Make sure you get paid. The massive bull market of 1982-1999 changed the investment landscape dramatically, making growth investors out of everyone new to investing. Thanks to discount brokerages like E*trade and Ameritrade, investing was more accessible than ever before. Throw in the creation of 401(k)s and other investment focused retirement plans and you’ve got a genuine investing boom. Between 1983 and 1999, the percentage of US households involved in the market jumped from 19% to 49%. Amidst all the hubbub, dividends and income plays became unfashionable. With stock prices soaring to new highs almost every day in the late ‘90s, investors wanted growth, not boring payouts. And we all know how well this philosophy performed during the Tech Crash. One of the most quoted statistics regarding the stock market is the view that stocks have returned average annual gains of 10% since 1926. Far ...

Teri Horton may be the greatest living investor.

You wouldn’t think so to look at her. Horton, a retired truck driver, lives in a trailer furnished and decorated with items she found dumpster diving. She doesn’t own any stocks. She doesn’t even know what a junk bond is. And if you asked her to forecast the Dow, she’d probably tell you to get lost. You see, Horton deals in the most illiquid asset class in the world: fine art. And she got into it by complete accident.

In the mid-90s, Horton was browsing through a thrift store in her hometown of Costa Mesa, California, looking for a gift to cheer up a depressed friend. She came across a massive “ugly” painting. She asked the clerk how much the painting cost. When the clerk responded “$8”, Teri said, “I love my friend, but I don’t love her that much. Couldn’t we do …

In Friday’s essay I warned that stocks were headed for an ugly autumn. Looking at Friday’s action—the S&P 500 fell 3%— it’s possible the trouble is already here.

As I’ve mentioned several times on these pages, the market rally post-Bear Stearns was largely facilitated by phony economic data courtesy of the US government, the Federal Reserve pumping dollars into the system like there’s no tomorrow, and dumb money piling into stocks, thinking the worst is over.

Looking at these trends, as well as the market’s declining volume— a telltale sign of a “sucker’s rally” —I forecast that eventually this web of lies and frauds would come undone and the market would enter another fierce correction. Friday may have marked the beginning of this.

I strongly suggest you take steps to protect your portfolio now, if you haven’t already done so.

The first thing …

Prepare yourself now.

The market is widely referred to as a discounting mechanism. However, its ability to discount anything extends only as far as the collective knowledge of its participants. And to be blunt, the vast majority of today’s investors— professional or otherwise— know little if anything about making money in the market.

With the advent of discount brokerages— E*trade, Ameritrade, etc— in the late ‘90s, a huge wave of novice investors entered the US financial markets. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of US households invested in mutual funds doubled from 25 million to 50 million. This wave of new, uninformed money supported two major trends: the Tech Bubble, and the rise of the financial media.

Regarding the latter, in 1990, stock market developments were relegated to 15 minutes of coverage on major news programs. Only ten years later, there were at …

I’ve often been confused by some of the public statements issued by various figures in the financial-political arena. At times, I’ve even wondered if people like Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and others knew what they were saying. Fortunately my troubles are over. Last week I discovered a magic decoder ring that finally helped me to understand what the powers that be really mean when they talk about currencies, financial markets, and more. It’s amazing, I simply enter what the talking head says, and my decoder ring shows me what he or she really means in picture form. I thought I’d share a few with you. "As you've heard me say many times, I'm a strong dollar man, we have a strong dollar policy…," Henry Paulson Decoder Ring Translation:

-------------------------------------- Global Investing: the Secure Path to Maximize Your Wealth The US is ...