Tilting the Odds

• A sensible GDP report


• Why the economy is a lot stronger than you think


• The squeeze on American pocketbooks


• Wage growth is finally ready to accelerate


• Do you invest or trade on the famous January Barometer?


• Some markets are even more overbought than precious metals


• Sentiment run amuck?


• Spiking odd-lot short sales


• "Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it." - Irving Berlin


• Bill Gross and the future of the yield curve shape


• Our healthcare system doesn't need a tax break, it needs a major overhaul


• What's another $70 billion!


• Pork barrel spending is out of control


• Addicted to oil?


• Bush's goals on energy quickly find obstacles


• China & India finally appear on Bush's radar


• The number of patent applications from China rocketed in 2005


• Battle plans for Iran?


• Foreign firms are buying U.S. companies at the fastest clip in five years


• Del Monte stops pineapple growing in Hawaii


• The commodity super cycle


• Commodities snapshot


• Oil analysts turn less optimistic about the future of oil prices


• "Like a gorilla with a gun, gold can go anywhere it wants." - Peter Hillyard


• Just in time for the bubble to pop - hotels go condo


• "Wall Street has thrived mainly on speculation, and stock-market speculators as a class were almost certain to lose money. Hence it has been logically impossible for brokerage houses to operate on a thoroughly professional basis. To do that would have required them to direct their efforts toward reducing rather than increasing their business." - Benjamin Graham


• Maybe it is just me, but don't you wonder how many long investors are currently trapped in shares of Google (GOOG)?


• PaceSetters did quite a lot of buying last month. Stocks added to their portfolio include: AAPL, BMHC, BSTE, CAE, CRAI, JBL, URBN, PMTI, & EBAY


• It's only a matter of time before Citigroup (C) gets broken up


• Does anyone even think about buying a computer from Gateway (GTW) anymore?


• Amazon (AMZN) spends money for the future


• RACK gets jacked


• If I didn't know any better, I think part of the reason True Religion (TRLG) has been a great stock is because of that Ameritrade ad


• In spite of Enron, there is money to be made in trading corporate energy supplies


• When everybody thinks alike, everyone is likely to be wrong


• The Monthly Scorecard


• Top performing industries of the past week


• This week's winners & losers


• Sam Stovall highlights 11 stocks that had a stellar January


• 5 stocks for the next business spending surge


• Some of these tech names are really extended


• Always calculate how much you'll lose if you're wrong


• A trading calendar for February


• Like Steenbarger, I do find the NYSE TICK a valuable tool for gauging sentiment


• Can you recognize patterns quickly and effortlessly? Some of us are gifted in this way, but others aren't. But you can level the playing field by playing games like SET


• Q&A with master swing trader Alan Farley


• To achieve your goals, you need to write them down. If you're not into blogging, then there are some excellent journals out there available, like this


• Morningstar offers advice on how to spot a great growth stock


• Vice fund founder bets on gaming


• Even the mutual funds are using hedge fund tactics


• Time to trade stocks from the toilet?


• You can trade for a living anywhere - the best places to live in rural America


• Minnesota is not very tax friendly


• 20 easy ways to plug hidden financial leaks


• Car customization is a hot growth trend


• The #1 top job is personal finance adviser


• I really should start collecting stock certificates


• Scan your PC for free


• What's your intelligence level? Part I & Part II


• Tracking the weather in real-time


• Your February 2006 horoscopes


• "Disregarding the big swing and trying to jump in and out was fatal to me. Nobody can catch all the fluctuations. In a bull market your game is to buy and hold until you believe that the bull market is near its end. To do this you must study general conditions and not tips or special factors affecting individual stocks." - Jesse Livermore