“You idiot, Harry.”
I thought I’d be overwhelmed with readers who would yap at me for my lousy performance this year (up only 3%). But, wrong! As I suspected, everyone is finding 2011 to be their hardest ever year investing — not because the trend has been straight down, or straight up. It’s been all over the place — especially in the second half of the year.
Just as you thought you had one strategy down pat — e.g. gold, or high dividend-yielders (like mortgage REITs), or value stocks, or shorting the market (e.g. short the SPY) — Mr. Market came along and rapped you over the knuckles. It’s almost as if Mr. Market has been maliciously perverse. And Mr. Europe has seriously added to Mr. US Market’s perverseness. And Mr. Europe doesn’t seem to be resolving any time soon, possibly getting worse — see below.
Where now? I spelled out our litany of disasters in gruesome “Gloom and Doom” detail yesterday.
Last night, I thought: I’m alive. I’m healthy. The family is fine. Great things are happening:
+ Corporations are ecking out higher earnings.
+ The U.S. is still somewhat solvent.
+ ATM machines here work.
+ Susan is ultra-healthy. Pilates works.
+ The kids are gainfully employed (in a job, but, sadly, not baby-making).
+ Today it’s sunny and warm in New York.
But, where’s the developing boom? The dot com boom? The housing boom? Where’s any boom? Deleveraging is NOT a boom. It’s the exact opposite.
I don’t see this volatility flattening out any time soon.
Which brings me to one suggestion from reader Paul Livingston:
The iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund “TIP”
Pays a monthly dividend, annual yield is 4.25% and up 9.5 % over the past year
The investment seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Barclays Capital U S Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) Index (Series-L) The fund generally invests at least 90 of its assets in the bonds of the underlying index and at least 95 of its assets in U S government bonds The underlying index measures the performance of the inflation-protected public obligations of the U S Treasury Inflation-protected public obligations of the U S Treasury commonly known as “TIPS ” are securities issued by the U S Treasury that are designed to provide inflation protection to investor.
Reader Bruce Mitchell still likes equities:
Hi Harry,
For someone like you, in your age bracket, I would recommend WMT at $50, MSFT at $23, MCD at $69, JNJ at $62, etc, etc. We have all these stocks at those prices or lower just this year. I purchased WMT at $49.95 last month. It’s all about the annual dividend increase, Harry. If you look at WMT, they have increased their dividend over 15% a year for the past 20 years. I believe MSFT will produce a return exceeding 13% annually over the next 10 years, due to dividend increases. (love the stock, hate the operating systems).
Yet more chaos and cnfusion in the Euro Zone. The headline says it all. Click here.
Mary Meecker is a cheerleader for the Internet. Here’s her latest powerpoint. See if you can understand what she’s saying. Click here.
Finally, solid state drives are getting cheaper and much bigger. To repeat a cracked record I love them. They’re the fastest way of speeding up your computer — without buying a new one. Read more.
Siri is worth the upgrade to iPhone 4S. I played with an iPhone 4S last night. Conclusion: Siri, the voice recognition software, is a major time-saver for anyone with a busy life. Which is you and me. I like Siri for making calls (“call Susan), scheduling meetings, finding retail stores, for getting directions (“how far to Boston?), for setting reminders, for sending SMS messages, for listening to my brilliance and converting it to text. Siri actually does what Apple says it does, and more.
Siri is great fun. Ask it dumb questions and listen to its occasionally funny answers. Find dumb questions to ask that evoke funny answers.
Upgrading to an iPhone 4S. As a favor to a friend, last night I upgraded his old iPhone 4 to the new iPhone 4S. In his case, that involved moving his contacts and his photos. There’s no way to do this with Apple’s iTunes software. But there is available software that will do the trick. It’s called TouchCopy 11. You’ll need the paid version — $24.99 — to transfer the files. Click here.
Qaddafi was fascinating, part crazy, part fox. Mostly fox. His life is fascinating. Click here.
Harry Newton who wonders why the McDonalds analyst on CNBC this morning is so fat. Maybe he eats at McDonald’s (MCD)? What do I know? The stock is looking pretty fat, too.
Who knew?
Maybe this old favorite is due for a combeback? Net asset value (NAV) is 10% higher than last night’s close.
