Investorial

Big bubbles don’t always have to pop, big balloons don’t always have to burst. And as you watch one being blow up, there are always 2 camps of people eagerly awaiting the outcome. Is that next breath going to be “the one”, or will it keep going?

This past month, I have been eyeing various real estate headlines from a Canadian newspaper, The Globe & Mail. They hide their articles behind a wall of registration, so I won’t be able to link directly to the articles. But take a look at the headlines, what do you see?

• Bidding wars disappearing in Vancouver
• U.S. housing slump deepens, spreads
• Housing boom fizzles in Calgary
• White House lowers growth outlook amid housing slump

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google-finance-logo.jpg"/>Am I being too harsh on a beta product? I don’t think so. Especially if Google wants to slap its name on a financial quoting system, it had better be at least as accurate as many of the existing stock quoting systems out there. That’s the bare minimum expectations. Google even has the gulls to seek an SEC review of stock quote fees.

Google Finance has finally and quietly integrated pre-2001 data into their stock charts. However, as my screen shots show, Google is still suffering from data inaccuracies. I revisited my previous example of a data inaccuracy, and was not surprised to find that it is still not resolved. As of this writing, Yahoo Finance correctly identifies the 52-week high of Tim Hortons (NYSE: TSX) to be $30.35, occurring on Nov. 22, 2006. Google Finance still stubbornly shows $33 as the 52-week high instead. More screenshots after the jump! (more…)

This article was original published at GuruWatch.org where I’m helping to contribute. Check it out!

Remember that comedy routine from Jeff Foxworthy? The one that starts with “you know you’re a redneck if ….”? I’m not that creative to create an entire list, but we can certainly start one about so-called financial gurus and keep adding to it, right? Let’s jump right into it!

You know you’re a guru if … you have your own learning annex seminar. The learning annex boasts speaker line-ups such as Donald Trump, Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki, Suze Orman, and yes Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money fame. In this video from this past weekend’s seminar, you’ll see Jim recommend 5 stocks. In classic guru fashion, this is how he announced his recommendations:

“We want to win and there are winnings to be had [...] I need everyone in this audience to buy one share of these 5 stocks I’m about to mention. 1 share! 1 share will do it!”

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Let’s face it, most investing decisions are made as easily as throwing a dice. I have a pretty hot temper, so I make it a point not to jump into things when it comes to investment decisions. This explains why I haven’t covered the recent Canadian Income Trusts melt-down like some of my peers have. There’s been some excellent discussions brewing. Almost a week has past, so here’s my perspective.

I’ve been a very disloyal Canadian investor. For the last 2 years, I’ve only batted eyes at U.S. companies while the Canadian indexes kept creeping higher. However, I’ve recently taken interest in beaten-up Canadian companies such as Loblaw, and Canadian oil and natural gas income trusts. My interest started with these income trusts due to their pricing issues in July and August, as well as the Amanranth hedge fund debacle. Such negative news always help to peak the interest for the contrarian in me. I can’t believe my knowledge ramp-up of income trusts have come at such a time of opportunity! (more…)