehman could have been saved or, at least, slowly and systematically unwound. The financial crisis could have been averted, and the Great Recession should never have happened.

Those events happened for good reasons in hindsight. Not good for you, me, the economy, or America, but good for the re-shaping of political and banking powers who benefited from what they let happen.

This frightening reality tale starts with who let Lehman Brothers get so big, who let it fail, and why...

Is Wells Fargo a Criminal Enterprise?

By , Chief Investment Strategist, Money Morning • @ShahGilani_TW -

Something is really wrong with Wells Fargo & Co., the third largest bank in the United States by assets and the eleventh largest bank in the world.

After being hit with massive fines and paying out tens of billions of dollars to settle a litany of charges, Wells Fargo's facing more investigations from the U.S. Department of Justice.

And there's no doubt that this won't be the last of them.

So, I ask you, is Wells Fargo a criminal enterprise?

Before you comment – here's my answer, what I think should happen to Wells Fargo, and how crooks like the ones at Wells are going to bring the economy to its knees...

Why 99% of Hedge Funds Are Living on Borrowed Time

By , Special Situation Strategist, Money Morning -

Hedge funds were supposed to be the ultimate "insider" investment vehicle. Managers would be able to do whatever they wanted - go long, go short, buy bonds, buy commodities, or do whatever they thought was necessary to earn high returns for their investors.

The idea was that hedge fund managers, given the latitude available to them, should be able to do well no matter what the stock market did in a given year.

It was investment nirvana, and tickets to the show were not cheap: Joining hedge fund royalty would cost you "two and twenty," which is to say 2% of assets and 20% of profits.

The first hedge fund was introduced back in 1949 by Alfred Winslow Jones. It performed very well; Jones was long stocks he liked and - as a hedge - short stocks he didn't.

The returns were solid, and it did, in fact, do pretty well no matter what the market did.

His success gained imitators, and the industry grew steadily throughout the 1950s and '60s.

But people will always be greedy, and greed will always make you stupid. That's what happened to hedge funds as the 1970s approached.

Some fund managers wanted to be the best, so they figured if they just bought the best stocks and left out the whole "hedging" idea, they would gain an edge over their competitors.

They did - until they didn't.

The bear market of the 1970s left the un-hedged hedge funds exposed, and the losses were enormous.

The hit was so punishing, in fact, that it left hedge funds out of favor until the 1990s.

Then things changed...

Here's the Big Problem with Wall Street's Darling Buy-Write Funds

By , Special Situation Strategist, Money Morning -

The Fed

"Psst. Hey, I got something for you - the perfect investment.

"It's gonna give you 5% to 7% in income, plus appreciation. It does better than the stocks in down markets, and there's loads of upside potential when stocks are riding high.

"There's options trading, too, but get this: You don't have to worry about 'em - the fund manager's gonna take care of that.

"You in? Just sign here..."

That sounds pretty compelling, right? Income, appreciation, outperformance, and no trades to execute.

There's just one flaw: It's complete crap - and expensive, too.

So, naturally, it's selling like hotcakes, with investors falling for it hook, line, and sinker all over the place.

Let me show you what's really going on with this investing craze - and why you don't want to be anywhere near it...

The World's Biggest Money Manager Just Blew the Lid Off Wall Street's Snake Oil Scam

By , Special Situation Strategist, Money Morning -

next stock market crash prediction

Earlier this month, BlackRock Inc. reported fantastic earnings for the first quarter of 2018, surpassing Wall Street's expectations on nearly every metric.

Now, BlackRock is the largest money manager on the face of the earth, so any sane individual interested in keeping up with the markets - and therefore making money in them - needs to pay close attention to BlackRock's performance.

The company reported net inflows of $55 billion into its money management products. It also hiked the dividend by 15% and bought back $335 million in stocks, both of which contributed to the solid 6% gain shareholders saw from January to March.

Now, BlackRock is far too large for me even to consider owning. I only target unreasonably undervalued companies, and any company known as the world's largest "anything," let alone money manager, will always be far from undervalued. 

But when BlackRock is speaking, it's a good idea to listen. The recent earnings show the company now has over $6 trillion in assets, meaning the suit-wearing foot soldiers are pretty damn good at selling their products.

And this most recent earnings report speaks volumes about how these products are falsely marketed to you...

They're marketed as investments that don't provide underwhelming returns when, in reality, that's exactly what they provide...

Wall Street's "Official Bear Market" Lie Is a Rip-Off Designed to Take at Least 20% of Your Wealth

By , Liquidity Specialist, Money Morning -

Textbook bear market

The often-repeated claim that a 20% market decline is an "official" bear market is pure Wall Street BS.

There is no official standard for what constitutes a bear market. It's a classic big lie.

There's no official body to set the standard, and it couldn't be done even if there was.

Setting aside all commodities, bonds, real estate - anything else that's traded daily - stocks alone are bought and sold in around 60 different markets all over the planet, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Each has a wildly different capitalization, as well as vastly different betas and standards of volatility.

There can be no universal "20% down standard" to apply to all markets, all instruments, and all commodities. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

The idea that there could be an "official bear market" is absurd on its face, yet the media keeps repeating this nonsense ad nauseam.

It's another example of them being clowns and intellectually lazy stooges for the Wall Street establishment.

It would be funny... if the lie wasn't told at your expense. It'd be funny if millions of investors didn't fall for it hook, line, and sinker every time the lie is floated in the media...