These stocks are covered by fewer than 5 analysts, but they have increased both their earnings and sales by 10% or more over the past 12 months.

America’s Car-Mart (CRMT) specializes in low-end, used cars in states like Kentucky,Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Sales were up almost 3% and profits were up 8%, in the most recent quarter. And management used this cash flow to pay down some of their debt, which is a good sign.

Global Cash Access Holdings (GCA): Global Cash is expected to increase profits 11% and sales 8%, while the likes of MGM and Las Vegas Sands are losing money due to less travel. Global Cash makes the “3-in-1″ cash machines that let gamblers get cash from their debit cards, or attempt a cash advance on their credit card once their debit is tapped out. This company is clearly not a buy for the socially conscious investor!

Citi Trends (CTRN) has about 350 stores in 22 states and appeals to the African-American consumers and offering urban apparel products (according to their financial filings). New stores earn the initial startup costs in about a year, and had double-digit earnings percentages recently as well as being debt-free and maintaining $3 per share in cash.

Multi-Fineline Electronix (MFLX) designs and manufactures flexible printed circuit boards for mobile phones, smart mobile devices, consumer products, portable bar code scanners, personal digital assistants, computer/storage devices, and medical devices. It sports a 6.2% Revenue Growth for the last quarter and 106.68M in cash, 10.56M in debt.

AZZ (AZZ) manufactures electrical equipment and components for power generation, transmission and distribution, and industrial markets in the United States and Canada. It has 75.82M in free cash flow and $33 in Revenue Per Share.

• A Sample ETF Portfolio for 100% Foreign Exposure. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) offer broad diversity in a single package, and if the ETF is an index fund then they carry added tax benefits when compared to actively manage mutual funds. When ETFs first hit the investment scene, they were simple index tracking funds. They mainly targeted passive investors.......
• NLY, a Dividend Paying Trust Worth A Look. With chatter about a bubble in bonds building, it may be a good time to look for alternative sources of investment income. One such source has long been dividend paying stocks, trusts and partnerships. Here are two such dividend plays - one is a Real Estate Investment Trust, and the......
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• Ivy League Investing For The Common Man. David Swensen has managed the Yale University endowment from 1984 to 2008 and during that time, the endowment returned an annualized 16.6% - 5 points better than the S&P 500 and a generic balanced portfolio of 60% in a stock index, and 40% in bond index. That equates to a......
• Looking To Invest In Banks, Go Small. By now, we now the sad story of the large national investment banks like Bear Stearns, AIG, Citigroup et. al.. Such examples give pause to investors, as they should, but they also taint the entire financial sector. Believe it or not, there are many banks that stuck to lending and......

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• Swine flu continues unabated The past two days have seen a substantial increase in swine flu cases, with the state of Illinois announcing 555 cases on Tuesday. That count was 67 more than Monday's total---a 14% increase in one day. Meanwhile, Cuba, Finland and Thailand announced their first cases yesterday. According to the World......
• Is the United States Broke? A debate worth having. With the increase in foreclosures, job losses, taxes, etc., the question becomes is the US broke?   There is a lot of money going out to bail out the car industry, the banking industry, and the insurance industry.    How will this money be paid back?  There is no......
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It’s the end of July, and that means it’s time for a roundup of investing news, tips and general info from around the blogosphere!

ETFs.

• The ETF DataBase has a great post detailing the history of the ETF industry by way of 25 people who helped create it. Read The ETF Hall of Fame: 25 People Who Revolutionized the ETF Industry

• 76 ETFs For Foreign Stock Exposure from Bradley Johnson’s Personal Finance And Investing blog is an exhaustive listing of foreign ETFs broken down by single country, Region and more!

Investing Tips and Techniques.

• Trend Technician has a great post about why you shouldn’t Trade Without a “Stop”.

• The Amateur Financier provides a wonderful breakdown of Risk Management Strategies.

• Wise Money Matters gives a quick and handy breakdown of various types of stocks (not growth, value or large cap, small cap either) in What are the different types of stocks?

Warnings and Reminders.

• Moolanomy has a great reminder that sometimes Stock Volatility Kills.

• AllFinancialMatters reminds us (graphically) that Not All S&P 500 Index Mutual Funds Are Created Equal!

• A Sample ETF Portfolio for Vanguard Fans. The Vanguard family of funds has many fans in the individual investor community. With their dedication to low expense fees, it's no surprise. Much has been made of the drag on performance of high fees, and there is a growing investment community that not only shuns investments with high fees,......
• A Sample ETF Portfolio for Growth and Income. When this portfolio was originally recommended by Kiplinger, about a month or so ago, the yield was a hefty 5.8%. A large part of that yield comes from the LQD fund that focuses on high-quality corporate bonds, the IGOV fund which buys foreign government bonds, HYG which focuses on junk......
• Best ETF's For... Kiplinger has released their annual "best of" edition, where they rate the best of just about everything. One of the categories is ETF's. I thought I'd share the picks, and some thoughts on them here, but you should check out the complete issue if you get a chance. Best ETF......
• The One-Minute Portfolio. Here's the ultimate in super-simple investment portfolios, for those who don't have the time or inclination to pick and monitor individual stocks. The One-Minute Portfolio. The One-Minute Portfolio is comprised of just 3 asset allocations: Domestic Stocks, Foreign Stocks and Bonds. Here's a recommendation for each category: 1. Buy America......
• Ivy League Investing For The Common Man. David Swensen has managed the Yale University endowment from 1984 to 2008 and during that time, the endowment returned an annualized 16.6% - 5 points better than the S&P 500 and a generic balanced portfolio of 60% in a stock index, and 40% in bond index. That equates to a......

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• How to Invest: Growth vs. Value When it comes to investing in stocks for capital gains, there are two different approaches that can be taken in order to ensure that your stocks increase their worth: growth investing and value investing.  (There are other rationales for investing, such as investing for dividends, but for now let's stick......
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Morningstar has released their top 3 Bond Funds for June-July. Here’s the list:

High-yield bonds.

T. Rowe Price Spectrum Income (RPSIX)

This is a fund of funds. The management team invests in up to 9 T. Rowe Price funds in order to get exposure to all of the sectors of the bond market. The fund took a 14.7% hit in 2008, due to the high yield aspect, but it’s up 6.3% for the year ending May 29.

Intermediate-term bonds.

Metropolitan West Total Return Bond (MWTRX)

The management team of Stephen Kane, Laird Landmann, and Tad Rivelle have been at the helm of this fund since 1997, and with excellent results. The team focus on a selective group of bonds including BB and B rated, higher yielding issues and bank loans. However, they also placed a contrarian bet on commercial and residential mortgages in 2008, so this fund is not for the impatient or conservative investor.

FPA New Income (FPNIX)

Here’s a more conservative fund. Manager Bob Rodriguez has maintained a “buyer’s strike” against high-yield bonds and U.S. Treasuries, and has a sterling long-term record. One item of note however: Rodriguez plans to take a one year sabbatical starting January 2010, but he is passing control of the fund to Thomas Atteberry, the fund’s co-manager.

• When it Comes to Investing, Simplicity Rules. There was a time when only the wealthy and well connected could invest in the stock market. Then IRAs and 401(k) plans ushered in a new era of the "common man" investor. Flash forward a bit more, to the Internet age, and we have a grand democratization of the stock......
• Mutual Fund Monday: Morningstar Announces their Choice for Fund Managers of the Decade. These managers were chosen by Morningstar as the best of the decade because the "deftly steered investors through good times and bad". That's saying something. Investing in the '80's and 90's was pretty clear cut, but the 1st decade of the 21st century was anything but easy. As with the......
• Investing Term Tuesday - January Effect. In honor of just closing the books on January, I thought it might be nice to examine the January Effect. The January Effect is an investing term that refers to a general increase in the stock market during the month of January. This effect is typically attributed to an increase......
• Forget Gold. Look To Commodities Etfs, Agriculture And Lead Instead. (VIDEO) Famed investor and best-selling author Jim Rogers was interviewed by Yahoo!'s Tech Ticker back in October 2009, and he's still bullish on commodities, but not so much on gold. Here's the 30-second takeaway from the video: Individual investors should focus on commodity ETFs, unless they have a deep understanding and......
• Investing for free in 2010 with ING Direct! Here's a freebie for your Friday... Open an IRA & invest for FREE in 2010! ING Direct is offering a year's worth of investing credits if you open an IRA with them before April 15, 2010. Here are the details: no-fee IRA free Automatic Investment Plan (AIP) credits to use......

• Six Lessons The Tour de France Can Teach You About Money Every July a bunch of dudes with skinny arms and thighs the size of a genetically enhanced bull get on bikes and ride around the rural flats and mountains of France. This is otherwise known as the Tour de France. Here in the United States interest in the tour can......
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• What's Gone Wrong With Municipal Bond Funds? Many investors preparing for retirement have become concerned about the drop in market value of municipal bonds and funds in 2008 and 2009. Let's take a closer look. Historical Benefits of Municipal Bonds and Funds Earlier in 2008, municipal bond mutual funds (a/k/a munis) were very attractive to baby boomers......
• Why I Ditched My Vanguard Money Market Fund In Favor Of ING Direct For several years, I kept my emergency fund in the Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund (VMMXX).  For a while, this Vanguard money market fund was yielding over 5% while most high yield savings accounts were stuck in the 4.5% range (those were the days, huh?).  This made perfect since, because......
• Successful Investing Tips and Techniques The true, most basic motivation behind investing is to grow our investment. People who have invested before will take their time, looking at the differing companies and the market, trying to predict how a stock will do in a year or two. Those investors whom are without the experience to......

When bear markets rally, it’s often the small caps and technology stocks that lead the way. Here are 3 ETFs that may help you make the most of the current rally.

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ).

The EEM is comprised of 329 stocks from countries that have yet to mature economically. This translates into high potential for growth. The holdings are focused primarily in South Korea, China, Brazil, Taiwan, Russia, South Africa, and Mexico. EEM has gained 29.58% year to date and carries a yield of 1.8% with an expense ratio of 0.72%. But a word of caution: while emerging markets are capable of incredible growth, they can turn on a dime and deliver punishing losses – EEM lost 50% in 2008.

Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3x Shares (TNA)

As the name suggests, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull aims to triple the performance of its index, in this case the Russell 2000. It uses leverage to accomplish this, so it should be treated as a real live wire. The Russell 2000 follows small cap stocks between $250 million and $3 billion. This is where high growth is often seen earliest.

Because this ETF uses leverage, it is not for the passive or buy-and-hold investor. Rather, it is best for short term speculators who can handle the occasional big loss. TNA is down 9.52% for the past 3 months, but up 35% YTD. It’s expense ratio is 0.95%.

Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK)

The Technology Select Sector SPDR is one of the largest tech ETFs going. It has $2.8 billion in assets, and tracks tech stocks in the S&P 500. Good performance from Apple and Intel have pulled the tech sector higher despite poor performance from other stocks in the index. Microsoft, AT&T and IBM make up the top 3 holdings (out of 79 total).

XLK is up 27% YTD and has a yield of 1.59%, though it was down 41.39% for 2008. It sports an expense ratio of only 0.21%.

It’s hard to tell if this has been a sucker’s rally that’s about to end, or a natural rebound to fair market values (evidence exists to support both sides), but these ETFs should provide you with good diversification and an excellent chance to catch the return to economic growth when it happens.

• Bears Make Money, Bulls Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered. I don't mean to get all Animal Farm on you, but have you ever noticed there are a lot of animal metaphors in investing? Most people have heard about bear markets and bull markets, but did you know there are also pigs in the market? Well, yeah, I suppose you......
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• Mutual Fund Monday: PIMCO Launching New Global Fund. According to a recent Edgar filing , PIMCO will soon be launching a new fund: PIMCO Global Opportunities Fund . It's going to be a global value fund of common and preferred stock. The fund will target equities in one of 3 countries, one of which may be the U.S........
• Investing Around the Blogosphere: July 2009 Roundup. It's the end of July, and that means it's time for a roundup of investing news, tips and general info from around the blogosphere! ETFs. The ETF DataBase has a great post detailing the history of the ETF industry by way of 25 people who helped create it. Read The......
• A Sample ETF Portfolio for Vanguard Fans. The Vanguard family of funds has many fans in the individual investor community. With their dedication to low expense fees, it's no surprise. Much has been made of the drag on performance of high fees, and there is a growing investment community that not only shuns investments with high fees,......

• Protecting Your Investments In Times of Economic Crisis The United States economy is currently experiencing a serious financial shake up. No one really understands just how deep or how far reaching the damage is going to be, but what we do know is that there is going to be damage, and that we are going to be at......
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• What Does "Buy on the Dips" Actually Mean? Several folks have asked me over the last few weeks what does phrase "buy on the dips" actually mean. The official Investopedia definition is: A slang phrase regarding the practice of purchasing stocks following a decline in prices. After a significant dip in the price of a security or stock index, investors should increase......
• Forecasting Stock Returns Using Macroeconomic Growth Factors Over the long term, corporate earnings tend to comprise about 10% of GDP.  This number fluctuates, of course, but the long-term trend is relatively consistent.  Since corporate earnings are eventually reflected in stock prices and their share of GDP is relatively stable, we can use economic growth forcasts to predict......
• Riskiest Real Estate Markets In The US A lot of people are wondering where to invest in order to catch the next real estate boom. I don't have a ready answer for that, but Forbes magazine was nice enough to tell us where the riskiest markets are. 1. Miami, Fla. Due in part to escalating insurance costs,......

Here’s the ultimate in super-simple investment portfolios, for those who don’t have the time or inclination to pick and monitor individual stocks.

The One-Minute Portfolio.

The One-Minute Portfolio is comprised of just 3 asset allocations: Domestic Stocks, Foreign Stocks and Bonds. Here’s a recommendation for each category:

1. Buy America – The Whole Darn Thing!

Perhaps the cheapest and easiest way to own the entire U.S. Stock market is through the Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTSMX) mutual fund, or Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI). Both capture all market caps from small to large, growth to value and all sectors – and they have a low expense ratio: 0.16% and 0.07% respectively.

2. Going Abroad.

Here is a mutual fund and an ETF that will let you own the rest of the world, from emerging markets to the more mature European markets. Vanguard Total International Stock Market (VGTSX) Fund or Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU). Expense ratios are 0.30% and 0.20% respectively.

3. Bonds.

Bonds often give ballast to your portfolio during time when stocks are tanking, with the rare exceptions (think 2008). The biggest problem most investors have when buying bonds is deciding on what maturity to buy – short, intermediate or long term? You don’t have to pick just one. Here’s a super simple way to own the bond market – all of it!

Vanguard Total Bond Market (VBMFX) fund, iShares Lehman Aggregate Bond
(AGG) ETF. There is the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND http://quote.morningstar.com/ETFQuote.html?ticker=BND), but it’s less than a year old. The expense ratios are: 0.20%, 0.20%, and 0.10% respectively.

As with any portfolio, you’ll have to decide what percentage each category should be in your portfolio, based on your target time and risk tolerance.

• Top Morningstar Bond Funds for July 2009. Morningstar has released their top 3 Bond Funds for June-July. Here's the list: High-yield bonds. T. Rowe Price Spectrum Income (RPSIX) This is a fund of funds. The management team invests in up to 9 T. Rowe Price funds in order to get exposure to all of the sectors of......
• Mutual Fund Monday - How to Compare Funds. The Mutual Fund Monday post this week is a highlight of a recent post from Kyle over at Amateur Asset Allocator . Millions of Americans own mutual funds in their 401(k) plans, and many others own them in their IRA's or even in a taxable, non-retirement account. But many people......
• A Sample ETF Portfolio for Maximum Income (and Fat, Juicy Yields). With the low fees and wide selection of ETFs, you can now build a portfolio for maximum and minimum fees relatively easily. Here's one such sample portfolio from Kiplinger that allocates 65% to bonds, 35% to stocks. The bond section is spread between conservative, laddered treasures and riskier junk bonds.......
• How Much Do Mutual Funds Really Cost? Q. How much does it cost to own a mutual fund? A. More than you think. Most investors know about a fund's expense ratio, and use that attribute for comparing various funds before buying. But there are a host of hidden costs that are much more difficult to uncover for......
• 3 Recommended Pimco Bond Funds. Bonds are an important part of any good asset allocation, and here are 3 bond funds from the Pimco firm as recommended in a recent Kiplinger magazine article. PIMCO bond total return (PTTAX). Manager Bill Gross sticks to investment grade, intermediate-term U.S. bonds for this fund. The expense ratio for......

• How Do Bond Mutual Funds Work? For the most part, you should probably understand how a stock mutual fund works by now.  The manager of the fund is in charge of making the buying and selling decisions.  Depending on the investment philosophy, this could mean buying new stocks in the fund, or selling to reduce one’s......
• Target Retirement Funds Portfolio Composition And Expenses: Vanguard vs Fidelity vs T Rowe Price This is the first post in a series comparing and contrasting target retirement funds from three competing companies: Vanguard, Fidelity, and T Rowe Price. Today, I will be comparing the portfolio composition and expense characteristics of both the 2030 and 2005 funds from each company to get a good overview......
• Investment Pyramid: A Broad Base Welcome to the second part of our week -long look at building an investment pyramid. Yesterday, I shared some advice to help secure your finances and get yourself ready. If you took all the steps I recommended, you are now in good shape to begin investing. But, where to start?......
• Protect Your Portfolio from Currency Devaluation Many experts believe that the U.S. economy is about to experience a severe bout of inflation. Others are actually expecting deflation. The deflation predictors don't think that an increase in the money supply will be inflationary this time because our extreme debt will control our economy. I don't know who......
• 10 Free Investment Credits From ShareBuilder (And $50 Signup Bonus) Online investment company ShareBuilder (owned by ING Direct) is offering up 10 free investment credits to new and existing customers who set up an Automatic Investment Plan before January 31st.  This is a great way to start investing for the New Year!  Normally automatic investments are $4 per trade. The......

I don’t mean to get all Animal Farm on you, but have you ever noticed there are a lot of animal metaphors in investing? Most people have heard about bear markets and bull markets, but did you know there are also pigs in the market? Well, yeah, I suppose you did. But do you know what kind of investing animal fits your personality and how to profit from each?

Bulls.

A Bull Market occurs when the economy is stable and growing. Unemployment is low, the GDP is growing and the stock market is rising. Bull markets are great because even a monkey can make money in a bull market. Optimism abounds.

A Bullish investor is someone who thinks, or feels, that a bull market is present or very near to happening.

Bulls make money because stock prices are rising.

Bears.

A Bear Market is the opposite of a Bull Market. Unemployment is rising, the GDP is receding, and stocks are falling. Pessimism abounds. It seems like no one can make money in the stock market.

Bear investors are those who are pessimistic on the stock market or economy as a whole. Bears expect the stock market to fall.

Bear do make money though. They make money by investing in businesses that do well when times are tough, or by shorting the market, sectors or individual stocks.

Pigs.

Pigs is  a term only applied to investors, and not the market as a whole. A pig is an investor who has become greedy and blind to the possibility of a loss.

Pigs can be investors who buy high risk investments, or a bear or bull who has simply become blinded by greed. Pigs buy stocks based on hot tips. Pigs become convinced that we are living in a “new economy” and that the market can only go up, or down indefinitely. When the direction turns, they get slaughtered.

Don’t be a pig.

Pigs are an essential part of the investing ecosystem – just don’t become one. Bears and bulls can capitalize on pigs. Often times it is the pigs that drive the market to extremes and create conditions whereby bulls and bears can profit.

• Reliability of Income, the New ROI. The 2008-2009 market crash and resulting bear market have been absolutely brutal to new retirees and soon to be retirees alike. For those in my age set (about 30 years out from retirement) it serves as a poignant lesson of what can go wrong. To Mary Beth Franklin, editor of......
• Recent Stock Market Highs; A Reminder To Watch Your Stops. Depending on how you measure the performance of the stock market, it has risen roughly 30-35% from its March 2009 lows. Maybe this is the beginning of a new bull market, or maybe it's just a sucker's rally. How can you be sure which it is? /caption] Well, the beauty......
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• The One-Minute Portfolio. Here's the ultimate in super-simple investment portfolios, for those who don't have the time or inclination to pick and monitor individual stocks. The One-Minute Portfolio. The One-Minute Portfolio is comprised of just 3 asset allocations: Domestic Stocks, Foreign Stocks and Bonds. Here's a recommendation for each category: 1. Buy America......

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• Insurance Companies May Not Be The Healthcare Cost Enemy Farm and construction machinery, Hershey sweets, Yahoo!, railroads, and Tupperware.  What do these things all have in common?  They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.  That's right, the industry that is making "immoral profits" (Nancy Pelosi) can't even turn out a margin higher than Tupperware.  In 2008, health......
• Investing Baby Steps #1: Know Who You Are When we were just babies, we started to crawl in order to explore the “new world”. After a while, we noticed that there was more “out there” and we started to think about a way to go faster and further during our exploration. Then one magical day we decided......
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• Choosing the Right Types of Investments If you have a regular, traditional type of pension plan, then your employer is responsible for making all of your investment decisions in your place. With most other types of retirement plans that are out there, however, you are the one that is in the driver's seat. Some people believe......

Looking for an easy, diversified portfolio of stock funds that will grow your money over time, but won’t take over your life with demands on your time? ladies, gentlemen and undeclared’s, I present the simple 7 portfolio..

Each recommendation is either an ETF, or a no-load mutual fund. Some people prefer mutual funds, and others ETFs, but there is little difference here. Most are also index tracking funds, so they are relatively low maintenance – for the set it and forget it, long term buy and hold investor. Most expense ratios are under 1%

The Simple 7 Portfolio.

1. A blue-chip U.S.-stock fund.

• iShares S&P 500 Index (IVV )

• Selected American Shares (SLASX)

• Fidelity Spartan 500 Index (FSMKX)

2. A blue-chip foreign-stock fund.

• Vanguard Total International Stock Index (VGTSX )

• Vanguard FTSE All World Ex-U.S. ETF (VEU)

• Dodge & Cox Intl. Stock (DODFX ) .

3. A small-company fund.

• Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB ).

• T. Rowe Price New Horizons (PRNHX)

• Vanguard Small-Cap Index (NAESX)

4. A value fund.

• iShares S&P 500 Value Index (IVE)

• Vanguard Value Index (VIVAX)

• T. Rowe Price Equity Income (PRFDX)

5. A high-quality bond fund.

• Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND)

• Vanguard Total Bond Market Index (VBMFX)

• Harbor Bond (HABDX)

6. An inflation-protected bond fund.

• Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities Fund (VIPSX)

• T. Rowe Price Infl.-Protected Bond (PRIPX)

• iShares Lehman TIPS Bond (TIP)

7. A money-market fund.

• Fidelity Cash Reserves (FDRXX)

• Vanguard Prime Money Market (VMMXX)

• Schwab Value Advantage Money (SWVXX)

I leave the actual asset allocation to you, since that will depend on your time horizon, risk tolerance and so forth.

• A Sample ETF Portfolio for 100% Foreign Exposure. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) offer broad diversity in a single package, and if the ETF is an index fund then they carry added tax benefits when compared to actively manage mutual funds. When ETFs first hit the investment scene, they were simple index tracking funds. They mainly targeted passive investors.......
• The One-Minute Portfolio. Here's the ultimate in super-simple investment portfolios, for those who don't have the time or inclination to pick and monitor individual stocks. The One-Minute Portfolio. The One-Minute Portfolio is comprised of just 3 asset allocations: Domestic Stocks, Foreign Stocks and Bonds. Here's a recommendation for each category: 1. Buy America......
• A Sample ETF Portfolio for Vanguard Fans. The Vanguard family of funds has many fans in the individual investor community. With their dedication to low expense fees, it's no surprise. Much has been made of the drag on performance of high fees, and there is a growing investment community that not only shuns investments with high fees,......
• 3 ETFs for the Bear Market Rally. When bear markets rally, it's often the small caps and technology stocks that lead the way. Here are 3 ETFs that may help you make the most of the current rally. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ). The EEM is comprised of 329 stocks from countries that have yet......
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Aaron Task at Yahoo! Tech Ticker has a post of the 5 Keys to the Market, from Todd Harrison, CEO of Minyanville.com.

The money quote is near the bottom:

“Given these crosscurrents, Harrison’s advice for traders is to keep a tight leash on stops and be extra focused on risk management.”

Here’s why Harrison thinks you should keep a close eye on your stops:

Treasury yields.

The 10-year yield has been in a range of 2.7% – 3.78% from Jan – June 2009. This is a reflection on how some traders view the risk of future inflation. The sentiment seems to swing daily between high risk of inflation and high risk of deflation.

New Supply of Stock.

Some investors are worried that the rally from March lows was synthetic and manufactured. I personally believe it was a rebound from over sold to the “new normal”, but what do I know?

Valuations.

Harrison points out that despite the talk of how “cheap” the market is, forward P/E ratios are now close to the October 2007 highs.

Volatility.

And my own bonus reason for keeping an eye on your stops – the S&P 500 has been in a fairly narrow range over the past 6 months, as evidenced by this chart:

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Note: This chart represents the value of the iShares S&P 500 Growth Index ETF (IVW), but it tracks very closely to the S&P 500.

SO, as you can see, there are number of mixed signals and contradictory information about the markets now. Because of this, it’s important to watch your stops and make sure you’re not to tight or too lose, or you risk losing more than you should or missing out on any bull rushes.

• Healthcare Stocks Ripe for Growth: MEDICAL RECORDS. This is a continuation of the Healthcare Stocks Ripe for Growth series this week. Yesterday, I profiled the Biotech company Gilead Sciences. This week is the medical record keeper, Quality Systems. Quality Systems (QSII) Regardless of whether the Obama administration gets public healthcare legislation passed, one thing you can count......
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• Fees & the tiny investor Over the past few months I've invested in 12 different individual stocks. (And I have my eye on at least 6 more, but it will take more time before I'm able to purchase those.) All of the stocks that I chose were trading at $150 or less at the time......

I just got a Bottom Line Magazine offer in the mail, and thought I needed to blog about this one of the “smart money tip” inside.

The tip is titled “Make Your Grandchild a TAX-FREE Millionaire!” and they include this nice chart showing a lump sum investment growing skyward to $2 million.

How it works.

The basis of this tip is the Roth IRA, which allows the gains to be taken out tax free after a certain age. Here’s how it goes…

Once your teenage grand child is gainfully employed, they contribute $4,000 between the years of 16 and 21 and that’s it. The investments in the Roth IRA earn 10% a year (average over 49 or so years) and, voila at the age of 65 they grandchild has over $2 million tax-free.

Why it’s bunk.

First, let me say that the theory is sound and would work. The problem is that over the 49 years that the money is accumulating, inflation will be eroding the value of the dollar.

Assuming 3% inflation (average) and 10% return over 49 years, I entered these values into the inflation calculator at Forbes and that $2,000,000 will be worth approximately $449,619 in 49 years.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying $449,619 is chump change, but it’s a far cry from $2,000,000!

As I said, the theory is sound and it’s not a bad idea, but don’t think you’re setting your grandchild up to be the next Gates or Rockefeller.

• Free Trades From ShareBuilder For All Of 2010 ! ING is offering commission-free trades through its ShareBuilder service for the entire year, when you open an IRA with this promo code. Here are the details: All IRA plans are no-fee plans; no fees for a low balance, no fee for inactive accounts, no annual fee for being a member.......
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• Tax-Free Municipal Bonds: An Alternative to Traditional Savings Accounts Remember the term "passbook savings account?"  Remember taking your passbook to the bank with you and when you made a transaction, the teller would place your book into the machine which would type in the amount of your deposit or withdrawal?  That passbook had a funny smell, too.  How things......

Utilities have a long history of being a safe haven – especially for yield hungry income investors. This is sill true today with weaker consumer spending in the U.S. and lower global output depressing stock prices, and the government debt snowballing to historic amounts pushing the yield on treasuries downward.

Here’s 5 quick reasons utilities look really good right now:

1. Regulated utilities have built-in profit margins.
2. They have predictable dividends.
3. They usually reduce a portfolio’s beta.
4. The current utility ETF’s are yielding more than long-term treasuries, which suggests that they are oversold relative to treasuries.
5. You can own a diversified basket of utilities in the Utilities Sector SPDR ( XLU) and Vanguard’s Utilities ( VPU) ETF’s.

Here’s a chart showing the divergence of the XLU ETF from treasuries (IEF) and equities (SPY):

… And some stats on the ETF’s;

XLU.

yield: 4.66%
P/E: 10.64
Total Expense Ratio: 0.22%
Annual Holdings Turnover: 4%
Total Net Assets: 1.94B

VPU.

Yield: 4.33%
P/E: 10.62
Total Expense Ratio: 0.2%
Annual Holdings Turnover: 23%
Total Net Assets: 320.65M

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