StockScouter - Quantitative but Intelligent Analysis : Business Intelligence applied to Stocks

StockScouter takes Data Analysis with Gradient Analytics and adds intellectual facets to pick top 10(top 50) stock picks.

These stock picks assure you a gain of around 25% by following a sure buy and sure sell strategy having duration of six months.
Means, you just need to buy the top picked stocks, hold them for 6 months period, and sell it.
That easy. and You will be getting on an average 25% return. That can triple the amount invested along the 6 years.

You can decide your budget, and divide it between the stock picks and purchase them, hold the stocks for six months and sell at the end. The only thing is that you have to have faith and courage to do it at the given time. Sometimes, you may find that stocks are rewarding you and you start loving them. But, then stick to the StockScouter picks and its strategy.

If you want to find out why StockScouter strategy should work and what are the current picks, read the complete story here.

Following Buffet Steps of Investing

When measuring a company's reliance on debt, it's usually helpful to begin by examining its debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio. D/E can be easily calculated by dividing a particular company's total debt load by its shareholder's equity. Both of these key figures are located on the balance sheet. There's no hard-and-fast rule for evaluating this metric, but as a broad average for non-financial companies, it's usually wise to look for firms with D/E ratios below 0.50 (50%).

Time is the enemy of the poor business and the friend of the great business. If you have a business that's earning 20%-25% on equity, time is your friend. But time is your enemy if your money is in a low-return business.
25% ROE is best. And go with ROE > 15%

Look at ROE for more than 5 yr
looking at the current figure in isolation only tells part of the story, so check to see whether ROE has been falling, rising, or stable over time. Also, if a company has a particularly strong year, then its net income figure can be inflated, which can cause ROE to be exceptionally strong. Such one- or two-year blips have a tendency to fade quickly once the business environment becomes less favorable. Therefore, it's always important to examine ROE performance over a five- or ten-year period.

High ROE and Low D/E
By taking on additional debt, companies can effectively lower the amount of shareholder's equity they need to stay in business. By definition, this tends to inflate ROE. Therefore, its crucial to look for companies that have a high ROE and low D/E.

Cash Flow
One way to gauge a firm's cash flow production is to examine its free cash flow yield. This is calculated by dividing free cash flow by market capitalization, or the inverse of the Price/FCF ratio. A firm with a free cash flow yield of 10%, for example, generates 10% of its total market value in cash each year. That cash, in turn, can be used to pay dividends or fund share buybacks -- items that enhance shareholder returns.

The Debt Reality

Between 1997 and 2007, 8,815 American companies worth $1,302,946,906,459 were acquired by foreign countries, sending U.S. wealth and opportunity abroad. Just today the Economic Policy Institute reported that real wages for American workers are declining: From 2003- 2007 median U.S. hourly wage dropped more than 1%.
The average American in 2005 had a -1% savings rate, the lowest since the great depression, and a product of an economy that continues to squeeze the middle class and allow the flight of its best companies overseas.



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Money for life: The hidden costs

A modest proposal: Make the sellers of variable annuities tell people how much they're really paying for their investment.



NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- If you'd like to help thousands of people who are saving for retirement (and maybe even yourself), I have a suggestion. Tell the Securities and Exchange Commission to get off its duff and pass rules improving the disclosure investors get about variable-annuity fees.


The SEC has been mulling this issue for more than two years now. But when I called the agency for a status report recently, I got no hint as to when - or, for that matter, if - new rules might see the light of day. That's a shame. Because judging from the e-mails I get, only a tiny fraction of the investors who have some $1.4 trillion sitting in variable annuities know that they're paying more than they would to invest in regular mutual funds.

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File Sharing Threat to Security: Mortgage Data Leaked with SSN

Three spreadsheets containing more than 5,000 Social Security numbers and other personal details about customers of ABN Amro Mortgage Group were inadvertently leaked over an online file-sharing network by a former employee.

Tiversa Inc., a Pittsburgh company that offers data-leakage protection services, traced the origins of the ABN data to a Florida computer with the BearShare software installed.

With such peer-to-peer sharing systems, files are obtained directly from another user's hard drive rather than a central hub like traditional Web sites. As a result, once a file begins to circulate, copies can sit on computers all over the world, ready to be grabbed by other users.

Boback said Tiversa had yet to perform a full analysis to see how far the data had spread worldwide, but found evidence the files already had moved beyond the former employee's computer.
"There is no question in my mind that ... identity thieves have these files, and if they haven't already, they will be acting on them very soon," Boback said Friday.

Earlier this month, a Seattle man was arrested in what federal authorities described as their first case against someone accused of using file-sharing computer programs to commit identity theft.

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Recession Probability in USA!!

THE employment statistics and the bond market are combining to send out a warning that has been heard only rarely in the past two decades: A recession is coming in the United States.

The two charts show the double warning. Both charts warned of an economic downturn before the 1990 and 2001 recessions, and they are doing so again.

Read Complete Story from NY Times

My Conversation with Money

The next time you walk down the street, ignore the sound of traffic and look around -- you will hear money talk. And the sound will be deafening.
Yes, wealth has a language too.

Spend, invest, loosen your purse strings
Look at the billboards, newspapers, shops, and malls.

When you go to the mall, what is it saying to you? "Come step in. I am so pretty. Feel free to open your wallet!".

Think again; is it really the mall inviting you? It’s not the mall; it's money, which tells you to give as much as you can. It's also claiming a stake on your unearned money; by enticing you to pay in installments.

License to spend
Look around some more. There's a company out there asking you to give it money to expand via an IPO. A mutual fund is enticing you by promising to grow it for you. Look at stores, which offer a promotion. And look at all transactions taking place around you, in general.

Money talks all the time
You earn well, and think you can afford it all. You're a member of a gold or platinum club. Basically, you were being flattered. And you gave into this flattery.
You spent that money and lost an opportunity to create wealth while someone on the other end has added to his wealth. So, while your money is asking you to spend or accumulate wealth, ultimately, you choose what you want to listen to.

When you spend, someone else makes money
The idea is simple. You earn money and spend it on some service or product. That service or product provider spends it and consumes some other service or product. Cycles of transactions happen. As a result of these transactions someone becomes wealthier than others.
This is not to say that you should not consume what is essential and sometimes even what is luxurious. That is necessary and important but it is also a fact that there is obviously no equilibrium. Someone there has a better business model or service capability. The rule of life is that the best person wins. Get the logic?

Microsoft/Walmart/Verizon was not built in a day...
Here begins your journey of listening to money. There's a three-point action agenda ie desire, strong desire and unflinching desire.
You must have the desire to do something. and it can’t happen because I am telling you or because you decide that from tomorrow you will increase the desire meter in your mind.

Microsoft/Walmart/Verizon was not built in a day. It took long years of unflinching desire, persistent effort and consistent reinvention to turn it into the company it is today.

That feeling of desire will come to you naturally, wait for it because if you really want it and work persistently toward it, it will come to you on its own.
And when it does, it will call for groundbreaking hard work. Too many people shy away from hard work.
Consider what will make you the best doctor, lawyer, manager or CEO in the world? When you crack this, wealth will find its way into your home.

- Credit: Kartik Jhaveri, an expert at Financial Planning, is a Certified Financial Planner and a Chartered Wealth Manager.