Before you delve into this story about retailing, a quick disclaimer: I hate to shop. Long ago, I delegated most personal and family shopping to my wife Carole, who loves to browse. I blame evolution. In ancient hunter-gatherer cultures, men were the hunters and women the gatherers. Hunting favors speed,… Read More

Just a few years ago, if someone suggested that you could make big profits —legally — by investing in marijuana, you probably would have responded: “What the heck are you smoking?” But today, marijuana is increasingly legal around the world. And it’s becoming big business. Medical marijuana treatments are netting… Read More

President John Kennedy’s predecessor Dwight Eisenhower admonished the world about the dangers of a growing “military-industry complex.” Since Ike issued that warning during his farewell address in 1960, the aerospace/defense industry has ballooned to mind-boggling proportions. Sane human beings hate war, but successful investors take the world as they find… Read More

The energy recovery remains on track, but don’t put away the Dramamine just yet. Oil and gas prices continue to subject investors to dizzying ups and downs. If you’re looking for a safer way to invest in energy, consider exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ETFs are traded on stock exchanges, akin to… Read More

It’s not just the paranoia of Fed-bashing, hard money zealots: precious metals really do make a lot of sense now. Fact is, the market’s wild intraday gyrations are giving investors the cold sweats. With some analysts calling for a market crash in 2019, gold and silver are starting to regain… Read More

It’s during fraught times like these, with market volatility and worsening headline risk, that technology “disruptors” prove their mettle. That’s because they defy the status-quo and introduce disruptive new technologies that create entirely new industries and products. The stocks of quality disruptors tend to rise over the long haul, regardless… Read More

You probably remember the iconic 1970s television show The Six Million Dollar Man, about a wounded astronaut who is given superhuman strength through bionic implants. The popular series led to a spin-off, The Bionic Woman. Today, several companies in the field of human bionics are turning science fiction into science… Read More

The race is on for new sources of growth in the biopharmaceutical industry, as blockbuster drugs lose patent protection and competitors join forces to cut costs. It spells outsized growth for the right biotech company, especially one that’s about to benefit from imminent events and technical factors that could send… Read More

In the annals of consumer technology fads, a special place belongs to Fitbit (NYSE: FIT), maker of wearable fitness-tracking devices. The San Francisco-based company’s wristbands and clippable devices monitor fitness activity, such as calories burned or distance covered. Yep, the company’s gadgets have been all the rage. However, does the… Read More

Unless you live in a cave or you’re from another planet, you already know about Facebook as a social network. But what about the company as a stock? As an investor, should you buy — or unfriend — the stock? Let’s find out. Read More