Investorial

Did you see last night’s Colbert Report? Stephen Colbert ran a great segment satirizing financial pundits, and even utilized some Jim Cramer-esque props! If anybody can point me to a video / link of the segment, I’d very much appreciate it. Here were Stephen’s topics as I remembered:

• Real Estate
• Oil & Gas
• The ridiculous anti-trust history of AT&T
• Soy Milk!!!

My favourite part was when he kept hitting the button to get a prediction but getting the reply to “ask again later …”. He finally got a “yes” and his priceless reaction was “There’s no substitute for research”. Get it yet, Cramer fanboys? (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!”

(more…)

Irwin Michael is my favourite fund manager because of his no compromise, no spin, non-apologetic approach to openly discuss investing. He talks and writes candidly about his investment decisions; allowing me to soak up his perspective and learn from it. You won’t catch him doing any sweet-talking to appease investors and audiences. As of the end of August 2006, Irwin’s ABC Fundamental Value has averaged an annual 17.82% return for the last 15 years while it’s benchmark indes S&P/TSX Total Return has only managed a 10.79% in the same timeframe.

If you haven’t yet, you should start by reading Deep Value Face-Off - Part 1, and Deep Value Face-Off - Part 2 first! (more…)

Ross Healy is the chariman and CEO of Strategic Analysis Corporation, an investment advisory firm. Though I feel at times, that Ross’s comments are too politically correct, too on the fence, I still recognize that Ross is very much respected in the Canadian investment scene. Ross is best known for his bearish call on Nortel when it was trading over $100 in 2000. As of June 2006, Strategic Analysis Corporation’s model portfolio has outperformed the S&P/TSX Total Return index to a tune of 20.9% to 11.7% since its 1993 inception.

If you haven’t yet, you should start by reading Deep Value Face-Off - Part 1 first! (more…)

Canada’s Report On Business Television recently held a series of live broadcasts from BCE place in downtown Toronto. On Monday, September 18th, 2006, they invited two venerable deep-value fund managers in a question and answer forum. You might think I’m hypocritical for advising people not to obssess over ROB-TV while highlighting this event. However, my interest was peaked because of Irwin Michael’s appearance. I hope you will see why I listen when Irwin speaks. It’s truly a no-spin zone (unlike Fox News, or Jim Cramer) and investors get to benefit from his wisdom! (more…)

Investorial’s web statistics revealed that a few visitors came over via Jim Cramer Alerts. It’s not an overwhelming rush of visitors, so I wondered if Cramer faithfuls were hip to the blog game yet. Guess not! It might help if the blog welcomed you with graphic overlays and sound effects!

But it also got me thinking about what it takes to gain television fame! Mad Money has turned into an institution. And so has Jim’s CNBC colleague, Suze Orman with The Suze Orman Show. Many people have come and gone with their own hour of financial tidbits, but these two have the staying power. What does it take to (more…)

Investorial should have been on top of this story, but Investing Intelligenty picked it up and ran beautifully with his take on CNBC’s Mad Money. The show’s ringmaster is former hedge fund manager, the boisterous Jim Cramer. Jim was also the co-host on a previous CNBC program, Kudlow & Cramer.

I always thought the show to bring little value to the “common investor”; the ones Jim wished to help. I never did think enough of the show to do research and post on it. Like Investing Intelligently, I could barely stand watching the show for more than a few minutes while I flipped through the channels. It’s all about showmanship for Jim. While he’s busy pressing buttons (more…)