I don’t know about you, but I get excited when I see a lot of red on my computer screen in the morning.

You know, red because most of the stocks I watch or own are trading lower?

It’s almost like the smell of fresh coffee being roasted and waking you from a sound sleep in a pleasant and harmonious manner…

Maybe I just wake up on a different side of the bed than most people…but I digress. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, today the markets gave us a much needed breather…well a breather for those who wanted to buy stocks, and a down day for those who only want to watch what they already own rise.

So what caused today’s mini-correction? Here was a headline that I read that tried to explain it taken from CNNMoney.com:

“Brutal sell-off on Wall Street

Dow down almost 367 points, its third worst day of the year, on fears about credit and housing sector, earnings, record-high oil prices, slide in dollar, what the Fed will do next.”

Uh, say again? You mean today everyone woke up, and said, you know, I think I’m selling my stocks because well, earnings are bad, the housing stuff is really bumming me out, I just checked out oil prices and you know, they are higher today than yesterday, which is starting to freak me out, and even though the dollar has been declining for several months precipitously, TODAY it really means something, and to top it all off, what the heck will the Fed do next…you know what, I need to sell some stocks!

Ah, so THIS is why the market sold off today. Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to touch a little bit more on the topic of volatility.

On my Investing Style page I go over some of the risks and potential pitfalls of not just investing in the overall market, but specifically with micro-cap and small-cap stocks in which this site will specialize in.

I wanted to take this discussion one step further by analyzing our first pick for our portfolio, AAR Corp (NYSE: AIR), an its volatility as a prime example of exactly what I am talking about, and how you can deal with the potential fear, or frustration that comes with it. Read the rest of this entry »