Points To Ponder

• Everybody loves Ben


• Greenspan opens his mouth once again


• "Tighter credit standards among mortgage lenders might lower U.S. home prices by 10% this year and push the economy into recession if the Federal Reserve doesn't respond by lowering interest rates." - David Rosenberg


• "The only surprise about the downturn in mortgage financing and housing is that anyone is surprised." - Randall W. Forsyth


• A financial disaster for some, another great profit opportunity someone else


• From the sub-prime to the ridiculous


• The fungus among us


• Three quarters of below potential growth and counting


• The return of inflation?


• "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you look at the internal market you see a different message from all this 'meltdown' hype. The smart money is voting and they are voting for growth stocks in a more eager fashion than any time in the last few years. And so should you and I. Tag along. Buy growth." - Don R. Hays


• Newsletter gurus stay bullish


• Contrarian alert - the launch of iffy IPOs are always seen at market tops


• Aggressive hiring on Wall Street is another one for the contrarians


• Day traders are making a comeback on Wall Street


• Top 10 reasons Wall Street gives for the stock market correction


• Candlesticks galore!


• Fibonacci redux


• The importance of the follow-through day


• 2% down days and stock performance


• Sam Stovall looks at sector leaders in volatile times


• Jim Jubak's 10 stocks for financial Armageddon


• More happy talk from Jeff Thredgold


• "The global economy is as strong as I've seen in my business lifetime." - Henry Paulson


• John Hussman on debunking the global liquidity myth


• Are we all just too complacent about geopolitical risk?


• Strategists divulge fresh themes for international investing


• Fueled by oil money, Russian economy soars


• More Chinese MBA graduates return home


• Time to buy Asian property?


• Hunch about markets being overvalued pays off for Harvard's money manager


• Quantitative momentum managers are trampled by the herd


• Goldman Sachs' conference call is always highly recommended


• Hedge funds get rich Hollywood style


• Big money is still learning how to lobby


• Blaming hedge funds for Asian market turmoil


• Brian Hunter is planning an energy-focused hedge fund


• Making the bullish case for water


• Coke is an ultimate water play?


• GPS for your sneakers!


• Pharmaceutical companies like Genzyme reap huge profits off treatments for obscure diseases


• A new threat to biotechs - generics


• Morningstar's five healthcare stocks


• Calpers's corporate Hall of Shame


• Tudor Investment Corp's holdings


• Charlie Munger holdings


• Checking in with T. Boone Pickens


• Stocks well under their 50 day moving average


• Top real estate shorts


• "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research." - Albert Einstein


• Have you ever made a fat finger trade?


• I like trading stocks that are seeing unusual volume but are not on everyone's radar


• "Fear doesn't come from volatility in the market, but from not having a concrete plan of how to deal with it." - Jonathan Hoenig


• Jim Cramer offers thoughts on market manipulation


• An interesting primer on short selling


• How to truly minimize risk


• Adjusting P/E to account for market, industry and style factors enhances its power as a value indicator


• Did you know that the average p/e ratio for the top performing stocks between 1996 and 2006 was 33?


• Facing the Enemies Within by Jim Rohn


• CXO's extensive coverage on using sentiment is not be overlooked


• Fast Money's Trade School


• The pitfalls from trading in extended hours


• Did you know that Google now offers extended hours charts?


• You can also get historical prices for any stock at Yahoo


• Investools draws fire from another blogger


• Why ETFs can have an outsize impact on small stocks


• Roger Nusbaum on constructing an ETF portfolio


• Richard Kang offers interesting insights from attending an ETF conference


• The two best ETFs of 2007 (so far)


• Free sites help investors sort through ETF jungle


• A slew of new healthcare ETFs


• Tax-savvy ETFs


• For yen ETF, timing is everything


• The argument for keeping it simple continues to resonate


• What if the stock market was a bond?


• I would resist the urge to place too much importance on how any mutual fund has performed in a very short period of time


• No shock here - mutual-fund firms score low with affluent investors


• How to trim taxes as you age


• The average working family today saves enough to replace 58% of its income in retirement, combined with Social Security and pension payments. That is far below the roughly 80% figure that is commonly suggested


• 11 time-tested strategies help the rich get richer but leave you out


• South Florida is a hot spot for commodities fraud


• The Rule of 72


• The Prioritizer


• Another free file hosting service


• Need a temporary phone number for a brief period of time? Try craigsnumber


• If I were a superhero, I'd be the Green Latern


• Are you an idiot?


• Don't let the bad guys get you down Brian!


• "The important thing in life is to find that arena of performance in which your talents and skills have you. Then you're not merely working a job or even a career: you're doing what you're meant to be doing." - Brett Steenbarger