1950s, I was a slow-poke in accumulating abstract expressionist art works. NYC was rocking as the center of this new movement, not Paris or London. I missed the reflowering of Renaissance work, too. Rembrandt, Renoir, Matisse et al. But I own Matisse watercolors rather than the huge florals that you see in the Paris museums. The art world thrives with or without you. You can catch up with work a hundred years old. I did purchase a Rouault aquatint of Christ, “Veronica’s Ve

If wrong on Goldie, I’ll wear a dunce cap filled with humility. Best defense is a strong offense. Let someone else own airlines when traffic turns south. I can offer you half a dozen stocks that do go against the grain. I’m talking properties like Berkshire, Citigroup, Amazon and Goldman Sachs. Throw in my Macy’s, spec for your retailing comeback. Sometimes, you play with fire. Not just Macy’s. Try a low priced airline, maybe American. I’m not interested in pricey paper b

The amplitude of 12-month price changes range above 100% for stocks like Citigroup, Macy’s and Amazon. MS 174.94 AAPL 277.169 AMZN 258.161 Price ranges do exceed 100 points for stocks like Amazon and Apple with large percentage changes for Morgan Stanley and Microsoft, too. A busy setting. In many stocks we own, price spreads do exceed 100 points. I’m thinking of Amazon, Apple, as well as financials like Morgan Stanley. Low priced Macy’s remains a cheap play on retailing r

Stocks ending in 1930 were dropped by one-third. A year later, the great fade away covered half of the country’s financial assets. The Great Depression started in 1931, my year of birth. By then, the market tracked 20% below its low point of 1929. Then, by 1932 we finally bottomed some 80% below the peak. Nobody cared or jumped out windows. Born in August of 1931, I had as yet no reference points for good markets, bad ones or indifferent settings. During the thirties, my

Way back, I bought an apartment in Trump Towers. It was early on. The Sosnoffs were sole occupants in the building. You never want to be the sole, early occupant in a new building. It takes time for the heated water to build up so you can take a hot bath. In short, a lot can go wrong that takes time to fix. I was going for control of Caesars World, New Jersey which turned out to be a costly mistake. Trump, later, got financing from Merrill Lynch to build a humongous casino

I know how to track this rock song which dates itself, but say at least 60 years. I remember guitars and banjos strumming away as the lyrics belted out pure optimism. It 's like the sun rising in the sky like a red rubber, bouncing ball. Sundays, visiting Washington Square Park, you'd hear a dozen groups reaching for a place in the sun with our rapt attention loyal for at least 10 minutes. The title of this piece, is a celebration of singing about your belief in yourself an

When I picked out “1929”, Andrew Ross Sorkin’s long tome, I hoped to understand how a coterie of bankers, brokers methodically raped our country’s financial system. These were mainly waspy, middle-aged operators and heads of toney brokerage houses. Before investing in bank stocks, catch some flavor of what happened to our financial system in 1929 and who bears the blame. Was it the man in the street overreaching with his trades or was something more systemic percolating? L

The concept of averaging down in the market or on a specific stock you carry was probably coined by economists who can lose you serious capital. Try averaging up in your winning picks. If Goldman Sachs or Apple are bouncy pieces of paper, chances are there’s a good reason for such buoyancy. My rule in the market is never go out to lunch. At least be at your desk when your overweighted holdings drop a bunch of points or bounce as much. Look out United Airlines just posted a 9

Daily, at the close, I check the action in Tesla. It can trade over 100 million shares up or down. TSLA has a chance of taking its shareholders to the moon, but without me. I've had a hard enough time figuring out whether I should buy bunches of Treasuries, 10 to 30 years out. Anyone who’s bullish has to show me why President Trump can be a bullish force. Where is his punch bowl? I read Trump as a destroyer of equity value and a negative force in the flow of business. He’s u

One recent day, in its opening hour, Tesla traded down 20 points on 50 million shares. Players long Tesla know their road is rocky,...

Early postwar years, the market dealt out death once it sold above 15 times earnings, particularly in the mid-sixties. Ten times earnings...

After the FRB pronouncement on interest rates, I dug right down to the bottom of my shoes and felt nothing. Don’t you miss Alan Greenspan...

Ballie is played in a circle, leader in the middle bouncing a Spaulding. Players must flop to the floor when the bouncer stops his...

High time our FRB head signaled action. I’m not talking just quarter pointers, a spit in the ocean. Unlike Alan Greenspan who had a...

My picture gallery of Fed Chairmen dates back to early sixties when they carried big sticks. Does anybody but me remember McChesney...

I can’t come up with Chairman Powell’s first name. Maybe the country gets what it deserves: An unaggressive FRB with a President who...

Investors need to remain aware of the gigantism of Berkshire Hathaway. Apple is a 22 % position but only 1.9% of its capitalization....

Apart from its billion dollar probe in United Health, Berkshire Hathaway made sizable cuts in holdings of financials. After all, the...

Sooner or later, load up on 30-year Treasuries, an unintended gift from Uncle Sam. You’re not Uncle Sucker when a 5% coupon exceeds our...

Now’s the time to run paper portfolios on a handful of ragamuffins that you think are potential turnarounds. I won’t bet on just one or...