Tuesday, September 19, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
It has never been easier to lose money in the stock market... Between special purpose acquisition companies ("SPACs"), meme stocks, cryptocurrencies, and now artificial intelligence ("AI"), investors seem to be chasing one bubble after the next. And each one ends the same way... and it's not with the air slowly seeping out. Yet, it's happening […]
Friday, September 15, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
Now that the initial public offering ('IPO') calendar is heating up, a word of warning before you get too excited about all those reported sales numbers... At some companies, they may very well be an illusion. You just have to search for details on reported sales, and don't expect the companies to make it easy... […]
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
I have this saying that we're all making it up as we go along, with some people simply better at bluffing than others... Some call that imposter syndrome, but it's really little more than what occurs if you push yourself so far that you rise to the level of your incompetence… hopefully knowing when you've […]
Monday, September 11, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
Since I started the Red Flag Alert, I've been experimenting with various ways to source ideas of stocks to avoid... As a quick refresher, I do these alerts after spending decades building a reputation largely on reminding investors of the risk buried in the hype. It's something I think about whenever I'm recommending a stock […]
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
There's no question that AI has been and will continue to impact much of what we do and how we do it... It's still early innings, as they say... Yet Wall Street being Wall Street, there's a tendency to lump everything together – creating a fear of missing out – and then overdo it. Like […]
Friday, September 1, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
Editor's note: The Empire Financial Research offices are closed on Monday in observance of Labor Day. Look for the next Empire Financial Daily in your inbox on Tuesday, September 5, after the Weekend Edition. It's rare you see something this big get this disrupted this fast – and almost entirely by word-of-mouth... I'm referring to […]
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
There are cycles, and there are cycles... I've seen one too many cycles last considerably longer than even companies and certainly analysts and investors expect. I'm following a company in the chipmaker space, for example, that has been talking about things bottoming for quarters... and it's still not there. This brings me to solar energy, […]
Monday, August 28, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
The impact of stock market predictions was different 50 years ago... I've told this story before, but just one more time: As a young reporter at the now-defunct Boca Raton News, I was sent out to the Boca Raton Hotel and Club to cover the keynote speech at a convention by the late Pierre Rinfret. […]
Friday, August 25, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
Some stocks simply are riskier and junkier than others. It's as simple as that... Yet as I said in the August 14 Empire Financial Daily... For most investors, it's the same old "fear of missing out" ("FOMO") trap... that if they don't get in, they'll miss out on the next big home run – which […]
Thursday, August 24, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
Just because something isn't listed in the 'risk factors' section of a company's regulatory filings doesn't mean it's not a possible 'risk'... Take DexCom (DXCM), for example. It's a wildly successful manufacturer of continuous glucose monitors ("CGMs"), which just happens to be headquartered not far from me here in San Diego. Because of the stock's […]
Friday, August 18, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
There's no question that in recent months we've been back to the future with things you only expected to see in a stock market bubble... This has been a theme of mine lately because it keeps me amused but intellectually makes my head hurt... because so much of it makes no sense. Then again, it […]
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
Looking back, those were fun times when special purpose acquisition companies ('SPACs') ruled the market... I was thinking about the "good old days" last week when I was on CNBC's Last Call to talk about a few of yesteryear's most popular SPACs that were warning they might not be able to stay in business... Looking […]
Monday, August 14, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
There really is a sucker born every minute... At least there is on Wall Street, where investors flock to the stocks of companies that were on the verge of going belly-up if they hadn't maneuvered a last-minute, highly complex debt-restructuring deal. The hallmark of this specific type of deal is that some insider needs to […]
Monday, August 7, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
With its stock soaring by as much as 50% on Friday, it's clear that Tupperware Brands (TUP) investors were having a party... They obviously were cheering the news that the company has reached a deal with its banks to restructure its debt. But after going over the filing with a friend who used to be […]
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
Just when you thought this market couldn't get loopier, along comes one of our old friends to make us forget the bubble ever happened... I'm talking, of course, about Tupperware Brands (TUP). Back in April, I wrote a mini case study on how such an iconic brand could be so screwed up. As I said […]
Monday, July 31, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
Empathy appears to be a lost art... I was thinking about this the other day when I read a social media posting by former Twitter exec Esther Crawford about her experience at the company and working for Elon Musk. It's a great read, but one line in particular caught my attention... His boldness, passion, and […]
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
I have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow, let alone next week, next month, or next year... Neither does anybody else, but that's where the fun and challenging parts comes in. As much as nobody can see the future, and as much as I hate making predictions, it's wise to think ahead – whether […]
Monday, July 24, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
'For a restaurant open as recently as this one is, it should have been busier than it was'... That was what restaurant consultant/analyst John Gordon of Pacific Management Consulting told me as we were walking away from a Sweetgreen (SG) restaurant just east of Del Mar in San Diego. We've been getting together for lunch […]
Friday, July 21, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
I have one question to ask... Has everybody lost their minds? I may have been a few weeks early with my "Welcome to Fantasyland" essay last month, but this is a market you could see coming. We were clearly entering the "silly season," as a broker I met early in my career used to call […]
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
By Herb Greenberg
I'll bet you've never heard of Tom Haywood... Back in the 1930s, he invented a self-kicking machine – consisting of a hand-operated crank connected by a belt and pulleys to a wheel, which had four spokes with a shoe attached to each spoke. For a swift kick in the rear, the operator would bend over […]