tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99706592009-12-03T01:28:05.842-05:00Don't try to beat the market, beat the inflation. If inflation is defeated then the real returns are achieved. Don’t just get the nominal return, get the real return.Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-15866085648261408932009-03-21T23:47:00.004-04:002009-03-22T00:00:38.161-04:00

Back in the February of 2008, I noted in the Recession and mass layoffs that if the mass layoffs increase by a lot then it will be a sign of a recession. Since then the mass layoff events in the US have really gone up by a lot, not surprisingly the US in a deep recession right now. It will be very important to keep an eye on this number as we try to recover from this recession because if the

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-58574963588892840422009-03-21T15:17:00.005-04:002009-03-21T15:20:35.194-04:00

The following chart shows the median and average house prices in the United States since 1963. The house prices are listed on the Y scale and the years are listed on the X scale. The data used to produce this chart is listed in the table below the chart.YearMedian house priceAverage house price1963$18,000 $19,300 1964 $ 18,900 $20,500 1965 $ 20,000 $21,500 1966 $

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-2803070561221355452009-03-15T16:27:00.003-04:002009-03-15T16:40:18.647-04:00

How much did Bank of America spend buying back its own stock in the open market in the last decade? The answer will surprise you. It was over $65 Billions. According to the calculations I did by going over the last 10 annual reports (10-K sec filings) of the Bank of America, the company bought back 1,183,126,000 (over 1 Billion) shares in the buyback or repurchase programs over the last 10 years.

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-1899550638463860322009-03-06T23:20:00.005-05:002009-03-06T23:41:13.411-05:00

Since Vanguard redesigned the website a little while ago, it has been acting very slow. The site runs extremely slow in Internet Explorer and sometimes it hangs for me. I notice that every time I go to the funds page listed in the screenshot below, my CPU spikes 100% for about 10 seconds and sometimes I have to close my Internet Explorer and start all over again. I have to say that Firefox and

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-1434735146825509842009-01-15T22:31:00.001-05:002009-01-15T22:32:55.534-05:00

Treasury rates30 year - 2.87%10 year - 2.21%5 year - 1.37%2 year - 0.72%6 month - 0.28%3 month - 0.10%1 month - 0.02%Inflation indexed treasury rates (TIPS)30 year - 1.96%10 year - 1.79%5 year - 2.26%Online savings account ratesING direct - 2.50%HSBC direct - 2.60%Emigrant direct - 2.50%GMAC bank - 3.25%12 month CD ratesING direct (Orange CD) - 2.75%HSBC direct - 3.00%GMAC bank - 3.75%Bank of

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-16188612770252530612008-11-27T16:34:00.003-05:002008-11-27T16:41:28.535-05:00

Just a few months ago I notices in a post that 5-year TIPS were yielding 0% before inflation. I remarked at that point, “Investors in the 5-year TIPS are accepting government reported inflation numbers as their future return”Now look what has happened since then. The 5-year TIPS are now yielding 3.92% real before the inflation. The inflation component that Government will have to pay will be

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-79794901853860307822008-11-27T16:21:00.001-05:002008-11-27T16:23:46.551-05:00

When the history books will be written about this market there should be a chapter on the excessive executive compensation in terms of stock options as one of the reason for this market crash in the big picture terms. The excessive stock options to executives created a short-term oriented mindset where meeting the quarterly numbers was the only goal. It was acceptable to leverage the balance

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-67889693670370914792008-10-09T21:38:00.002-04:002008-10-09T21:44:03.971-04:00

"We believe the free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity"- Larry Kudlow(The first line of Larry Kudlow's show, "Kudlow & company" on CNBC, in years 2007 and 2008)

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-84372081122328702372008-07-13T18:19:00.002-04:002008-07-13T18:23:12.804-04:00

The table below lists the 3-year annualized returns of the Vanguard Index funds. I have included the index funds that have been in the business for at least 3-years. The 3-year performance displayed below is as of 6/30/2008 and data is from the Vanguard’s website. The performance quoted also includes the dividends paid out by these index funds.As you can see from the table, the small cap funds

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-30561748110311767242008-06-28T01:17:00.002-04:002008-06-28T01:23:31.079-04:00

I was looking through the cash flow statements of Pepsi for the last 10-years at the morningstar’s website and I saw that Pepsi has been buying back its stock consistently for the last 10 years.I summed up all dollars Pepsi spent on stock buybacks for the last 10-years. The total was around $16 Billion dollars. Wow! Pepsi spent $16 Billion dollars to buyback its stock in the last 10-years. After

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-34072937455756289532008-03-25T22:07:00.010-04:002008-03-25T22:28:27.500-04:00

The table below lists the 25 largest mutual funds, their expense ratios and the total expense the shareholders in these mutual funds incur each year. The total expense the shareholders incur in a given year is dependant on the expense ratio of the fund and the total dollars invested in the fund by the shareholders. This number also reflects the amount of money the parent company earns in revenues

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-28503598580348975342008-03-15T13:25:00.003-04:002008-03-15T13:33:24.730-04:00

The table below lists the 10-year performance as of 2/29/2008 of all the Vanguard index funds where 10-year performance data is available. I have included all bond index funds, a balanced funds and a bunch of international funds along with domestic index funds.The table is sorted by the 10-year performance in the descending order. The best performing index fund for the last 10-years is listed at

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-47510497661185505532008-03-02T00:08:00.004-05:002008-03-02T00:13:30.719-05:00

I have a habit of checking Pimco’s website regularly to find out what is going on in the bond market. The homepage of Pimco for US lists the yields of US treasuries of various maturities, and TIPS yield of various maturities. There is an image of the current yield curve also on that page. All these information gives me a quick glance into the bond market.I saw that the Vanguard inflation

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-5429407388099141382008-02-18T00:13:00.003-05:002008-02-18T00:16:53.233-05:00

Above chart lists the performance of the sector SPDRs from 1/1/2003 to up until today. The table only shows the price performance, it does not include dividends or capital gains.As you can see from the table below, the financial sector has been the worst performing sector since 2003. The 3 best sectors since 2003 were Energy, Utilities and Materials. When I was running the numbers for this post

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-75321125956796524002008-02-07T22:03:00.000-05:002008-02-07T22:06:16.029-05:00

The following table lists the sector allocation of 3 Vanguard index funds as of 12/31/2007; Vanguard total stock market index fund, Vanguard growth index fund and Vanguard value index fund.The Vanguard total stock market index follows MSCI US broad market index, the Vanguard growth index fund follows MSCI US prime market growth index, and the Vanguard value index fund mimics MSCI prime market

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-40956443618648585722008-02-02T00:13:00.000-05:002008-02-02T00:19:27.846-05:00

Whenever a recession approaches, mass layoffs increase by a lot in the economy. I found following data on the bureau of labor department’s website regarding mass layoff events. The table below lists the number of mass layoff events since the year 1996 as reported by BLS. As you can see from the table that even in the economic growth years mass layoff events range around 15k to 16k a year. In a

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-39171027396518164432008-01-13T17:29:00.000-05:002008-01-13T17:33:39.629-05:00

The 3-year cumulative returns for some Vanguard index funds are listed below in the table. The cumulative returns are as of 12/31/2007, so the returns include calendar year 2005, 2006 and 2007.These returns show that the large cap segment of the market is starting to outperform now and it is showing up in the numbers. The small value segment that has been outperforming the overall market last few

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-1675966041392333402008-01-05T00:20:00.000-05:002008-01-05T00:23:56.917-05:00

I am thinking about buying a new car for myself. This time around, fuel efficiency is the highest priority for me. I want my new car to give me at least 30 miles per gallon of gas in this $100 per barrel oil price environment. No, I am not going for a hybrid or ultra-compact car; but I am thinking about buying a Honda Accord, Toyota Camry or Nissan Altima. The 4-cylinder models for these cars

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-18033740954392995962007-10-10T14:52:00.000-04:002007-10-10T15:13:05.899-04:00

Chart of homebuilder KB Home (KBH):Chart of homebuilder D R Horton (DHI):Chart of homebuilder Ryland Group (RYL):Chart of homebuilder Lennar Corporation (LEN):Chart of homebuilder Pulte Homes (PHM):Chart of homebuilder Centex Corporation (CTX):Compare all these homebuilder stocks to Nasdaq:

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-35481997507667187952007-07-17T22:53:00.000-04:002007-07-17T23:13:29.984-04:00

SPY is an ETF type investment that tracks S&P 500 index. The current yield of SPY as of 7/17/2007 is 1.69%. I believe, SPY was one of the earliest ETFs ever created and it has been trading since the 1993-94 timeframe. In this post, I want to calculate the current yield of the SPY based on the time it was purchased by an investor since 1994.Since current yield of SPY is 1.69% and current price of

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-39376226184966400042007-06-12T22:46:00.000-04:002007-06-15T22:53:55.655-04:00

In one of my earlier posts I outlined the median house price in United States for last 40+ years and calculated that the median house price has been rising at 6% annually for the last 40+ years.In this post I present you a table starting with January of 2000 to up until now, which lists the median house prices and average house prices in United States month after month.As you can see from the

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-26257851878857486882007-05-05T15:42:00.000-04:002007-05-05T15:45:47.647-04:00

Reported earnings estimates are available at the Standard & Poor's website for the S&P 500 index for the year 2007 and 2008.2007 reported earnings estimates1st Quarter - $21.352nd Quarter - $23.403rd Quarter - $22.904th Quarter - $21.802007 total = $89.452008 reported earnings estimates1st Quarter - $24.202nd Quarter - $24.003rd Quarter - $23.804th Quarter - $22.202008 total = $94.20Historically,

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-83309944610803807242007-04-17T22:19:00.000-04:002007-04-17T22:26:09.103-04:00

The table below lists the Dogs of the Dow Jones Industrial Average as of 4/17/2007 along with the yield of the each Dow component.Symbol Company Name Dividend YieldMO ALTRIA GROUP 4.95% PFE Pfizer Inc. 4.35% VZ Verizon Communications Inc. 4.33% C Citigroup Inc. 4.19% T AT&T Inc. 3.66% GE General Electric 3.17% GM General Motors 3.12% MRK Merck 3.03% DD DU PONT DE NEMOURS 3.00% JPM JPMorgan Chase

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-19371581625401993632007-04-07T16:19:00.000-04:002007-04-07T16:31:13.196-04:00

There were 3 major bottoms in the S&P 500 in the last 35 years. These bottoms occured in 1974 at 63.54, in 1987 at 230.30 and in 2002 at 815.28. I am considering month-end prices instead of intra-day prices because we are looking at the history of 30+ years. Assuming that these were indeed bottoms and believing that we would not break below these (especially, 2002) bottoms again; one can start to

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9970659.post-1167787185882053362007-01-02T20:18:00.000-05:002007-01-27T17:19:55.816-05:00

I recently read the “The Little Book of Value Investing” by Christopher H. Browne over the holidays and thoroughly enjoyed it. One passage of the book in particular caught my eye for its simplest explanation of the 10% historical return of the S&P 500 index, and I thought I should share it with you. You can find the following quote on the page 20 of this book."If you think the Standard & Poor’s

Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02441164632140862350noreply@blogger.com4