Author Archives: Dan from Madison

If They Are Making the Call, I Am Going The Other Way

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Dan from Madison

Carl and I really are chumps in the world of which we speak, which is mostly the stock market.  I heard someone say that the stock market was the bond markets idiot little brother.  I have to agree.  Sometimes the … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Performance, Stocks, The Big Picture | 2 Comments

Inflation/Deflation

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Dan from Madison

The big topic at a lot of investment/business websites is the ongoing debate of our future wrt inflation and deflation.  Peter Boockvar at The Big Picture writes a good post today on the subject.  It is worth repeating here in … Continue reading →

Posted in Bacon, The Big Picture | 1 Comment

More Good News

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Dan from Madison

This is making my FPRS position look better and better.  I like how they give soooo much credit to Alan Mulally, when in reality he has an army of middle managers who are doing all the hard work while he … Continue reading →

Posted in Carl's Hero Alan Mulally, Performance, Stocks | Leave a comment

FPRS and Alternative Investments

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Dan from Madison

Stocks are a big part of any portfolio.  But they can’t be the end all - I don’t care how diverse you are in choosing those stocks.  To that end, I try to find other types of investments so not only am … Continue reading →

Posted in Carl's Hero Alan Mulally, Fixed Income, Performance, Stocks | 4 Comments

Dartboard

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Dan from Madison

Carl is getting ready for his stock picks for the next portfolio and I am going to play along this time, with a twist.  I am going to take an equivalent amount of money from Carl’s portfolio and go dartboard.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, Humor, Performance, Portfolio Tracking, Stocks | 2 Comments

Contrarian Investing

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Dan from Madison

I have been blogging for a long time at several other sites.  Back in the day I used to fisk articles by Pa*l Krugm*n.  After doing this a few times it was very apparent that Krugm*n was just another partisan … Continue reading →

Posted in Performance, The Big Picture | 2 Comments

A Matter of Perspective

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Dan from Madison

Carl, in his last post, challenged me to write a few words about the topics of saving and thrift.  I come from a pretty thrifty family so here goes nothing.

Posted in The Big Picture | 2 Comments

MGEE – Safety or Yield?

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Dan from Madison

On June 7 I bought another block of MGEE at $34.36/share and since then it has gone up to $36.76 as of this writing.  I discussed MGEE here.  That is an immense move for a utility, and especially one like … Continue reading →

Posted in Fixed Income, Stocks, Taxes, Tracking | Leave a comment

Don’t Forget Sin Companies

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Dan from Madison

This is an interesting story from Bloomberg. A Scotch whisky matured for more than six decades sold for 25,200 pounds ($37,245) at an Edinburgh auction today as collectors vied for rare malts. The bottle is one of 61 produced by … Continue reading →

Posted in Stocks | 1 Comment

Illinois = Fail, But Not All Munis Suck

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Dan from Madison

How about this: While most eyes are on the highly leveraged European countries, especially Spain over the past week, back here in the US, Illinois today is close to passing California as the most troubled municipal credit in the country … Continue reading →

Posted in Fixed Income, Taxes | 4 Comments

MGEE – A Stock That I Consider Fixed Income

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Dan from Madison

I just purchased a block of MGEE, my local utility.  In the big picture of utilities MGEE is a very tiny player.  Their daily volume is fairly low.  Over the last 5 years MGEE has traded from a low of … Continue reading →

Posted in Fixed Income, Stocks | 5 Comments

Along For The Ride

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Dan from Madison

As retail investors, we are pretty much along for the ride as far as the stock market goes.  That purchase you make today of 500 shares of xyz company doens’t do squat to move the big numbers.  The institutional and … Continue reading →

Posted in Stocks, The Big Picture | 2 Comments

Greetings

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Dan from Madison

As you can see up above this blog is about running a trust fund for kids and general investing.  I will be mostly under the general investing end of things.  Thanks to Carl for letting me post here! One funny … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Stocks, The Big Picture | 3 Comments