Taking Stock

• A rare and very interesting look at hedge fund master Steven Cohen ($)


• Performance pressure!


• A natural gas sting


• Yikes! Hedge funds are getting ready to go public!


• The worst kind of news for MotherRock investors


• Economy continues on soft landing


• The government's deficit math doesn't add up


• Does anyone trust the inflation data anymore?


• The greatest scam of all time


• Wall Street is supporting the Dems this time around


• Bush's use of the terror card works like magic ($)


• Jeff Thredgold's bullish perspective


• Steven Lehman's bearish perspective


• Can a permabear and a permabull agree? Maybe


• "Frankly, I couldn't blame anyone for speculating with Diamonds (DIA) or Spyders (SPY) here. Hey, boys and girls just want to have fun. But you know my thinking -- if you want to make real money you have to be ready to take a large position with a large percentage of your funds. And I'm not willing to do that, not in today's market." - Richard Russell


• Chief execs at large companies remain wary of a slowdown


• The buyback binge


• Can turning points in the economy be predicted? Part one & two


• Since 2001, the health-care industry has added 1.7 million jobs. The rest of the private sector? None


• In a new survey, Americans report being the second-most "cash-strapped" nation, trailing only residents of Portugal


• Is anything going to rattle the U.S. consumer?


• Yield curve challenge


• Everyone is Fed-focused


• Homebuilder confidence hits 15-year low


• Home builders dole out the incentives


• A cautionary housing tale from Japan


• It sure didn't take long for the bottom calling to surface in housing


• Value investors are combing over the homebuilders


• Tide of personal bankruptcy filings on rise again


• Some economists make the case for recession


• HSBC sees recession risk


• Ed Keon pounds the table again


• "The market always looks the best at the end of a rally, just as it always looks the worst at the bottom of a decline." - Bill Fleckenstein


• A financial storm continues to build


• IMF sees both good and bad


• Sector leadership often comes from unexpected areas


• Healthcare consultants play both sides of the fence ($)


• All eyes are on the metals mergers


• Pensions stay devoted to commodities


• How low will gold go?


• Joe Duarte explores the oil top


• Oil drop will cut into earnings


• Oil is a value trap?


• Time to stay the course in energy?


• Manipulation or just coincidence in the energy markets?


• Bulls versus bears on the oil outlook


• Lower gas prices = higher interest rates?


• Should we care about global warming?


• El Niño is back!


• The economic implications of El Niño


• Sometimes it's easy to be a contrarian


• What is Value Line saying now?


• Stock bloggers stay bearish


• Bill Cara's weekly review


• Chris Perruna's weekly review


• Eric Miller's random gleanings


• Congrats to David Jackson on his amazing accomplishment at SeekingAlpha


• Sivy's 7 stocks for the really long run


• The Rise of Baidu


• Tivo offers VIP pricing for big bucks on new HD device


• Laser chips


• Is the worst really over for satellite radio?


• W&T Offshore's energetic CEO


• Say goodbye to the Lincoln Towncar


• Companies reporting this week that will be in focus include Oracle (ORCL), AutoZone (AZO), Golf Galaxy (GGXY), Christopher & Banks (CBK), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Circuit City (CC), FedEx (FDX), Rite Aid (RAD, 3Com (COMS), Finish Line (FINL), and KB Home (KBH)


• 10 stocks rising on unusually high volume


• Stock buybacks


• 50 companies with the most insider buying this month


• Standard & Poor's finds five stocks to avoid


• BusinessWeek's Asia 50


• Stocks added to the IBD 100 this week are AAPL, ADS, AE, ANEN, AXR, BLK, BLKB, CBG, CNS, EGLT, IHS, IIVI, LQDT, MTEX, OXPS, PMTI, PSYS, RSTI, SMSC, SMTB, TRAD, UARM, and VSEA. Stocks removed from the list are: AAUK, BJT, CASS, CCJ, DRQ, ETP, GDI, GRMN, HOC, HWCC, LHCG, LMS, OFLX, OKE, SAFT, STLD, TCK, TS, TTI, TTM, TXU, and VOLV


• The best and worst performing stocks in the Russell 3000


• Land-rich stock candidates


• It's not the most talented players that become champions, it's the players with the best understanding of the game


• Trading is the easiest business to start and the hardest one to grow (must read)


• How to put information behind your trades


• The most common mistake traders make according to Brett Steenbarger


• Lessons from hedge fund strife


• Stop loss exits: managing risk vs. managing anxiety


• Mind games: what neuroeconomics tells us about money and the brain


• 7 events that should motivate you to sell


• Using logic to examine risk


• Alan Farley's 6 moneymaking tells ($)


• Profiting from the short squeeze


• What does your trading look like?


• Bollinger Bands 101


• Anatomy of a penny stock hype


• Nasdaq ticker symbols, explained


• Can you possibly imagine the level of stress this trader must have felt?


• A practical guide to online stock trading


• Single-stock futures haven't become very popular


• A change of corporate leadership often serves as a positive catalyst


• Hedge funds look to cash in on late filings by companies


• Bonus bucks at Goldman Sachs


• Wall Street's beginning to look like Christmas


• MaoXian's ETF Performance Table


• Roger Nusbaum looks at the BRIC ETF


• Bull and bear dollar ETFs


• 66 more ProShares ETFs are coming soon


• A super-diversified ETF


• Standard & Poor's model ETF portfolio


• All you need is 3 index funds? ($)


• The wealthy rank the brokerage industry


• The increasing charms of the Roth approach


• How to…personal finance edition


• Five things to tell your college student about managing debt


• Home improvements that count


• Fortune's fools: why the rich go broke


• Are you set for a gruesome retirement?


• Cash rewards sweeten for credit card holders


• I need to do a much better job this


• Mobile news!


• Economist resources


• 10 x 10


• PocketMod


• Floppy Office


• The best freeware utilities


• Mad Money spoof


• "Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it." - Jane Wagner