Daily Posts Archive

Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens recently dropped a campaign to push for the adoption of wind power on a large scale because he’s in the process of building the word’s largest wind farm in the Taxes panhandle. When the oil barons start going Green, you’d better take notice. Today I’m going to evaluate some stocks that might benefit from this endeavor.

Soaring gasoline prices are keeping drivers off the highways and boaters off the lakes. Lake weekend, while home in Hampshire for the Fourth of July, I noticed a sharp decrease in both road and lake traffic. With gasoline going for $4 a gallon on land and close to $5 a gallon on the water, people either stayed home or didn’t stray far.

Everything we do here at Cabot comes down to one basic principle--trying to make money by using knowledge of how the market actually works. Most people think they know how the market works, or how it should work. I’ve already made every mistake in the book (and still find new ones), but I’ve learned enough to understand that the way the market works, and the way people think it works, are vastly different.

Solar power is one of my top investing concepts for the years ahead. I think solar (along with other alternative energy sources) will gain increasing market share in the years ahead. As costs of fossil fuels rise, the still-high costs of solar power look less prohibitive, especially when various tax credits are factored in. The increase in manufactured volumes means costs are coming down, particularly for the manufacturers that don’t use silicon.

Most investors, even those with lots of experience, usually do the wrong things and avoid the right things. And the reason isn’t because they’re dumb and I’m smart--it’s because the market is a totally contrary animal, so it works the exact opposite of how any intelligent, reasonable person would expect.

At the root of creative destruction, according to Joseph Schumpeter, are entrepreneurs, some laboring as individuals and some as employees of forward-looking firms, but all possessing a spirit of innovation that drives economic growth forward by improving on and “destroying” the old. And if the old is a hide-bound, monopolist entity or system that has long been a barrier to progress, so much the better.

Planning a trip to go out West in advance has proved troublesome, as the flights keep getting moved around by the airline—causing me to sprout some gray hairs. To keep my mind off the stress caused by the constant changes, I’ve answered some of our reader’s most frequently asked questions.

Even the best money managers suffer from the demon of poor performance, but that doesn’t mean they’re washed up. If you’re in a rut, take a step back and re-evaluate--but by no means should you lose your confidence. My sense is that too many investors are throwing in the towel here, so my advice is to keep your powder dry here and don’t focus on everything that’s going wrong. That way, when the time comes, you’ll be ready to buy, just when most investors have sworn off stocks for good.

Prohibition led to the system of alcohol transport that persists today, a system dominated by distributors and the states, which are primarily concerned with taxation. This makes it difficult for small vineyards to ship wine around the country. On the investment front, my advice today is to put your money into one of the distributors. After all, they’ve got the power and you can benefit from it as an investor. But the distributor I like is not in the U.S.; it’s in Poland and Russia.

The Report is perfect for growth investors seeking international diversification.