Most Recent Posts
Can A Credit Report Stop Your Closing? Loan Denied!
Sensitive topic here for sure...but an important one, none the less. The scene is: you have done everything you were supposed to. You applied for a loan, provided the lender all of the necessary documents and after a month of back and forth you have received the coveted "clear to close." Excited, you start getting ready to move. You now order the moving trucks, share with friends and family your new address, and order the appliances that are on sale. All is going well; your attorney has notified the seller that your loan has been approved and you wait with anticipation your new home. Just days before closing you receive a phone call from your lender with a simple message - your loan has been denied and we are not able to close your loan. You think and say what everyone else in your situation does - this isn't fair! How is this happening? What am I going to do? Who’s at … [Read More...]
Silver Prices, A Closer Look At This Precious Metal
Greetings, We have recently received several emails from traders asking about silver and if now may be a good time to enter a trade, so today we will take a closer look at this metal from a trader and investor point of view. Silver has been a hot commodity over the last several years and since 2008 has traded from below $10 a ounce to almost $50 in April 2011, since then however silver has been in a correction as it digests a 3 year, 400% move in price. In May of 2011 and again in September 2011 silver sold off hard on heavy volume and has made a series of lower highs and lower lows in the process and currently trades 35% below those all time highs set in April. When you consider the huge price move to the upside in the last decade, a 35% decline from that high water mark is a bit easier to digest and at the current price of $31.23 it may be time to take a closer look at this precious … [Read More...]
How to Get the Lowest Mortgage Rates and Fees – Article Series #1 The Lenders
Want the best mortgage rates? It really is easy to find them as long as you know what to look for and what questions to ask. In this series of articles I describe what is necessary to get the best rate, costs and terms for your home loan. We will start out with some necessary understanding of the mortgage market and go deeper with each article. I hope you enjoy this series. I know that many of us tend to think the mortgage industry is too complicated, but it's not; as we explore each topic, you will see how simple the process is. This series will continue to grow based on its natural course and the feedback received. A key point to realize is that there are many different places to choose from but very few suppliers. Think of it like this. If you want a cola, you can go to hundreds of different types of stores to buy your cola, however, you only have a few choices … [Read More...]
Carnival Cruise Lines Tragic Accident and A Possible Trade Idea
Greetings, By now we have all heard of the tragic accident of the Costa Cruise Line and its parent company Carnival Cruises (CCL) last trade $29.60, down 13.6% on Seven times the average daily volume. The loss of life and the lawsuits that will follow combined with what may be a total loss of the $650 million dollar ship will leave this company with some stiff headwinds going forward as they try to start over with one less ship and perhaps a brand name that is slightly tarnished. Carnival Cruises is the largest company in the cruise industry and is expected to survive this nightmare but in the meantime the stock may very well remain under pressure in the months ahead. We have spoke before on trading stocks during earnings season and how sometimes a smart trade is one that is made on another stock in the industry group after a good or bad earnings report as many times … [Read More...]
Stock Market Earnings Preview For The Week of January 16th
Greetings, After the first full week of the new year and a higher volume distribution day in the markets on Friday after weak earnings from J P Morgan (JPM) we still found ourselves with gains for the week. As we enter the coming week that will see earnings reports start to pick up we are holding 2.5% gains on the S&P 500 and 4% gains on the NASDAQ for the calendar year 2012. Lets take a look at some of the companies due to release earnings this week and highlight what the earnings expectations are for each company, we recently wrote on how to trade stocks during earnings season and when you have time please see related article. I am providing links to company websites as well as a stock chart for each stock we feature and as always your comments are not only welcomed but encouraged. Best Wishes, $$$, ET. Tuesday January 17: TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. - … [Read More...]
Credit Card Offers and Bank Failures
Time to share a frustration of mine. Credit card offers. I get enough of them that I can literally wallpaper my home with them. The mentality that banks use to send credit card offers is one of the reason's our banking system is a mess. Literally - if they have an address and name (or part of a name), they will send them to you. Does anyone think sending a credit card offer to a 5 year old makes sense? Here are the numbers for the offers I received over the last 45 days. These are credit card offers that have come to my home. The list does not include the near daily offers sent via email, nor does it include the ones sent to my office: 17 from Chase 14 from Capitol One 5 from Bank of America 4 from American Express 3 from Commerce Bank 3 from US Bank 2 from PNC 2 from Citibank 1 from Choice Privileges Out of the list above, I should note the … [Read More...]
Trading Stocks During Earnings Season
Greetings, January, 11, 2012 If you have been around the stock market for any amount of time you know that trading stocks during earnings season can be somewhat of a challenge to say the least. With earnings season about to really get underway here now I thought that today would be a great time to share my take on trading around earnings. I will say that there is nothing like owning a stock that reports great earnings that are well received by investors and watch proudly as your stock opens higher the next morning and surges higher, taking your account balance along for the ride while you confidently sit back and say "I knew it" . However we all know the feeling of owning a stock that reports earnings that are not well received by the street, before you can even say "I blew it" you stare in amazement of just how far and fast your stock & account balance have fallen, and … [Read More...]
Stock market week in review, week ending January 6th.
Greetings, It was a short week with light volume in the market during this first week of 2012, however we did manage some impressive gains in the process, for the week the Dow added 1.1%, Nasdaq added 2.6%, and the S&P 500 tagged on 1.6%. But the more bullish indicator to me was the strength of the financial sector this past week, we had the XLF up 3% , JPM up 6.3% and WFC up 5%. This is significant at any time but perhaps even more so as we find ourselves at a key level on the major indices as we have once again found the strength to test the 200 day avg. we have failed at this level several times in recent months as we try to regain the 52 week highs that were lost last July. It has been said that no market rally can ever sustain itself without at least participation from the financial sector and if not out right leadership, this has been lacking in … [Read More...]
Ins and Outs of the VA Home Loan Program
After World War II, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) realized that many service members were unable to purchase a home after returning home. The solution to this was the creation of the VA Loan Guaranty program. Since then, over 20 million veterans and service members have attained the dream of homeownership through this advantageous program. So how has this program survived over 65 years? The survival of this program can be attributed to the VA funding fee. This is a one-time fee charged on the loan in order to keep the program alive for future soldiers. Recently, the VA funding fee was lowered and now ranges from 1.40 percent to 2.80 percent of the loan amount; however, the fee can be even less depending on if you put money down or not. A veteran receiving VA compensation for a service-related disabilityOf course, there are also scenarios where a borrower is exempt from the … [Read More...]
What Happened To Apple Inc?
What happened to Apple? This has been something I’ve thought about for some time now; especially since my inventory of Apple products has grown to include 3 IPhones, 1 IPod, 1 IPad, 1 IPad 2 and, of course, an Apple MacBrook Pro with the new Apple 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display. I remember back when Apple was the little guy’s computer, used by artists, designers and those that wanted to stand up against the large corporations. In modern times they would be one of the 99% rallying around the individual and against big corporations and their skewed profits. At the time, it was one of the only things that some people knew of Apple; they were to computers like Ben and Jerry’s is to ice cream. Apple is a different company now...Or at least, what the Apple executives stand for is more obvious. Apple is about as corporate as big corporations come. They are, however, still … [Read More...]
Mortgage and Real Estate
Can A Credit Report Stop Your Closing? Loan Denied!
Sensitive topic here for sure...but an important one, none the less. The scene is: you have done everything you were supposed to. You applied for a loan, provided the lender … [Read More]
How to Get the Lowest Mortgage Rates and Fees – Article Series #1 The Lenders
Want the best mortgage rates? It really is easy to find them as long as you know what to look for and what questions to ask. In this series of articles I describe what is … [Read More]
Ins and Outs of the VA Home Loan Program
After World War II, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) realized that many service members were unable to purchase a home after returning home. The solution to this was … [Read More]
Personal Finance
Credit Card Offers and Bank Failures
Time to share a frustration of mine. Credit card offers. I get enough of them that I can literally wallpaper my home with them. The mentality that banks use to send … [Read More]
Who Might Be Looking At Your Credit Report?
It’s common knowledge that people who have bad credit have a very difficult time getting loans. That makes sense though; why would a bank or other lending institution want … [Read More]
