Richard Band's Profitable Investing
Richard E. Band is the newsletter world's #1 authority on investing for low-risk growth. His flagship Total Return Portfolio has more than quadrupled in value since inception in 1990, while taking far less risk than the popular stock market index funds.

• Year-End Tax Trades
  With only three trading days left in the year, tax selling has finally begun to subside on Wall Street. If you look at the most depressed sectors of the stock market, though, the rebound still hasn't carried very far. As a result, I think this year's 'black sheep' may enjoy a stronger lift than usual in the opening weeks of 2008.
• Stealth Rally Under Way
  A little unorthodox, but -- we'll take it! The stock market has been working on a quiet base the past two days, shaking off one bombshell after another from the financial sector. I would have been happier with a sharp bounce, but maybe this 'stealth' rally can pick up steam in the last six trading days of the year.
• Delayed, But Still on Track
  Better late than never, I reckon. Stocks finally mounted a good recovery in the second half of today's trading, after becoming severely oversold yesterday and even more deeply depressed this morning. Let's give the year-end rally another chance.
• Up on the Housetop
  Jolly old Saint Nick hasn't arrived yet on Wall Street, but he's due any day now. At the risk of going out on a limb, it looks to me as if the massive tax-related selling that has depressed stock prices for the past few trading sessions is about to dry up. Odds are that the market will improve in the second half of the month.
• A Jolt, Not a Crash
  Ever wonder why I harp on the importance of 'buying the dips' (rather than chasing markets upward)? Well, today's stock market session offered textbook proof. The drop of 100 points or more on the Dow that I told you to look for last Friday or Monday finally occurred today.
• Mr. Market's Next Surprise
  Stocks are back in recovery mode. The two-day pole vault we've just enjoyed makes that abundantly clear. But how much further can the rebound carry? And how should you play what's left of it?
• Big, Bright Letters in the Sky
  It's funny how investors never seem to learn. Throughout my career, year after year, I've seen cases where people were obviously paying either too little or too much for individual investments and even whole industries or asset classes. Yet an orator with the gifts of William Jennings Bryan couldn't have persuaded folks to do otherwise.
• Out of a Deep Hole
  It's going to take time, but we're finally crawling out of the pit. Stocks held on remarkably well today, given the huge gains of the previous two sessions (and the ongoing anxiety in the credit markets).
• Chasing the Bus
  Leave it to our Johnny-come-lately friends at the Wall Street Journal. (Boy, does that cobweb-ridden place need Rupert Murdoch to give it a clean sweep!) In this morning's edition, the Journal solemnly intoned that the stock market had entered a 'correction.' Duh. So how did stocks react? The Dow promptly jumped 215 points today.
• Reflex Rally in the Works
  Pretty it ain't. In fact, this is one of the ugliest stock markets I've seen in a long time, with a sickly housing market threatening to drag the broader U.S. economy into a whirlpool. But we're on the verge of a good reflex rally, nonetheless, that will give us a chance to reassess the landscape.