NOTE TO EDITORS: The Following Is an Investment Opinion Being Issued by Bridgewater Equity (BWE).

Will they pull out of the dive, or nose into the dirt?

Bull Trap: A false signal indicating that a declining trend in a stock or index has reversed and is heading upwards when in fact the security will continue to decline. Is the Ultimate Bull Trap Being Set?Longtime students of the market will tell you that the crowd is usually wrong at extremes. Judging by what I see hear and read in the media the current consensus is:   Stocks bottomed on November 20th-21st; An economic recovery will begin in the second half of 2009; Corporate bonds are a buy; Stocks are cheap; The stock market is now discounting all ...

Over the weekend there was a very interesting pair of articles by Michael Lewis and David Einhorn in the New York Times called How to Repair a Broken Financial World. I agree with much of what they have to say. Lewis and Einhorn’s list of “perfectly obvious changes in the financial system [that need to be] made to prevent some version of what has happened from happening all over again” includes the following directives: “Stop making big regulatory decisions with long-term consequences based on their short-term effect on stock prices. Stock prices go up and down: let them. End ...

Discover promising companies singled out by market-beating investors.

And it's not a crystal ball.

My Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) preferreds were listening today to: “Remarks by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on The Role of the GSEs in Supporting the Housing Recovery before the Economic Club of Washington”. I cannot say for sure that some doubled from their sub-dollar base due to Paulson, but much of the Paulson team and financial rescue infrastructure will remain with[More...]

Highlighted stocks include Huntington Bancshares Inc. (HBAN), MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG) and MBIA Inc. (MBI). Even though it appears that financial institutions have moved ahead with respect to the unfreezing of our banking system, they remain reluctant to lend. With financial institutions afraid of the potential of additional losses, their current ...

Highlighted stocks include Huntington Bancshares Inc. (HBAN), MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG) and MBIA Inc. (MBI). Even though it appears that financial institutions have moved ahead with respect to the unfreezing of our banking system, they remain reluctant to lend. With financial institutions afraid of the potential of additional losses, their current Anaconda grip on lending only exacerbates the problem. While we continue to see financial institutions advertise their willingness to lend, the hook remains, "qualified" home buyers. Clearly, the definition of "qualified" has changed[More...]

The Washington Post (from Bloomberg News) "With Fed's Help, AIG Unloads $16 Billion in Credit Default Swaps" reports that American International Group (AIG) retired another $16B face value of credit default swaps for $6.7B by purchasing the underlying securities and cancelling the contracts. The insured (counterparties) were able to keep the more than $9B in collateral that AIG posted. The counterparties were taken out at par. So far, the Fed’s Maiden Lane III special purchase fund has purchased $62.1B face value of CDOs from AIG’s[More...]

Right off the bat when the market opened down and I saw the commodities dropping with OIL I sold my YZC and UYG for gains of 8% and 9%. I bought more APWR @ 5.49 today doubling my position. Sold the whole thing @ 5.84 for an avg gain of 15.6% on the total position. JASO stopped [...]

Schaeffer's analyst Colleen S. King takes a look at news on the Street before the market open.

Third Quarter FY 2008 Earnings Conference Call

Schaeffer's Andrea Kramer takes a look at unusual option activity on the Street

Schaeffer's Investment Research's Colleen S. King takes a look at news on the Street after the market close.

Schaeffer's Colleen S. King takes a look at activity on the Street after the market close