Young Research & Publishing Inc.

Investment Research Since 1978

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

The Monday Melee: Incomplete Recovery, Tesla, and Apple

By

Quoted: Apple CEO Tim Cook Tim Cook on Charlie Rose when asked what drives Apple: "I was at Compaq at a time where the objective was to become a $40 billion company. Well, employees don't get excited about that. This isn't something you wake up and you go, 'I'm going to take the hill today to do 40' -- I mean, you know? It's just not that. But changing the world? These are the things that people work for. And this pushes people. And so, this is who we are as people." America's Travel Recovery Still Incomplete: What We're Reading: Minimum Wage-Hiking States Are Seeing Slower Job … [Read more...]

Housing Permits Stagnate, is Regulation to Blame?

By

A disturbing look is appearing on the long-term chart of residential housing permits granted in the United States. The monthly measure has stabilized near 1 million. That’s about twice as many as the depths of the housing crisis, but not even close to its long term average of 1.4 million permits per month. Worse yet, you can see from the chart that it’s rare for a stabilization like this to have an upward exit. Most stabilizations signal an end of the cycle. In this case it would be the end of a housing cycle that hadn’t even really begun. Could the trouble be in restrictive government … [Read more...]

Top 10 Funds in 2014

By

What is working in the stock market this year? I ran a Morningstar screen of the top performing U.S. focused Large-cap blend (combination of growth and value) funds to find out which ones are beating the market YTD. Out of the 467 large-cap blend funds in the Morningstar database, about 94 have bested the S&P 500’s 9.74% YTD return. The top performing fund according to Morningstar is Upright Growth, up 20.1% YTD. How have Upright Growth and the other funds at the top of the heap beaten the market YTD? Among the Top 10 performing funds on the Morningstar list, the five largest … [Read more...]

Teach a Grandchild How to Invest

By

If you want to teach your grandchildren how get beyond some of the most difficult challenges an investor can face, then do the following: Open up an account for them at either Fidelity or Vanguard. They'll learn over the years that it’s good to be aligned with leaders in the industry. Next, buy the Vanguard Wellington fund (you can do it through Fidelity too) and have the statements delivered by mail, not online. Every month your grandchilden will get a statement as a reminder that they're an investor. Help them add to it on an annual basis so they can see the mechanics of dividend payments … [Read more...]

Monday Melee: Strong Rail Traffic

By

Rail Traffic Signals Strong Growth What we're Reading Worst Things to Buy on Amazon (Kiplinger) Here's Why Fed Needs More Diversity of Opinion (Yahoo) The house made from 4,000 video cassettes and two tonnes of jeans (The Guardian) … [Read more...]

Yields at Highest Level in Years

By

Don’t look now, but interest rates are at a more than three-year high. Short-term interest rates that is. The yield on three year treasury notes has crossed the 1% threshold. I know, a 1.08% yield for three-year paper is nothing to brag about, but it could be worse. From late-2011 to mid-2013, the average yield on three-year treasury notes was 0.35%. Do you know how long it takes to double your money at a 0.35% interest rate? I’m going to tell you. It takes 199 years. If you are putting away money for the grand kids, better change the will to make it your great, great, great grand kids. At … [Read more...]

The $2 Billion Game

By

When I was at Babson College I took classes in entrepreneurship studies and worked at a start-up company.  This video with Markus Persson, creator of the game Minecraft, gives you a wonderful example of a true entrepreneur. Persson or “Notch,” as he’s known to my kids and probably yours too, created Minecraft because creating games is what he did since he was eight.  As you’ll see, being an entrepreneur is less about business plans or presentations to vulture capitalists—it’s about doing what you love to do and what you have to do. It's why a writer writes a story or a singer writes a song. It … [Read more...]

How to Save Your Retirement Portfolio

By

I must have been 17 at the time. I had recently sold the little Nissan Sentra I drove during high school and I bought a sports car. Every teenager’s dream, right? A hot new sports car just as I was getting ready to head off for college. Think of all the possibilities. Well sort of. It was a 1987 Pontiac Firebird. Okay, so maybe I didn’t have the most refined taste in cars. The Firebird was a 2.8 Liter V6 automatic with power steering. Quite a bump up in performance from the manual transmission 90 HP Nissan Sentra with power-assist steering. The Sentra had the power of a John Deere … [Read more...]

Who’s Winning the Ugly Contest?

By

Over recent years, investing in the world’s largest currencies has been a game of picking the ugliest currency. The dollar, the euro, and the yen all have structural flaws. The question for investors has been which one is the ugliest. Last year, the yen won the ugly contest. This year it looks like we are going to crown a new winner. The euro has fallen by about 6% versus the dollar compared to a 1.1% drop for the yen. … [Read more...]