Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
There are several references to articles in Barron's. For those interested, I have been doing weekend summaries from Barron's for several years that are released on Saturday mornings. Some recent ones can be found at this link at the open read-access site, https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/board/12/market-insights
Just as a clarification, those Barron's summaries are just pointers or extended abstracts or like TV Guide type notes for movies/shows or like CliffsNotes. To avoid copyright issues, there isn't any copy-and-paste. Only about a year's worth of summaries are populated on the website, but I have more than a decade's worth of them in my personal archives that I can quickly search.
On articles/topics of interest, readers of course have to go to the original source (online if they have Barron's subscriptions or paper copy at local library or spend $5 at news stand). Also, many print-only subscribers may get their copy only on Monday/Tuesday.
So, it is free online resource available to anyone on Saturday mornings.
Your $5 news stand price seemed way too low. So I checked. You are correct. Just $5 an issue for the paper edition. What bargain! For me it has paid for itself many times over during the past year. (To be perfectly accurate here, I subscribe to the Kindle edition of Barron’s at around $12.50 monthly. As far as I can tell - it is pretty much the same as the print edition.)
What you said about your Kindle subscription is interesting to me @hank. When I noticed the weekly paper was $5 I sent Barron's an email asking why I pay $30/month. The $30 does include paper delivered each Saturday morning and a site web account. Maybe my web-link is what you call the Kindle edition(?) I threatened to cancel my subscription if they couldn't reduce my cost. Well, they pretty much just said "we hope you reconsider and they believe they supply good value".
That was an empty threat on my part, I didn't intend to cancel, but now the cost makes sense to me. I'm paying for the hard copy paper and an extra $10 for the internet access. Not sure why they just didn't tell me that in response to my email.
@yogibearbull, that is how they got me to subscribe originally. $1 a month for I think 3 months(?) Can't remember exactly. I'm not sorry I subscribed. I enjoy both the newspaper with my coffee on weekends and the web articles any time.
Some of these deals that I have seen are for 1-2 years! If find those (they flash for a while periodically), then may be get a new subscription in the name of a family member and cancel the current one.
Personally I don’t care for online editions of various publications like Barron’s or the WP. Not sure why - but they seem to be laid out more like a website - “links on top of links.” In addition, I had a bad experience many years ago getting one publisher to stop charging my card after I cancelled the subscription..
Amazon pioneered the Kindle reader(s) and sells subscriptions to most anything, although tracking them down on Amazon’s site is sometimes difficult. These Kindle subscriptions read more like a regular newspaper or magazine (front page to end). Essentially, you keep “turning” pages. In addition, there’s an easy to pull down index accessible from anywhere you might be.
Prices for subscriptions are often a bit higher, One nice feature is you can go to your Amazon account and cancel anytime. And they refund the remaining balance same day. One drawback, I suppose, is the Kindle publications don’t update throughout the day. OK with me. And some readers complain about missing charts - particularly with IBD. No - I’m not a Kindle or Amazon salesman! Just trying to be helpful. The type of subscription format is really a matter of user preference.
Devices? The Kindle app is supported by virtually any device. I have the app installed on my ipad. Works fine. Still - being the “finicky” type, I feel I get a superior reading experience from my dedicated (Amazon) Fire 8-9” tablet. The refurbished ones are cheap and quite nice - like new.
- Since they’re a bit hard to track down on Amazon, here are direct links to a few financial publications available in Kindle format.
One thing I appreciate the online version of Barrons is the discussion tread following each article and they represent quite a diverse view that often differs from the author. This is something not available in the printed paper. Prior that that I used to subscribed to it for over quite awhile until the Great Recession where I found Barrons completely missed several signs leading to the great decline. I went back to several discussion boards including Fund Alarm. More recently I subscribe to the online version and will soon switch to the Kindle format (thanks to @hank). Also I am getting comfortable to read my Kindle books on my iPad using the Kindle App. So much more portable and I can take them everywhere I go.
“ … I used to subscribed to it for over quite awhile until the Great Recession where I found Barrons completely missed several signs leading to the great decline.”
I’d concur with @Sven that Barron’s is not a particularly good barometer / predictor of major changes in market direction or sentiment. Their “Commodities Corner” bear call on gold around the 2000 -2002 period stands out in particular. Within a few weeks of the very bearish call, gold took off on a tear going from under $300 to an intermediate term peak of $700-$800 in just a few short years.
But Barron’s is really a compilation of many different market assessments. A careful reading will reveal these. Their weekly “Market View” column (Formerly called “Quoth the Mavens”) pulls excerpts from an assortment of current financial newsletters. Often, these will contradict one another. Yet a perceptive reader may draw some reasonable inferences. Weekly columnist Randall Forsyth may fall short of being “profound” in assessing market direction or valuation - but provides an intriguing skeptic’s eye toward many financial issues - particularly keen on assessing retail investor sentiment I think.
I’ve purchased 3 or 4 stocks over the past year based on Barron’s recommendations. All did well. Today I sold one, NGLOY, after a quick 14% run-up since they recommended it roughly 2 months ago. Still like it - but have been trimming risk wherever I can of late. So, based on some very limited experience buying their picks, I’ll guess they’re probably right more often than wrong on those recommendations.
These days I spend more time reading many sources so that I get additional information. Agree that Forsyth’s articles are short on details, but his argument is logical. I also read Schwab, Seeking Alpha and others that are posted here. MFO monthly commentaries are particularly insightful that get me to do additional research.
Over the Thanksgivings I reviewed the Three Alarm list again. T. Rowe Price is outstanding without a single Three Alarm fund while Franklin Templeton keeps on sliding downhill.
(November 24) “Today I sold one, NGLOY, after a quick 14% run-up since they recommended it roughly 2 months ago. Still like it - but have been trimming risk wherever I can of late.”
NGLOY lost 7.54% today.
Edit 11/27 (To be completely honest here) I moved the proceeds from NGLOY into an existing holding, GLFOX. It lost about 2.4% yesterday - so am only two thirds as smart (or lucky) as might at first appear.
@hank, This past Friday was ugly. Mining stocks including NGLOY took quite a hit. GOLD took a dive too.
In next several weeks we will learn more on test results on "Omicron". There was flash of fear reflecting the consequences of February 2020 when the pandemic started. Two possible scenarios: (1) Omicron is no worse than the Delta variant and there is no significant reduction on the vaccine's efficiency, and (2) Omicron turns out to evades all vaccines and the spread cannot be readily contained unless lockdown is being imposed. If scenario #1 plays out, there is already restricted travel imposed on African countries to EU and US and the spread is NOT widespread. Also there are advanced made with Merck's and Pfizer's antiviral drugs for treatment. Scenario #2 can be quite damaging to the world since there is no vaccine solutions (and it will take at least a year to develop and manufacturing new vaccine for the world population).
To complicate the matter, the inflation, the timeline of Fed tapering, and rising rates are all taken place concurrently. COVID risk was reduced this year with vaccination, but now it is placed on top of everything else.
@Sven - I hung on to RIO (another mining stock). Held up much better (-2.2%). From my limited knowledge, NGLOY is more of a growth story while RIO is flush with cash and a larger more conservative player.
(Sorry for taking this thread off topic folks. Thanks for your forbearance.)
Comments
On articles/topics of interest, readers of course have to go to the original source (online if they have Barron's subscriptions or paper copy at local library or spend $5 at news stand). Also, many print-only subscribers may get their copy only on Monday/Tuesday.
So, it is free online resource available to anyone on Saturday mornings.
Your $5 news stand price seemed way too low. So I checked. You are correct. Just $5 an issue for the paper edition. What bargain! For me it has paid for itself many times over during the past year. (To be perfectly accurate here, I subscribe to the Kindle edition of Barron’s at around $12.50 monthly. As far as I can tell - it is pretty much the same as the print edition.)
And - nice to hear @Sven subscribes …
That was an empty threat on my part, I didn't intend to cancel, but now the cost makes sense to me. I'm paying for the hard copy paper and an extra $10 for the internet access. Not sure why they just didn't tell me that in response to my email.
Personally I don’t care for online editions of various publications like Barron’s or the WP. Not sure why - but they seem to be laid out more like a website - “links on top of links.” In addition, I had a bad experience many years ago getting one publisher to stop charging my card after I cancelled the subscription..
Amazon pioneered the Kindle reader(s) and sells subscriptions to most anything, although tracking them down on Amazon’s site is sometimes difficult. These Kindle subscriptions read more like a regular newspaper or magazine (front page to end). Essentially, you keep “turning” pages. In addition, there’s an easy to pull down index accessible from anywhere you might be.
Prices for subscriptions are often a bit higher, One nice feature is you can go to your Amazon account and cancel anytime. And they refund the remaining balance same day. One drawback, I suppose, is the Kindle publications don’t update throughout the day. OK with me. And some readers complain about missing charts - particularly with IBD. No - I’m not a Kindle or Amazon salesman! Just trying to be helpful. The type of subscription format is really a matter of user preference.
Devices? The Kindle app is supported by virtually any device. I have the app installed on my ipad. Works fine. Still - being the “finicky” type, I feel I get a superior reading experience from my dedicated (Amazon) Fire 8-9” tablet. The refurbished ones are cheap and quite nice - like new.
-
Since they’re a bit hard to track down on Amazon, here are direct links to a few financial publications available in Kindle format.
WSJ
Financial Times
Barron’s
IBD
The Economist
But Barron’s is really a compilation of many different market assessments. A careful reading will reveal these. Their weekly “Market View” column (Formerly called “Quoth the Mavens”) pulls excerpts from an assortment of current financial newsletters. Often, these will contradict one another. Yet a perceptive reader may draw some reasonable inferences. Weekly columnist Randall Forsyth may fall short of being “profound” in assessing market direction or valuation - but provides an intriguing skeptic’s eye toward many financial issues - particularly keen on assessing retail investor sentiment I think.
I’ve purchased 3 or 4 stocks over the past year based on Barron’s recommendations. All did well. Today I sold one, NGLOY, after a quick 14% run-up since they recommended it roughly 2 months ago. Still like it - but have been trimming risk wherever I can of late. So, based on some very limited experience buying their picks, I’ll guess they’re probably right more often than wrong on those recommendations.
Over the Thanksgivings I reviewed the Three Alarm list again. T. Rowe Price is outstanding without a single Three Alarm fund while Franklin Templeton keeps on sliding downhill.
Edit 11/27 (To be completely honest here) I moved the proceeds from NGLOY into an existing holding, GLFOX. It lost about 2.4% yesterday - so am only two thirds as smart (or lucky) as might at first appear.
This past Friday was ugly. Mining stocks including NGLOY took quite a hit. GOLD took a dive too.
In next several weeks we will learn more on test results on "Omicron". There was flash of fear reflecting the consequences of February 2020 when the pandemic started. Two possible scenarios: (1) Omicron is no worse than the Delta variant and there is no significant reduction on the vaccine's efficiency, and (2) Omicron turns out to evades all vaccines and the spread cannot be readily contained unless lockdown is being imposed. If scenario #1 plays out, there is already restricted travel imposed on African countries to EU and US and the spread is NOT widespread. Also there are advanced made with Merck's and Pfizer's antiviral drugs for treatment. Scenario #2 can be quite damaging to the world since there is no vaccine solutions (and it will take at least a year to develop and manufacturing new vaccine for the world population).
To complicate the matter, the inflation, the timeline of Fed tapering, and rising rates are all taken place concurrently. COVID risk was reduced this year with vaccination, but now it is placed on top of everything else.
(Sorry for taking this thread off topic folks. Thanks for your forbearance.)