Do You Practice Quality of Life Investing? Michael Berry Does

Posted on by admin

The Energy Report: When we last interviewed your son, Chris Berry, he advised to invest based on the reality of a growing, emerging market in China. That included both energy and agriculture sectors. Are you also bullish on quality of life-based (QOL) investing?

Michael Berry: I am bullish; I developed the QOL concept a few years ago. What I'm seeing is quite a few big institution life insurance companies, family offices and money management companies opening quality of life funds, although often with different names. They are beginning to recognize that as people move from the country to the cities in the emerging markets, and a new middle class develops, they will want more animal-based protein chicken, fish, pork, beef and eggs. By 2030, once the credit cycle is corrected, I'm very bullish that quality of life funds are going to push forward. I think both the energy and the agriculture sectors are going to be interesting investment areas.

Chris and I have been spending a fair amount of time lecturing and presenting our QOL thesis and talking to investors and companies that have big stakes in this area. When you have 2 billion (2B) new consumers who want to live longer, healthier and easier, and who want better food, education and transportation, energy and nutrition will be key sectors.

TER: Does that mean that you are not worried about reports of slowing economic growth in China? Continue reading "Do You Practice Quality of Life Investing? Michael Berry Does" →

How Not To Be A Patsy During Earnings Season

Posted on by admin

By: Tim Melvin

There is an old poker proverb that has been quoted by everyone from Warren Buffett and Marty to Whitman to Amarillo Slim and Whispering Saul that applies to trading around earnings season.

If you have been at the table for a few minutes and have not yet figured out who the patsy is, get up and leave. You are the patsy in the game. Every earnings season there's dewy-eyed traders rushing out to beat the market and pile up a fat stack of profits trading stocks and options based in earnings reports.

Everyone thinks the game is winnable and there will be boasts of great winners and successful trades over the next six weeks or so. You will not hear much discussion of the losers -- but then again you will probably never meet a losing poker player in your lifetime either.

The odds are stacked against the patsy in a very big way, especially those using options to make bets. Stop to consider for a moment exactly what you are trading in earnings season. The patsy is making a bet on a guess on how much the Wall Street analyst's community guess was off in either direction. Continue reading "How Not To Be A Patsy During Earnings Season" →

Why I Will NEVER Buy Another Bank Stock

Posted on by admin

My grandmother, a schoolteacher, was widowed at a relatively early age. She inherited a relatively small nest egg my grandfather, a rabbi, had built that included a couple of municipal bonds and 90 shares of stock in a small local bank started by a handful of his congregants.

At the time of her death 40 years later, the bank had grown into one of the largest regional players in the business. Those 90 shares had grown through mergers, splits and stock dividends to over 12,000 shares, with a value of close to $300,000. Not a fortune -- but not too shabby.

Was she some kind of investing genius? She was a smart cookie, but no. She held the stock for what seemed like forever. She banked there forever. She knew the business inside and out. She liked the 5% rain or shine dividend.

The bank she owned evolved into Regions Financial (NYSE: RF). Continue reading "Why I Will NEVER Buy Another Bank Stock" →

Lending A Helping Hand - INO Cares

Posted on by admin

Rebuilding Together Sidebar 2Did you know that April is National Volunteer Month? It’s a time to honor those that give their time to worthy causes and also a time to get out there and pay-it-forward! It’s easy to donate cold hard cash, but we wanted to give more than just that.

For our April INO Cares campaign, we thought it was time to get our hands dirty... really dirty! We’ve teamed up with Rebuilding Together of Anne Arundel County to sponsor the repair of a home for a low-income resident in need.

Rebuilding Together of Anne Arundel County (RTAAC) is one of 200 nationwide affiliates under Rebuilding Together, formerly known as Christmas in April. With the support of corporate sponsorships, grants and donations of individuals, churches and volunteer organizations, RTAAC has renovated over 520 homes and has put back over $10M in repair value. April 26th is RTAAC’s “Blitz Day,” where volunteers will repair multiple homes in a our area.

INO.com is proud to be a house sponsor! We will be providing a monetary donation, as well as a handful of employee volunteers to help rebuild a home! We are so excited to help this wonderful organization and a neighbor in need.

Please check back with us the first full week of May for pictures and stories from our day of volunteering! Learn more about RTAAC and Rebuilding Together.

CoT – Gold, Silver, Commodities & T Notes

Posted on by admin

Among its 29 pages of high quality market analysis, this week's NFTRH (#287) reviewed the Commitments of Traders (CoT) structures of a few markets and their implications.

cot.au

The above CoT graph clearly shows that gold has declined as the structure improved (red arrows). It then bottoms with the circled extremes and rises in conjunction with a degrading structure (green arrows). Gold is still on its journey toward bottoming. Continue reading "CoT – Gold, Silver, Commodities & T Notes" →