Your retirement nest egg might have lost 40% of its value since this summer and 10% the last 2 weeks. What should you do? Here's the advice I've been giving to friends who ask, as well as what I've been doing with my own portfolio.

First, let me begin by stating that I make no claim whatever to be able to predict whether stock prices will go up or down over the near term or when the market bottom might be reached. In part that humility is inspired by a large academic literature demonstrating that it's very hard to predict stock prices with formal statistical models.

The one element of predictability for which I do see some support in the academic literature is the claim that the price/dividend or price/earnings ratios do not wander too far from their long-run historical averages. The implication of that finding is that

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Siemens Settle Bribery Charges for $1.3 Billion; Google Walks From Yahoo; Enbridge Channels 88% Profit Growth; FCC Approves Sprint-Clearwire Merger; GMAC Finance Revenue Stuck in Reverse; Time Warner Revenue Unchanged; Molson Coors Pops; News Corp. Profit Down 30%

Siemens AG (SI) put aside nearly $1.3 billion to settle charges that it bribed government officials around the world to win contracts. The concessionary provision will affect earnings for the year ended Sept. 30, Bloomberg reported. Internet titan Google Inc. (GOOG) announced Wednesday (yesterday) that its wariness for antitrust-related legal battles ultimately killed discussions ...

Apple Inc (nasd: AAPL) - Apple’s FY09 gross margin should well-exceed management’s guidance of 30%. There are multiple factors that will support FY09 gross margins. 1) As iPhone’s revenue contribution to total company sales increases, overall gross margins will rise since the iPhone carries a very high GM. 2) There will be a more favorable component price environment created by plunging commodity and energy prices. 3) As production volume rises for the iPhone and MacBooks, scale effects and cost efficiencies will benefit drive down product costs. 4) Higher revenues supply leverage by spreading fixed costs across a higher revenue base.Apple’s guidance is way too conservative; yet considering the economic landscape, management is exercising prudence. This cushion should help Apple exceed earnings expectations even if the economy adversely affects its business. With gross margin expectations so low, Apple’s revenue growth could turn out worse than expected and still match/beat …

Most products that are used every day are taken for granted in their simplicity. Turn the product on and it should work. What is involved in making that product go, especially if it is an electronic product, is rarely considered. Understanding the process of what actually makes a product work, through the use of electricity, can lead to a solid and stable investment opportunity, even if the overall concept of energy is an esoteric one.

Conolog Corp., a designer, manufacturer and distributor of electronic and electro-magnetic sub assemblies, works to supply equipment involved in converting electrical signals into mechanical energy and mechanical energy into electricity. In a simple sense, the company makes products that control and protect electricity at its basic level.

Conolog Corp. got its start manufacturing guidance and other components for the US military. Since that time the company has manufactured guidance systems and other components for some of

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Monday:Economic Leading Indicators (-0.3%)Earnings Eaton (ETN), Halliburton (HAL), Mattel (MAT), American Express (AXP), Everest (RE), Hexcel (HXL), Logitech (LOGI), Netflix (NFLX), SanDisk (SNDK), Texas Instruments (TXN)Tuesday:Economic NAEarnings 3M (MMM), Caterpillar (CAT), Biogen (BIIB), BlackRock (BLK), Coach (COH), Fifth Third (FITB), M&T Bank (MTB), OptionsXpress (OXPS), US Banc (USB), Stanley (SWK), Broadcom (BRCM), CH Robinson (CHRW), Cree (CREE), Cerner (CERN), E*Trade (ETFC), Qlogic (QLGC), Sigma Aldrich (SIAL), VMware (VMW), XL Cap (XL), Yahoo (YHOO), Tupperware (TUP)Wednesday:Economic Weekly CrudeEarnings Air Prod (APD), Alleghany (ATI), AT&T (T), Boeing (BA), Conoco (COP), EMC (EMC), CNX (CNX), Genzyme (GENZ), McDonalds (MCD), Merck (MRK), WellPoint (WLP), Allstate (ALL), Amazon (AMZN), Amgen (AMGN), Baidu (BIDU), Chipotle (CMG), Citrix (CTXS), Core Labs (CLB), Lam R (LRCX), Nutrisystem (NTRI), Pulte (PHM), Terex (TEX), Ryland (RYL), Seagate (STX)Thursday:Economic Weekly ClaimsEarnings Altria (MO), Bunge ...

Customer service calls can be an aggravating experience. Pushing buttons and getting lost in an automated system is not a new experience for most consumers. But when a person stops to consider the volume of interactions for a moment, the complexity of the issue becomes apparent. Customer service is a major portion of the world’s economy today and it appears to be getting bigger with each passing moment. An investor that can find a company which takes advantage of this complex and confusing customer service dance is an investor that may find solid long term profit.

KANA Software Inc., a customer service software developer, marketer and integrator, works to assess company customer services requirements and provide software solutions. The company assesses company needs across the entire spectrum of electronic customer service response/interactions, including e-mail, voice and personal contacts.

The company offers software products to achieve more efficient and productive interactions with a

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BMO Capital is out cautious on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) having recently visited or spoken with sales reps at 32 Apple and 30 AT&T stores in various parts of the US and the UK. Apple is not escaping the gravity of weakening consumer spending, in firm's view.Negative – for the first time in years, store reps are indicating sales have slowed, in CPUs in particular. While the data was not universal, about onethird of sales reps they spoke with noticed some slowing, which is a significant change from past checks. Conversations with AT&T sales reps indicated no recent change in iPhone run rates, but the firm has elected to cut their FY2009 iPhone forecast nonetheless.In recent visits to 32 stores across the country, 11 indicated that sales had slowed in the past 30 days, while 20 indicated that sales had stayed about the same, and one indicated that ...

Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) in focus today.Let's start with the downgrades:- Deutsche Bank lowers their rating to Sell from Hold, lowering their tgt to $70 from $120. RIM has become more dependent on hardware sales with time. This means that they have to keep running to keep up with changes in consumer tastes and risk missing numbers if their products do not hit. The company stated they expect operating margins to improve as R&D spend decreases, but also seemed to indicate ad spending would continue to grow. The company guided Q3 gross margins to 47% and expect the margins to move into the mid 40s in FY10. This is well below DB's estimate of 50%. RIM pointed to a large number of new product lines for the cut. In part, the firm thinks this is indicative of their struggle with 3G technologies among other issues....

On Tuesday, Deutsche Telekom AG unveiled the first smart phone that will use Google’s new Android operating system.  The device is called the G1, sold by Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary T-Mobile, and it looks a lot like the iPhone and other competing smart phones (well, except for the Google logo on the back).  But its the software, not the hardware, that T-Mobile and Google hope will set this new product apart. It will need to be special to crack the dominance of RIMM’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone in the smart phone market.  Those two companies controlled a combined 65% of the market in 2008, ahead of a long list of competitors that also includes PALM, Motorola, LG, and Samsung.

But smart phone users are savvy folks, and they’re looking for devices that will make life more efficient, and more enjoyable.  That’s where the cache of Google’s

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September 15, 2008 – Premier Power Renewable Energy (OTCBB:PPRW) announced it has come public through a reverse merger this weekend, on the heels of a $7 million financing led by Vision Capital.  Premier is a leading downstream solar firm which has demonstrated success in the burgeoning solar markets both domestic and overseas. In an environment where so many of its peers have struggled to achieve profitability, Premier has. It is amongst the largest and fastest growing solar installers in the nation, achieving sales of $16.7 million in 2007 and has contracted $48 million in sales for 2008, representing 187% year-over-year growth.  It has been profitable since 2006, and continues to experience dramatic growth and record sales in the US and Europe. Premier has been installing PV systems since 2000, and is one of the top seven installers in the country, focused on the $13 billion commercial market – GE’s number ...