Can the US tails his way to freedom?

4:25 AM freedom, tails, US No Comments

| By Charley Blaine, MSN Money

Use of new technologies to tap huge underground deposits, holds out the promise of American energy independence-along with care of the environmental and health dangers. The stakes could not be higher.

Fracking. The mere utterance of the word excited investors in energy companies, the big oil and gas found in shale deposits in North Dakota, Texas and Appalachia.

It makes environmentalists shudder because it includes so many unknown.

Make no mistake, however: fracking is a big deal. It is allowed to develop oil and gas companies land oil and perspectives, which almost nobody had thought could be associated with hope of profitability in the market. It is one of the most important factors for the resurgence in the U.S. production of natural gas and oil, which brings the country closer to the long-sought goal of energy independence.

The United States imported 41% of its oil in the first five months of 2013, the Department of energy says, down from 65% in 2005. Some forecasts say the combination of the US energy could be self-sufficient, even though the country is still an importer of oil new supplies of fracking and alternative sources of energy and energy savings of conservation by 2030.

Fracking is "Hydraulic fracturing," technically meaning that with small explosions and much blocked water and small amounts of chemicals to share oil and gas resources in rocks, which are far below the Earth's surface.

Fracking has an enormous upswing set in natural gas exploration and production in Texas, North Dakota, Montana, and the Appalachian mountains. It was largely responsible for a jump from 14.4% in U.S. oil production in 2012 to 6.47 million barrels a day-the most since 1995.

On the way it has North Dakota into the country which turns on the fastest growing Senate for three years in a row and has attracted thousands to Texas, searching for jobs in energy.

The success secret of the fracking is that exploration engineers figured out, such as:

Drilling 5,000 feet below the ground surface in shale deposits, which is densely packed with oil and Erdgas.Beugen you the drilling pipe, so wells drilled as far as several miles out side can be.Free count small explosions in the hard shale deposits, oil and gas.Release pump water, chemicals and sand at high pressure, the gas and oil and bring it all to the surface.
The modern form of the fracking evolved after World War II, but big fracking emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. As oil analyst Fayed Gheit Oppenheimer & co. MSN Money said fracking "completely transformed" the domestic oil and gas industry.

Fracking came so fast that even the mighty Exxon Mobil (XOM) recognized that there have not the knowledge potential, especially in the exploration for natural gas. So it bought XTO Energy, one of the largest natural gas producers for some $31 billion in stock.

Fracking has made a lot of money for his investors. EOG Resources (EOG), which split off from Enron in 1999, its shares rise 1,520% since the year 2000 and 160% since the market has seen below in 2009.

Fracking, but not by the laws of supply and demand. So much natural gas came onto the market, the prices in the year 2012 reduced.

And doch-- and that is a big "and even"-fracking is reviled by many and feared by many more. Partly this the energy industry is to blame. No one will forget, the May 2010 BP (BP)-Olpest in the Gulf of Mexico. When the industry created a chaos, he created a big mess.

Fracking created fears that the water sand and chemical brews are concrete casing installed in virtually all U.S. oil and gas wells to escape and contaminate aquifers under ground or that turns to combustible gas in domestic water. Here you will find videos like this on YouTube, the people to ignite more water from your kitchen faucet.

One reason for the fear before: in the 2005 energy policy Act, the fracking industry specifically injury exempted under federal law for safe drinking water. State regulations were not affected, but the question is whether State regulators have to act the will or the resources.

The energy industry like to say that there has never been a case where fracking has caused harm to an aquifer, but the related problems is growing. A New York Times report documented contamination in Jackson County, W. Va., in the mid-1980s. And an article of the magazine Vanity Fair documented groundwater pollution issues around Dimock Township, a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania, wells drilled by Cabot oil & gas (COG). The controversy was the basis for the fracking film "Gasland."

Fracking has been stopped in 2010 after regulator, that faulty Cabot drilling allowed to leak methane found in 18 Dimock water wells. Drilling was allowed back last summer after many complaints of local residents and lawsuits from the State of Pennsylvania filed were settled. Cabot continues to claim that it was not responsible.

Due to the controversy, it is believed that drilling and environmental practices have improved significantly. The industry set a voluntary reporting database of FracFocus called so people used in many drilling sites research can the chemicals. But a report by Bloomberg News said many fountains are not included on the database, and a study this spring, said Harvard Law School FracFocus offers only spotty coverage, is a searchable database of missing and enables a "too broad" aid for trade secrets.

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Can the economy survive the Fed?

4:18 AM economy, survive No Comments

By Anthony Mirhaydari, MSN Money

Cheap money from the Federal Reserve has been the primary force keeping the market high and the economy on a recovery path. But can they keep it up when the stimulus ends?

After the market turmoil of the last few days, the inevitable question is: now what?

Months of calm and upward momentum have suddenly been replaced by uncertainty, volatility and fear. The Dow Jones industrial average ($INDU) has tipped into its worst sell-off since October. Japanese and Chinese stock index have entered bear market territory, with the Shanghai composite earlier this week testing levels not Lakes since January 2009.

This follows months of selling in commodities, precious metals and corporate bonds. It looks like the start of the pullback-or-worse trend I've been warning of such columns as "Beware: market insiders are selling."

The central issue is pretty clear: the Federal Reserve is moving to phase out cheap-money stimulus by trimming its $85 billion-a-month "QE3" bond-buying program. The timing is unclear, but no longer can we assume that government borrowing costs, and thus interest Council throughout the economy, will remain low and docile for years to come.

The Fed's cheap money has been the key to keeping the economic recovery going and to the market's big rally and recent all-time highs. So can going without it the economy keep? Let's take a look at the road ahead.

At this point, the near-term concern is how bad the market damage will be as major uptrend support is broken. Investors have been reminded that stocks can, indeed, go down persistently.

On a technical basis, things aren't looking good:

Anthony Mirhaydari

? Cyclical, economically sensitive stocks like material and energy are starting to weaken once more compared with defensive sectors such as health care.

? The percentage of standard & poor's 500 index ($INX) stocks going up has falling at rate a Lakes since the may emergency 2012 sell-off, and before that, the August 2011 meltdown.

? The number of stocks hitting new 52-week lows on the New York Stock Exchange each day has moved to levels not Lakes since August 2011 levels.

? Traders are rushing into put options, which profit when stocks go down, at such a pace that they're pushing the CBOE volatility index (VIX) or "fear gauge" – which is calculated based on the price of options contracts – above its 200-day moving average for the first time since, you guessed it, August 2011.

As a rough estimate of how bad it could get before we see a relief rally, a test of the S & P 500's March low near its 200-day moving average around 1,500 should be expected at the very least--which would represent a decline of an additional 4% or so. A test of support at the October high near 1.450 would be worth a loss of 8%.

Whether the losses move deeper than that, in the near term, depends mainly on whether the Fed pushes ahead with its tapering plan at its July and September policy meeting, or moves more slowly. And that depends on the flow of economic data. A deeper drop in inflation measures or any slowdown in monthly job of problemkrediten would likely change the tone coming out of the Fed. It would show that the Fed shares Wall Street's lack of faith in the economy's strength, which the pros might find comforting.

Other factors will so shape what the fed and the economy do next.

The next step in Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to revitalize his nation's economy - via reforms of Japan's crusty economic institutions - hangs on parliamentary elections July 21 A recent electoral victory in the 127-seat Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly bodes well for Abe, but drive that reforms will keep moving ahead will help the global economic picture.

So critical: whether the Chinese continue to clamp down on credit growth in the days ahead by allowing interbank lending Council to stay high. The overnight borrowing rate high as 13.2% jumped from less than 2.5% earlier this year to as last week before settling just below 6%. If the situation doesn't calm down, volatility in Chinese equity could destabilize the region and keep pressure on U.S. issues as well.

Finally, we have the upcoming second-quarter earnings season to worry about. Alcoa(AA) kicks off July 8 executives things have been cutting earnings guidance at a pace not Lakes since the dot-com bubble what bursting, amid weaker profitability and tepid global demand. Analysts are looking for S & P 500 of 3.2% earnings growth and sales growth of 1.7%; that's down from expectations of 6.1% and 3.7%, respectively, back in April.

If earnings fall and the Fed starts to good stimulus efforts, the market and the economy would get a nasty one-two punch to the well.

Over the longer term, whether the economy can move forward without the Fed is far from certain.

What we don't know just yet is whether the U.S. economy is continuing to slow - as some recent data suggest - or re-accelerating, as the Fed is forecasting.

And while the latter sounds good, it would therefore mean that inflation-adjusted interest Council, which have already shot up (as shown in the graph below) are headed even higher.

That will test whether the housing market - and all the activity by investors that has helped push it higher - is strong enough to absorb a rise in mortgage Council.

Higher Council will therefore increase the government's borrowing cost and the cost of capital for businesses and put further pressure on bond-heavy investor portfolios (the subject of my column last week, "The next big 401k wipeout").

Oh, and let's not forget that we are in a global economy. After Japan and China, focus will turn to again to Europe. As the eurozone recession spreads to Germany and a relatively lofty valuation for the euro damages export competitiveness, the European Central Bank will be tempted to deal out more cheap-money stimulus, building on its 0.25% interest rate cut on May 2.

While this would be a good thing, it most likely won't come until after German elections in September to avoid making it a political issue for Chancellor Angela Merkel. There is also a risk that German courts could throw a wrench in the works by declaring existing euro zone rescue efforts unconstitutional.

All this is a lot take to for the fed into account in the months ahead. The complex picture is part of the reason the Fed has been committed to stimulus for roughly four years now - and it explains why so many investors are nervous at the prospect of that one constant positive coming to an end.

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Lost decade for bonds looms

10:00 AM bonds, decade, looms No Comments

| By Susanne Walker, Bloomberg

US Treasury obligationen offer the return on stocks, investors reason, to keep alive the bull market in bonds less than half little.

US treasure obligationen offer less than half the return of shares, investors hold little reason that give three decades bull market in bonds alive as new housing projects, that economic confidence of consumers and corporate profits improve.

During the 10-year Treasury bonds 2.61% yield rose from a 2013 low of 1.61% on May 1st the aggregated earnings yield on the stocks in the standard & poor's 500 index 6.4% of the index price, after data from Bloomberg Central Bank. Even after the sell-off in bonds, the point gap of four percent is more than double the average of 1.9 points since 2000.

With the Fed could say tapering to begin its $85 billion from monthly bond purchases, investors from Leon Coopermans Omega advisors to BlackRock are longer-term Treasury bonds this year, affected returns for many years will be depressed to avoid. Money managers see the end of a rally that began after the former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to beat inflation in the early 1980s.

"Lost decade for bonds has started," said Howard Ward, the chief investment officer of GAMCO investors, the $36.7 billion who in a June 19 telephone interview. "Stocks probably go the asset class of choice in the course of the next 10 years." "Now, since the flood has become and the economy is doing better, investors in bonds is a hard time to make no money."

With consumer confidence was approaching a six-year-high, housing starts increase 2008 levels and corporate profits double what they were five years ago, $9.1 billion fixed-income funds and exchange traded funds in the week ended investors on June 5, the second highest total in more than 20 years, according to Lipper.

JPMorgan Chase, the most active Institute of corporate bonds since 2007, earlier this month joined Barclays Bank of America recommended Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs shares on most bonds as equity yields most since at least 1997 company exceed debt.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch US Corporate & high yield of index compares S & P 500 index ($INX), including reinvested dividends 2.6% loss this year with a 12.8% profit for the. Treasury bonds have lost 2.8%, according to the Bloomberg US Treasury bonds index.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told reporters in Washington on March 19 this directive that policy makers are ready to start their bond purchase is still being phased out this year and purchases to stop mid 2014, as long as the economy meets the Central Bank forecasts. Bonds fell worldwide along with the stock markets.

The world economy "in the early stages of the recovery of the equity capital culture and romance may be growing the end of a 30-year" is bond, Jim O'Neill, the former head of Goldman Sachs asset management and now acting with Bloomberg said look at Bloomberg television. "When the game begins to change with the central banks, it is inevitable bonds go to suffer."

The last bond sale was, not limited to the United States. 21 Basis points last week amounted to 1.73% yields on 10-year German Bunds. U.K. gilts rose 34 basis points to 2.4%.

"Liquidity is now King and what we get liquidity is cascading error", said Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-chief investment officer of PIMCO. "If you change the paradigm of liquidity, what you get is massive technical unwinds and that speaks for the fluctuation."

Worldwide lost bonds of all kinds of 1.5% in 2013, even after accounting for reinvested interest Bank of America Merrill Lynch's global broad market index shows. The meter had no up year since 1999, when it fell 0.26%.

Appeal met stocks prospects for less fed also last week. The s- and - P-500 fell 2.1% to 1,592.43, down from the record high of 1,687.18 on May 22. The benchmark STOXX Europe 600 index 3.7%, while the MSCI World Index (MSCI) fell 2.9%. S & p fell Monday 1.21%.

The profits of the companies in the s & P-500 jumps more than 10 percent in the next two years after doubling since 2008, an average of more than 11,000 analyst expectations. Profit gains of this magnitude would provided returns to 8.3%, no change in the share index to send. The s- and - P-500, trades on a multiple of 14.7 times this year his earnings forecast.

"The stock market multiple is low compared to interest rates," Leon Cooperman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of hedge fund Omega advisors, with $8.4 billion under management, said in an interview with Bloomberg television. "There is room for increases", he said, adding that a fair level for the s &-P-500 1.600 is up to 1,700.

Bonds have their backers. According to Jeffrey Gundlach, Fund Manager of the $41 billion Ramesh total return Bond Fund Treasury bonds will be for the next few months the best performers. The Fund returned over the 12 months late June to hit 4.35% 21, 91% of the peers. It lost 0.1% this year better than 88% of the competitors.

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MGM resorts under 10 hot stocks

5:00 PM resorts, stocks, under No Comments

| By Mark Baumgartner, MSN Money

One of the biggest gaming companies in the world appears on an MSN Money list of recommended stocks. Here, StockScouters are the best investment ideas.

Resort and casino operator shares were a bad bet during the recession and snail's pace recovery, but can remove more and more clouds.

The feeling is the leisure industry insiders that American-after years of research into nearby cities and festivals during "Staycations" summer-ready to risk of House. An improving jobs picture, rising real estate prices, thicker 401 k and lower gas prices some of the reasons for optimism in Las Vegas and other US destinations are cited.

MGM Resorts International (MGM) Executives are sound optimistic about the increase in the number of booking and increased spending of the company properties on the Las Vegas Strip, MGM Grand, the Mirage, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and Luxor. The company has also casinos elsewhere in the United States and Dubai, and Macau.

"Our first quarter of 2013 results are the best, what, we Las Vegas Strip resorts, a record since the beginning of decline five years ago under the direction of better results in our quarter at MGM China and an all-time record at the CityCenter (a 67-acre development on the Strip co-ownership with Dubai World) have reported", said CEO Jim grumbling shareholders and analysts last month.

The Las Vegas company is created on a daily ranking with StockScouter, a MSN Money tool that identifies stocks with strong growth prospects in the near future. All stock with Scout's ratings of 8, 9 or 10 shall apply to the list, which is then shortened to exclude stocks with trading volume among 50,000 shares per day. The remainders are mapped according to market capitalisation, sector membership, and whether they are growth or value stocks.

MGM Resorts is trying, more than just a weak economy recover; some of the most pressing problems were themselves in debt and nearly drove the company file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

During the tenure of former CEO Terry Lanni, the company has large leveraged bets on Las Vegas and China. CityCenter, the most expensive one that was privately financed project of in U.S. history. Its centrepiece attraction is 4.004 room ARIA luxury hotel and Casino Resort and includes a high end retail Mall, condos and boutique hotels.

The $8 billion-project opened 2009 watched the deep recession, and the joint venture partner, steadily declined as their value and reputation.

Although welcomed, can increase of traffic and visitors not enough spending Las Vegas MGM resorts sustainable profitability, analysts, warned because of the cost and depreciation and amortization, the company's debt to be associated with back.

Administration has pointed out that a condo-hotel and Spa can sell it some CityCenter's nongaming assets, such as the crystals retail and dining complex and the Vdara. Some of the proceeds could be used to growth opportunities on the Strip and elsewhere, to finance, said the authorities, and could be used up to 2 billion $ in CityCenter to refinance debt.

MGM resorts plans $300 million or more this year to spend, to upgrade some of its properties on the Strip, including the development of on outdoor entertainment district, which would be in addition to a 20,000-seat arena is the company planning to build.

"Strong buy" on the stock market, 19 analysts covering the company 10 and 10 have "keep a recommendation".

MGM Resorts International has a StockScouter rating of 8, which means that the stock is expected to market in the next six months with average risk significantly exceed.

MGM Resorts International (MGM)

Here at MSN Money, we think, that ours is about as good as's StockScouter rating system goes, if you are trying to decide where they invest. StockScouter looks for stocks whose company fundamentals, price, estimate and warehouse property features seem to based a rising price in future predictions as these factors of stock prices in the past have influenced.

The system assigns each bearing a much-anticipated six month return and balance this return against expected volatility of the stock. Scout rates stocks on a scale of 1 to 10, and reviews can change daily. Reviews and data in the table listed goods stand at publishing this article.

In addition to the daily top 10 list above, investment research firm of Verus Analytics StockScouter used described, (previously known as gradient Analytics quantitative business unit), to generate a monthly benchmark portfolio of stocks that has updated monthly since its inception in August 2001 the market grew.

An investor, who in 2001 began, through investments in each of the benchmark portfolio top 10 stocks at the beginning of the month, at the end of the month and then start fresh with a new group of 10 shares for sale would be is, before the trading costs and taxes by 31 May 2013 890% generated has been.

A columnist for MSN Money, with companies began working at the time writer Jon Markman, researchers on the tool. Markman suggested the top 10 stocks roll over every six months to keep trading costs, a strategy that may be a better fit for most investors. This would be different results which would vary based on your starting point.

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Market turmoil has not yet reached.

1:29 AM market, reached, turmoil No Comments

| By Jim Jubak

It may be tempting to try to get out front of the rally that would surely come when recent turmoil simmers down. Problem is, trouble is often followed by more trouble.

Do you buy amid the selling or hang on until the worst is over? Let’s look for advice from warriors of the past.

"Buy on the sound of cannons; sell on the sound of trumpets" is attributed to Nathan Rothschild, who, the story goes, made a fortune on early knowledge of the result of the Battle of Waterloo.

Rothschild supposedly bought when everyone in England thought the battle was lost and prices were deeply depressed, and then sold in the euphoria that followed the Duke of Wellington's victory over the armies of the emperor.

Good advice -- even if the quotation and speaker are in historical dispute. (Rothschild is also credited with the advice to "Buy when there's blood in the streets.")

If you can buy at the moment of maximum doubt or turmoil and when prices have been depressed by the certainty of further chaos, and then sell at the moment of maximum joy, when disaster has been averted and all everyone wants to see is victory, then, yes, without a doubt, you can make a lot of money.

The problem is that the sound of cannons can be followed by the sound of even more cannons. And blood in the streets by even more blood in the streets. It's hard to pick the climax of doubt and turmoil.

In the same way, it's hard to pick the moment when the trumpets are to be trusted. Many the flourish has turned out to be maddeningly premature.

I bring this up because I think we're at one of those moments when we can hear the sound of cannons and when blood (and tear gas) is indeed running in the streets, but when it's hard to tell if we've reached the climax of the barrage.

Jim Jubak

In my opinion, it's still early in the turmoil in global financial markets. The cannons are indeed still increasing their rate of fire.

If your goal is to buy when prices are near their lows because chaos and turmoil have reached a peak, I think it's still early. The trend in many of the world's markets -- yes, probably even in emerging markets, though they have clearly broken downward -- is toward more turmoil.

Let me try to run quickly through the arguments for increasing turmoil in several significant markets. You can decide what the picture is for the global market as a whole.

The United States: I think Ben Bernanke's performance on Wednesday, June 19, has left the markets deeply worried. The Federal Reserve chairman said that the Fed would begin to taper off its $85 billion in monthly purchases of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities later in 2013. And that it would then gradually reduce its monthly purchases month by month until the Fed ended the buying program completely by mid-2014.

IF, and this is the crucial IF, the strength of the U.S. economy is consistent with projections by the Federal Reserve that put GDP growth at 3% to 3.5% in 2014 and forecast unemployment to drop to as low as 6.5% to 7%.

The market, if I can judge by the selling pressure on June 19 and 20, has taken this as a clear statement that the Fed will begin to taper on that schedule. The problem with that belief -- and with the Fed's policy statement -- is that very few economists working outside the Fed believe in anything like that rate of growth for the economy and jobs in 2014.

The median estimate among economists surveyed by Bloomberg calls for 1.9% growth in 2013 and 2.7% growth in 2014. The U.S. economy hasn't grown by an annual rate above 3% since the four quarters that ended in June 2006. Either the Fed has got this right and just about everyone else has got this wrong, or the Fed is deluded in its optimism.

But anybody who thinks the Fed's June 19 statement puts to rest the debate over when the central bank will taper and by how much is mistaken.

The Fed has left traders and investors in the U.S. wondering whether the Fed's optimistic economic projections are a reflection of the Fed's desire to end quantitative easing as soon as possible or represent an honest appraisal of the U.S. economy.

The Chicago Board of Options Exchange Volatility Index (VIX) has spiked in the last two days, and is now up 53% since May 17. And the market has been set up for further turmoil if economic data in the next quarter or two don't back up the Fed's optimism.

Forecast: More cannon fire likely as the market tries to figure out the data and Fed policy. Hopes that the Fed will be right about growth make U.S. growth stocks a better bet than income stocks and interest-rate-sensitive stocks in the financial and housing sectors.

I'd particularly look for growth stories that aren't dependent on an increase in the rate of growth in the U.S. economy. Companies positioned to benefit from the boom in U.S. energy production come to mind. I'll have some picks on that theme next week in a post on best stocks for the second half.

Brazil: It's tempting to think of the mass protests now rocking Brazil as the sound of cannons -- and therefore a signal to buy -- and the end of the protests as the blare of trumpets -- and a signal to sell.

I think that's a misreading of the extent of troubles in the Brazilian economy. The mass protests in the streets of Brazil's cities were initially touched off by demonstrations against an increase in bus fares in Sao Paulo. But they've now grown into a protest against inflation -- officially 6.5% but far more punishing in crucial categories as food and healthcare -- against bad schools, economic inequality and government corruption.

There would be less anger to fuel these protests if Brazil's economy were growing at the 7.5% rate of 2010, but growth fell to 2.7% in 2011 and then to 0.7% in 2012. The forecast for 2013 has been falling this year and is now down to 2.77% among private economists -- and no one believes the Banco Central do Brasil's official forecast of 3.1% growth.

At the same time as growth has lagged, inflation has kicked up to an annual rate of 6.5% in May. That's at the top of the central bank's inflation range of 4.5% plus or minus two percentage points. Raising interest rates to fight inflation would reduce economic growth, but the central bank doesn't seem to have a choice.

Forecast: The cannon fire gets louder as we move deeper into 2013 and I don't anticipate a drop in volume until we've seen a couple of further interest rate increase from the central bank. I'd look to Brazil's domestic consumer sector after those rate cuts. As tempting as the price of shares of Brazil's banks and exporters are at current levels, I'd still look for further drops in those sectors.

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Milking by parents for more money

2:00 PM Milking, money, parents No Comments

| By Katie little, CNBC

Your heirs are your cent remain in your home and life-well in their 20s? A recent study suggests, that is a part of their plan.

If junior has his way, there is a good chance that he plans that until his mid-20s, while at the same time believe, his financial future brighter than your new research shows his cents on your.

About 29% of respondents expect to 25 years or older, before they are financially independent without the help of parents, according to a survey by the Allstate Foundation and junior achievement United States.

That is up by 27% in the past year, and it is a strong increase of 16% who felt the same manner two years ago.

Rob Callender, Director of knowledge for youth-market research firm attributed to Tru, the high rate of unemployment among young people of this planned depending on parents. This figure is 25.1% for teens ages 16 to 19, according to the Government.

Like many middle-aged workers jobs they are overqualified for hit have, they have ousted, younger people on the totem pole, Callender, said. "It is like a reverse domino effect, where there are young people who can have training but not the experience is displaced,", he said.

Ironically are more young people about their future, despite believe that they will be instructed in their 20s on their parents and possibly beyond, optimistic after several data points.

While teenagers expect more on her parents instructed, she hold out financially as well as members of the younger generation as or better off than their parents with almost 65% expression of this opinion that resulted in Allstate/Junior Achievement survey. It depends on more than 56% in the previous year.

Young people were Trus survey with 90% believe that they at least as well off as their parents are still optimistic.

"They were optimistic, even in the midst of the recession," said Barbara E. Ray, co-author of "not quite adults: why 20-somethings choose a slower path to adulthood, and why it is good for everyone."

Ray added, "they know the trends, they know they are part of a larger trend, but they think it will be OK for them. It is a kind of classic American optimism. but perhaps a little unrealistic"

The unemployment total plot data of a stark picture for young adults as they at the beginning of her career. Although the overall unemployment rate up to 7.6% in may edge, the unemployment rate for 20 to 24 years old to 13.2%.

In the face of high unemployment, it is no surprise that the camp at home their parents many young adults have set up. This "Boomerang" is set, which accounts for almost three out of ten young adults, has pushed forward according to a report by the Pew Research the percentage of those returning to their family homes to the highest level since the 1950s Center starting in 2012.

Author Ray said, that such a contract must build young adults secure future can help.

"You can get your ducks in a row basically because you decide not solely on the basis of money", Ray said. "You can go to, you get the advanced degrees may or not, to take jobs, possibly not the best work, on a strong trajectory launch."

Despite the Economic Outlook. Ray described the 20-something cohort as "very optimistic."

As more and more young people are dependent on their parents, which puts additional pressure on the so-called "sandwich generation", their parents and their children at a time fit the group when they try to fund their own retirement preparation.

According to a survey in January by the Pew Research Center at the age of about 15% the Middle adults reported, the financial support of an aging parents and a child, with generation X boomers to replace, to feel as the group most likely the squeeze.

The Allstate survey also showed a lack of communication between adults and their children about paying for College. Almost three out of ten young people said that they don't skimp with their parents had spoken for higher education. These findings come even as student debt has taken the record $1 trillion mark measured on the consumer financial protection Bureau.

But hey, at least MOM and dad will be there later financially contributing. (Or at least that's what their teens are planning.)

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Next bust sneaks a little closer

8:30 PM closer, little, sneaks No Comments

| By Jim Jubak

While the financial system appears inoculated against a global crisis, emerging markets are increasingly vulnerable. And there's at least one scenario in which a local crunch could trigger a global crisis.

How near is the next bust? I raised this question a month ago, and concluded . . . not very.

I haven't completely changed my mind, but . . .

• I'm still convinced that a bust of the magnitude of the global financial crisis that followed the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy is very unlikely.

• I hear the growls from the bears that say we're looking at a replay of the Asian currency crisis of 1997. I think a replay is very unlikely. Something like a smaller version of that crisis does seem to me to be more possible than it was a month ago, though. Emerging stock markets will bear the brunt of that smaller version -- and I don't think the decline in those markets is over yet.

• The biggest danger of a global crisis remains the eurozone banking system, and that danger is largely overlooked by the current market.

The Asian currency crisis of 1997 is a good place to start any examination of the risks in this market.

I don't see a replay of the crisis that took Thailand's stock market down 75% in 1997, that resulted in a 13.5% drop in Indonesia's GDP, or that required a $40 billion effort from the International Monetary Fund to stabilize the currencies of South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. But I do see a way that a re-emergence of some of the conditions of that crisis could cost a different cast of characters; Brazil, India and Turkey are more likely participants in this version than South Korea or Indonesia are. And the cost could be a retreat of an additional 15% or 20% in stock prices.

In other words, a deep, painful but selective bear market in emerging stock markets rather than a global financial crisis.

Unless the world's central banks make huge errors, a crisis of that dimension wouldn't take down the global economy or global financial markets. And while I wouldn't rule out such errors, they are unlikely. The scenario we're looking at is one the central banks have been through before and that they have traditional tools to handle. But a crisis of that dimension, especially one with its echoes of 1997, is enough to produce confidence-shaking volatility that will test central banks, traders and investors.

Jim Jubak

The preconditions for the Asian currency crisis were the devaluation of the Chinese renminbi and the Japanese yen, along with an increase in U.S. interest rates. Those forces put pressure on the currencies and financial markets of countries, such as Thailand, that were running current-account deficits and were dependent on cash inflows from overseas investors to balance accounts. When money stopped flowing in and instead started flowing out and into the United States in order to take advantage of higher interest rates, the financial positions and currencies of these countries started to come unraveled.

At that point, some Asian countries had adopted fixed exchange rates in an effort to keep their export economies running at top speed by making sure that an appreciating currency didn't make the cost of Thai or Indonesian or Korean or Philippine goods more expensive for customers in the United States, Japan and China. The exchange rate with China was extremely sensitive, because many Southeast Asian companies exported semi-finished goods to China for further manufacturing and export to the United States and Europe.

But as cash flowed out of those economies and currencies, it quickly became not a question of preventing these currencies from appreciating but of preventing their collapse.

Traders can count; looking at the reserves of foreign exchange and the current-account deficits in those countries, they bet that central banks and governments wouldn't be able to defend the value of their currencies.

And indeed they couldn't. The Philippine peso, for example, went from 26 to the U.S. dollar in 1997 to 38 to the dollar in mid-1999. The Korean won and the Hong Kong dollar came under attack. The volatility was scary enough by itself: Hong Kong's Hang Seng stock market index fell 23% from Oct. 20 to Oct. 24, 1997. Finally, the Thai baht collapsed, taking the Thai stock market with it. Thai stocks fell 75% in 1997. With financial markets essentially shut and currencies collapsing, economies ground to a halt for a lack of financing. The Indonesian economy contracted by 13.5% in 1998.

The International Monetary Fund and global central banks finally stepped in to guarantee liquidity in those markets, but not before the crisis had spread to China. The Chinese government and the People's Bank of China had to take extraordinary steps to guarantee the solvency of the country's banks as a tide of bad loans swept through the economy.

With that history, you can see why raising the specter of the Asian currency crisis might be so scary right now.

There are echoes of the crisis in the drop in the yen that stretched from early November 2012 to mid-May. From Nov. 12 to May 16, the yen dropped 28.6%. Further, U.S. interest rates have started to rise: in the past month, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasurys has climbed to 2.14% from 1.88%, an increase of 13.8%. Countries with chronic current-account deficits, such as Indonesia and India, have moved to slow outflows and defend their currencies by moves such as raising interest rates.

Certainly, spots of danger seem reminiscent of 1997. Indonesia and Turkey, two of the hottest emerging markets of 2012, are heavily dependent on foreign cash flows, and they've both seen big outflows of foreign cash in recent weeks. (Violence in the streets of Istanbul hasn't helped Turkish markets.) Brazil looks like it's in trouble, with cash flows out of the country picking up at the same time as the economy is slowing. That, of course, makes it hard for the Banco Central do Brasil to raise interest rates, although with inflation at 6.5% in May, near the top of the bank's range of 4.5% plus or minus two percentage points, the bank is likely to have to raise interest rates sooner rather than later no matter how slow the economy.

And, of course, Japan, with an estimated debt-to-gross domestic product ratio of 224% in 2012, is clearly nowhere near a sustainable level of debt.

But the differences with 1997 are significant. To me, they add up to volatility, further slowing in the global economy (and causing a significant drop in growth in some developing economies), a further drop in the price of emerging market stocks and big cash flows out of emerging market debt. But as painful as these market retreats as likely to be, they don't equal the kind of threat to global financial markets and economies we saw in the Asian currency crisis. (Not everyone agrees with me. You can get a good statement of the bear case in this interview with Albert Edwards of Societe Generale.)

What's different? Developing economies are, by and large, in better shape to weather a currency/overseas cash flow crisis than they were in 1997.

Asian currencies that were pegged to the dollar or to some basket of currencies in 1997 now float with relative freedom. That has made adjustment to changing market and economic conditions a gradual process rather than leaving any change to one big crisis. Foreign-exchange reserves are higher than they were in 1997. For example, as of May, Indonesia had foreign exchange reserves equal to 5.8 months of payments on its export bill, versus 3.9 months in 1997. The biggest swing is in South Korea, which had $329 billion in reserves as of April 2013, versus just $8.9 billion in December 1997.

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'Heir finders' may be targeting you

8:30 AM finders, targeting No Comments

| By Liz Weston, MSN Money

Be wary of services that can become a big rip-off, but careful research by would-be heirs can pay off.

Cary Douglas Piper of Castleberry, Ala., died at 52 after a short illness. He apparently left no will or any known relatives. But Piper did have heirs – unfortunately for the probate judge who stole $1.8 million from his estate.

A year after his death, a so-called "heir finder" firm turned up six first cousins. When the cousins came forward to make a claim on the $3.2 million estate, the theft was discovered.

Covington County Probate Judge Sherrie Reid Phillips was sentenced in 2008 to three years in prison for theft by deception and intentionally using her official position for unlawful personal gain. The Alabama attorney general's office said Phillips used money from the estate to open a personal money-market account. Phillips spent more than $516,000 of the money buying two vehicles, repairing her home, paying personal debt and loaning money to two relatives.

In the secretive, shadowy world of heir finding, this case had an unusually public denouement. Typically, heir-finding firms shun the limelight. The companies I contacted for this column either failed to return my calls or refused to comment on the record, citing fierce competition in this field or the potential for a negative public reaction to what they do.

That is because what they typically do is scour court filings for apparently heirless estates. Then they try to turn up distant relatives, some who may not have even known the deceased, usually in exchange for a cut of the estate.

People who sign up with these firms may get a windfall – or they could give up a big chunk of an inheritance that might have found them anyway.

A reader named Esther emailed me after being contacted by one such firm, concerned it was a scam.

Liz Weston

"I got a call from (from an heir-finding company) stating they specialize in locating missing heirs to estates," Esther wrote. "They would take 1/4 of whatever assets (the) beneficiary receives from said estates. Is this company (legitimate)?"

There are several ways you can get ripped off:

Con artists may pose as heir finders or asset locators to get you to pay a big upfront fee – supposedly their "commission" – and then disappear without a trace.Scammers may present you with a fat check and ask you to write a smaller one to them. By the time the big check bounces, they're long gone.Another common scam is to reveal a supposed inheritance and demand that you "prove" who you are with private personal information, such as Social Security numbers and other data that can be used to commit identity theft.
Other companies avoid outright fraud but engage in questionable practices, such as charging fees to help you locate lost assets you could easily find yourself.

To limit profiteering, some states limit how much heir finders can charge. In Washington state, the limit is 5%. In Arizona, it's 30%. In many other states, the limit is 10%.

Some states also limit inheritance rights for distant relatives in what are called "laughing heir" statutes, essentially ruling that if you had no reason to feel bereaved, you shouldn't inherit. The Uniform Probate Code, which has been adopted by many states, limits inheritance rights to direct descendants, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and first cousins. If no heirs within the limits are found, the estate is turned over, or "escheated," to the state.

In some states, including California, an apparently heirless estate can remain in limbo indefinitely, said Elizabeth Pierson, a Santa Monica, Calif., estate and probate attorney.

So what should you do if you're contacted by someone purporting to be an heir finder? Take the following steps before you sign up:

If you know a relative who recently died, you can do some of your own research. The first step would be to contact the courthouse in the county where the person lived to see if a probate case has been opened. If it has, you can contact the attorney or administrator representing the estate.Check http://www.unclaimed.org/, run by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, which represents the escheat offices run by state treasurers. Another site to check is http://www.missingmoney.com/, which allows you to check all state databases at once. Check for your own name in all the states where you resided; do the same for any recently deceased relatives.Finding life insurance proceeds is tougher, since unclaimed benefits typically aren't escheated or turned over to state unclaimed-property offices. You can learn more about finding lost policies by reading "Don't take policies to the grave."If you have no luck and are considering signing up with the heir finder, get the company's business and investigator license numbers and check them with your state. Not all state states require these licenses, but many do. Check the company's reputation with the Better Business Bureau. Insist on a written agreement that spells out the nature and the value of the property you stand to inherit, along with the fee or commission you will pay – which is negotiable, by the way – after the claim has been paid.

Liz Weston is the Web's most-read personal-finance writer. She is the author of several books, most recently "The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy" (find it on Bing). Weston's award-winning columns appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. Join the conversation and send in your financial questions on Liz Weston's Facebook fan page.

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DirecTV and 9 other hot stocks

1:00 PM DirecTV, Other, stocks No Comments

| By Mark Baumgartner, MSN Money

The largest U.S. provider of direct-to-home digital TV service appears on an MSN Money list of recommended stocks.

Facing a stagnant market (nearly 90% of U.S. households already subscribe to a pay TV service), DirecTV (DTV) is going where the growth is.

In recent years that's meant an aggressive push into Latin America, where cable and satellite TV penetration lags that of the United States. Now, DirecTV is reportedly a leading contender to acquire Hulu, in a deal that would give it greater access to the growing number of viewers who watch video over the Internet.

Some technology blogs are reporting that DirecTV is close to consummating a $1 billion deal for Hulu, which offers viewers free, ad-supported content from Fox, NBC and ABC, as well as a $7.99-a-month subscription option for expanded access to TV shows..

Hulu, which was launched by the networks in 2007, has been unable to keep pace with faster-growing rivals such as YouTube, owned by Google (GOOG) and Netfix (NFLX). Still, a deal for Hulu could give DirecTV a brand-name entree into Internet-based broadcasting that would help it compete for customers.

DirecTV provides digital TV service and on-demand video to roughly 20 million subscribers in the United States and nearly 11 million in Latin America. It competes with cable providers such as Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) as well as phone companies like AT&T (T) and Verizon Communications (VZ), which bundle their own video services into voice, telephone and Internet packages.

The El Segundo, Calif., company appears on a daily ranking created with StockScouter, an MSN Money tool that identifies stocks with strong growth prospects in the near term. All stocks with Scouter ratings of 8, 9 or 10 are considered for the list, which is then shortened to exclude stocks with a trading volume below 50,000 shares a day. The remaining stocks are ranked on the basis of market capitalization, sector membership and whether they are growth or value stocks.

Dish Network (DISH), the No. 2 direct-to-home digital TV service, after DirecTV, has been considering an even bolder move to tap the growing demand for wireless broadband service as the pay TV market stagnates; Dish made an unsolicited bid for Sprint Nextel (S) after the wireless company had agreed to be acquired by Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank (SFTBY). Control of Sprint -- the No. 3 wireless provider in the United States -- would catapult Dish into the mobile-phone industry, which is increasingly central to how Americans communicate, work and consume media and entertainment.

DirecTV's U.S. subscriber growth has slowed as the company has placed priority on holding on to subscribers that generate the most revenue and profit, and worrying less when cost-sensitive customers shop for less-expensive TV options.

The company said it had 21,000 net subscriber additions in the United States in the first quarter, down from 81,000 in the year-earlier period. The total U.S. subscriber base rose 0.7% in the quarter to 20.1 million.

It added 583,000 net subscribers in Latin America, down from 593,000 a year earlier. DirecTV said it ended the first quarter with 10.9 million subscribers in the region, up 29% year on year.

Eleven of the 20 analysts covering the company rate the stock a "strong buy," two have "moderate buy" ratings, six have "hold" recommendations and one has a "strong sell" rating.

DirecTV has a StockScouter rating of 9, meaning the stock is expected to significantly outperform the market over the next six months with less than average risk.

Brocade Communications Systems (BRCD)

Farm and construction machinery

Here at MSN Money, we think our StockScouter rating system is about as good as it gets when you're trying to decide where to invest. StockScouter looks for stocks whose business fundamentals, price behavior, valuation and stock-ownership characteristics appear to predict a rising price in the future, based on how those factors have influenced stock prices in the past.

The system assigns each stock an expected six-month return and balances that return against the stock's expected volatility. Scouter rates stocks on a scale of 1 to 10, and ratings can change daily. Ratings and data in the chart above were current as of this article's publication date.

In addition to the daily top 10 list described above, StockScouter is used by investment research firm Verus Analytics (previously known as the quantitative business unit of Gradient Analytics) to generate a monthly benchmark portfolio of stocks that, refreshed monthly, has outperformed the market since its inception in August 2001.

An investor who began in 2001 by investing in each of the benchmark portfolio's top 10 stocks at the start of the month, selling them at the end of the month and then starting fresh with a new group of 10 stocks, would have generated returns, before trading costs and taxes, of 890% through May 31, 2013.

Writer Jon Markman, at the time a columnist for MSN Money, collaborated with company researchers on the tool. Markman suggested rolling over the top 10 stocks every six months to hold down trading costs, a strategy that might be a better fit for most investors; that would yield different results, which would vary based on your starting point.

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The hidden threat to your portfolio

4:30 AM hidden, portfolio, threat No Comments

| By Brett Arends, MarketWatch

The so-called balanced portfolio, mixing higher-volatility stocks and 'safer' bonds, is the bedrock behind most portfolio management. But it could leave you broke.

If I suggested that you hand your grandmother's retirement savings over to a cardshark in the hope that he might gamble with them on a riverboat casino, you would probably give me a very funny look.

But grandma's savings are being gambled right under her nose. And there's a good chance she doesn't have a clue it's happening.

Your grandma -- like most investors -- is likely being told by the Wall Street marketing machine that some variant on the "60/40" portfolio of stocks and bonds will see her safely through her golden years. The so-called balanced portfolio, mixing higher-volatility stocks and "safer" bonds, is the bedrock behind most portfolio management. It underpins the "life cycle" and "target date" funds that Wall Street is busy selling to all the baby boomers heading into retirement. As you get older, you are supposed to hold fewer stocks and more bonds, to reduce volatility, in a "glide path" to retirement. But the fundamental principle—that balancing stocks with bonds will help you navigate all environments—doesn't change.

I've been banging on for some time about the flawed logic behind this idea. I've noted that a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds has failed investors miserably in the past and may do so again. Such portfolios lost money, when adjusted for inflation, in the 1940s and again in the 1970s. Stocks and bonds have only "balanced" one another when one or the other was undervalued. In 1982 both were undervalued, so investors have done very well since then. Today, however, both are almost certainly overvalued. Investors are taking a huge risk.

I hadn't realized how big that risk was until a chance meeting this week with Mark Hanus, who has just launched an independent mutual fund designed to hedge inflation risk, the Inflation Hedges Strategy Fund (INHIX). Hanus used to be at Wellington, the blue-chip Boston fund company. Before that he was a co-founder of Absolute Investment Advisers.

In the course of our conversation I looked through some investment slides which Hanus had prepared. And one struck me so hard I did a double-take.

I've missed a trick. Yes, I've already reported that "balanced" portfolios have served older investors very badly at stages in the past. But I hadn't included an additional factor -- the cost of the withdrawals those investors had to make each year.

If you held money in a portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds starting in 1966 -- a year when stocks and bonds were both high-priced -- and rebalanced once a year, over the following 15 years your portfolio lost about two-thirds of its purchasing power. (So much for "safe.")

But what about if you had just retired, and you had to withdraw some money from that portfolio every year to live on?

If you withdrew 5% of the portfolio in the first year, and just increased your withdrawals each year to keep pace with inflation, something alarming happened. Within about 18 years your entire portfolio was gone. Kaput.

What killed the portfolios was rising inflation -- coupled with poor returns from both stocks and bonds.

To check the numbers, I went home and built my own spreadsheet, using returns for stocks and bonds compiled by NYU's Stern School of Business, and inflation data from the U.S. Labor Department. Result? Hanus was spot on. The portfolio was gone by 1984.

What's more, the higher the percentage of bonds you held, the sooner the money ran out.

It is yet another piece of bad news in the national retirement crisis. Many Americans are retiring with less than $25,000 in savings. They are going to need "winning" portfolios if they are to have any decent chance of a dignified old age. But right now, with bond and stock markets so high, there is every chance that the best they can hope for from here is a portfolio that doesn't lose too badly.

Gulp.

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6 credit questions you should know

9:30 AM Credit, questions, should No Comments

| By Dawn Papandrea, CreditCards.com

It’s easy to overlook the importance of your credit history and scores. But it's dangerous to ignore them. Here are 6 essentials to keep in mind.

If you hardly glance at your account statements, remember just in the nick of time to send off minimum payments and can't truly say you have a firm grasp on your future financial goals, it's time to ask yourself some tough questions about your credit.

"People need to understand that their finances impact their quality of life. It can affect your relationships -- money struggles are often a cause of divorce -- not to mention that financial stresses can affect productivity at work or even take its toll on your health," says Denise Winston, author of "Money Starts Here! Your Practical Guide to Survive and Thrive in Any Economy." That's why, she says, it's worthwhile to spend the time to keep your finances in focus.

Need help in focusing? Ask yourself these six crucial credit questions.

1. How much do I owe?
You need to have a handle on all of your debt in order to stay in control of it and put a pay-off plan in place. "It's important to keep an eye on your total balances," says accountant and National CPA Financial Literacy Commission member Kelley C. Long. "From an emotional perspective, it's so you can keep yourself in check. And from a practical standpoint, you don't want to go over your limit and be charged any fees."

Remember, debt includes not only revolving balances such as credit cards, but also car loans, personal loans, home mortgages and any debt owed to family and friends. Winston recommends charting out all of those items at least once per year, if not more often. "Stacking it up and looking at it, and taking the time to run those numbers gives you a clear picture of exactly what your financial debt burden is," she says.

2. What is my debt costing me?
Beyond your balances owed, Long recommends looking at all of your statements, and adding up the total amount of interest you accrue in a given month. "Seeing that number can be a boost of motivation to stick to those goals you set," she says.

Mathematically, it makes the most financial sense to work toward paying off your highest interest account first, says Long. "While paying the minimum on lower interest accounts, pay as much as possible on the highest interest rate account until it's paid off. Then you can move to the next highest, and so on," she says.

Another option is the "debt snowball" plan, made popular by financial author Dave Ramsey, in which you pay off the lowest balance first. "Some people want to feel a sense of accomplishment quicker and faster, so they like the motivation of paying the smallest debt off first," says Ornella Grosz, author of "Moneylicious: A Financial Clue for Generation Y."

Whichever route you take, stick to it, and you'll whittle the amount of monthly interest you pay.

3. How much of my income goes toward debt?
The rule of thumb used by banking institutions when they evaluate potential borrowers is that your total debt payments (including your home loan, car payments, student loans, credit cards, etc.) should not exceed 36% of your monthly gross earnings, says Long. "The most useful way to use that number is if you're considering taking on more debt. You want to make sure you're not overextending yourself," she says.

And, if you're approaching or exceeding that number, take it as a sign you need to buckle down with a serious debt reduction plan.

4. Do I have a healthy credit mix?
Not all credit is created equal in the eyes of potential lenders and the credit bureaus. In fact, 10% of your credit score is based on the mix of credit you carry. Lenders want to see you can handle different types of credit -- mortgages, auto loans, credit cards -- and you should watch your credit mix as well.

"Debt that is used to acquire something that will last longer than it will take to pay for it is generally considered 'good' debt. For example, in theory, students loans are good debt because you'll earn income for longer than it will take to pay off," Long says.

On the other hand, carrying a high credit card balance resulting from pricey restaurant meals and retail splurges isn't viewed as the most responsible way to utilize credit.

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Fed can Wall Street searches do not stop.

5:00 AM searches, Street No Comments

| By David Weidner, MarketWatch

Bettors against any form of central authority but lust after federal generosity. It's time for bankers and brokers Guide to confirm that they are beneficiaries of the system, not its victims.

The men and women of Wall Street lust is the Evangelist of the free market.

Whether it J.p.. Morgan Chase (JPM) Jamie Dimon regulations to criticize or Peter Schiff exhibition a another sky-is-falling warning or trade group- as the American Bankers Association-picking apart central banking, Wall Street message almost uniform is: back off. We have this.

But as the drugs Adviser, has a secret habit, they give away the industry's actions. And investors need to consider only the daily fluctuations in the market when a possible change in the policy of Federal Reserve is indicated.

Only Monday, the fed using a single word, "Cone" on its bond-buying program created a wave in coverage in the media, and also in the markets.

Wall Street is addicted to cheap money.

Since the Fed under Ben Bernanke his $85-billion-a-month-bond buying program in September 2012, the stock market on an absolute tear was announced. The Dow Jones industrial average ($INDU), the standard & poor's 500 index ($INX) and the Nasdaq composite index ($COMPX) are between 9% and 13%. Yields make it a great year. But that is in less than eight months.

Since it essentially overnight interest rates decreased in 2008 to zero, the Fed has tripled its balance sheet to $3.3 billion. Critics see the influx of cash into the economy as "Printing money" (it is), and they fear the shift will be congressional elections and in turn, the wealth of the nation and its citizens (it's not).

Meanwhile, Wall Street and the investment community-they realize any type of intervention-to renounce had the opposite reaction. The feeling is the Fed stimulus package through the back door was driven or is fueling an economic recovery (it's not).

This is not rocket science, nor is it anything new. Even in good economic times, the Fed's interest rate policy is precisely observed. It puts the trade agenda. And we all know that low-interest policy under former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan set the table for a bubble in real estate and other credit assets, of which we ditch still out.

But it is reserve as an economic source, another to appreciate one thing and the Federal, to embrace it as arrogant and constricting force scourges. But that is exactly, what makes Wall Street. It rails against any form of central authority, but lust after his Freigiebigkeit--stimulus or bailouts.

And the last part is what really deserves attention. In the year 2011 on behalf of the Government of the first examination of the Federal Reserve. The idea was, measuring how much had extended the Central Bank on the so-called private financial sector to keep, solvents and ongoing.

The finding: $16 trillion in guarantees and money into the system, more than gross domestic product injected into the US. How money Center banking-driven by the toxic assets of investment banks-approached to reduce, uses the Central Bank, to extraordinary measures it support. Taxpayers put movement significant risk. Because if eroded confidence in the Fed or has his action does not work, eventually the economy into chaos would collapsed.

It is because of this intervention, the term "too big to fail" has become part of the national lexicon.

So-called private banks are really extensions of the Government, not the kind of free rolls capitalism, providing his leadership.

None of this is to say, that the Fed is never in question. Quite the contrary. As mentioned earlier, the Fed created interest-rate policy, tax along with Washington's promotion of home ownership, the economic bubble.

But ultimately, the Wall Street well into same height has seen. Their rallies have been moved to fed. An active Federal Reserve has been considered good for stock market investors. Also the bond markets beyond its interest-rate moves fuel pump or they, as many fear is happening now.

That is, why Wall Street must recognize that for all their criticism of the fed and regulation, the industry gets far more than there are. A good first step would be for banks and brokers Guide to confirm that they are beneficiaries of the system, not victims.

As in any recovery program is that to admit that you have a problem with the first step.

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Fears ease 7 ways to retirement

8:00 AM Fears, Retirement No Comments

| By David Ning, US News & world report

Many Americans are concerned that they will outlive their savings. Here are seven steps to make sure that you have enough money for retirement.

Transition from accumulating in the withdrawal term is hard for many pensioners, who enjoyed their assets have to watch grow for decades. Some people make excessive money. You can unnecessary thrift practice and miss the chance to enjoy what most should be free time of their life. Here is how the fear to overcome that you will outlive your retirement:

Get a single premium immediate pension (SEPIA). It is recommended that all insurance products are skeptical. But the guaranteed monthly income is received an immediate pension the best way, to just to reduce the fear of money. By accepting, you probably exceed a diversified investment portfolio, and not be able to leave this part of the assets for your heirs, you gain the peace of mind that a monthly check is delivered, as long as the insurer in business remains.

Track your expenses and income to a long-term trend to get. Collecting a story, about your issues to and compare it with the income that your portfolio generates. This will help to, how much money need you your spending to pay for a good picture you. Is your net value really oppose because you fear, or are only as too pessimistic?

Identify where you can cut if necessary. If your expenditure pattern know you can come with a plan, also to reduce costs, if market performance falls short of your expectations. Keep in mind that simple steps like cutting can your cable TV Bill wonders for your budget. No money in retirement is actually rare that pensioners who plan and track, because most people will start well, before exhausted their stock to zero adjust their spending.

Lead various retirement calculator to see your chances of success. Many retirement calculators, on historical returns and inflation numbers give you a good idea of where you stand. Some calculator to calculate your chances of money less than even.

Test, wait until 70 to get social security. Another way that significantly increase the chances of running, no money is that you retired does not, is delayed, collect your social security checks. By waiting until you turn 70, you get much more per month. Clearly, you could end up losing, because you die early. But avoid that money have just the primary concern a higher check every month after 70 is enabled, is worth is the wait.

Recognizing that money in retirement may not just disaster. Reducing your retirement may not so disastrous, think the reality as you nest egg. The United States is still one of the better countries in taking care of its seniors. With Medicare, Medicaid, social security, and a progressive tax system, the Government will give more and more by a hand if your pension is dwindling. Already many of your fellow retirees live only on social security and have a happy and satisfactory retirement continue to.

Recognize that retirement care are normal. You are not the first person who make no money, and will be not be the last. A moderate amount of fear is really good, because it helps to prevent excessive spending. It can be helpful to take care of money, as long as the fear is prevented does not enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

Retirement should be free from everyday life. Free do what you worry of money.

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The purchase of bonds-after the crash

1:30 AM bondsafter, crash, purchase No Comments

| By Jim Jubak

It's been a scary 6 weeks for who owns bonds, and the long-term prospects for more carnage is not ideal for stocks. But the recent sell-off was extreme, so we could see a rally.

If all the recent speeches by members of the US Federal Reserve plans to cone the Central Bank program of the complete package of Treasury bonds and mortgage backed debt off, designed to test the mood of the bond market, the results were downright scary.

In the last few weeks. the Fed has discovered that when the bond market starts end of fed stimulus provide the and begins to unwind their long positions, it just a few buyers for bonds or mortgage backed securities are. And when few buyers and everyone would like to sell it, bonds fall like a stone.

We are all concerned been, that if the Fed begins to unwind its stimulus of the financial markets, it could trigger a market rout.

And the Fed-have discovered that we were quite provide.

And now the question is: what can the fed do to bond to stem a drop in prices that is definitely too far and too fast?

This is an important question for bondholders, of course, but also for investors in stocks. Some volatility bonds will move some investors in stocks. But too much volatility in bonds is just scary and sends money noise from all financial assets.

Bonds had a terrible six weeks.

Treasury bonds-note that you as a yardstick for the risk-free yield-lost 10.7% from 30 April by the close on June 7 have measured by the Bloomberg US Treasury bonds index are used.

Jim Jubak

Other debt instruments such as mortgage-backed securities, had a worse time. IShares FTSE NAREIT mortgage plus(REM) Exchange traded fund, the real estate investment trusts that mortgage-backed securities to buy tracks, decreased 12.8% from 30 April to 7 June. Annally capital management (UR), a REIT, which manages a portfolio of mortgage-backed securities, April was 15.4 per cent from 30 to 7 June.

Even the powerful have taken their lumps. Mr. bond, Pimcos Bill Gross, has one seen the funds he manages, PIMCO corporate and income opportunity (PTY) falling 13.5% from 30 April to 7 June.

The drops seem extreme, unjustified, exaggerated, hysterical. While the concern that the fed to Cone from its $85 billion in monthly purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage backed securities already as June or July in reality starts its meetings, the Fed has done a dollar from pointed, and a schedule September or October for every move seems more likely. And even then, the Fed is not particularly quick to move.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury received only 2.17% by 1.84% a month and 1.64% a year ago.

But the drops don't seem extreme, unjustified, exaggerated and hysterical at all considering the certainty that promote the fed, impulses from the financial markets at some point end of 2013 or early 2014--pull back when the economy tanks. Send interest rates higher. And bond prices lower.

This certainty is hard to figure out why someone would buy bonds or other fixed-income securities at all. Unsightly yields are low and prices are headed lower in the long run. So why buy?

The drops, we at the market for Treasury bonds, companies that bonds and mortgage-backed securities from this perspective are exactly see what you'd expect when a market starts to unwind huge long positions, and finds that it not many buyers.

Think a

Attack it this way: an increase in the yield on 10-year Treasury at 2.5% of the current 2.17%-who not unthinkable, when the yield on the 10-year Treasury 2.17% by 1.84% in a month-gone would produce a drop in the price of a Treasury $1,000 up to $868. This is an additional 13.2% loss, on top of that the 10.7% loss, the Bloomberg-Treasury index shows in the last six weeks.

What could turn this situation around?

A Treasury buyer is currently paid 2.17% for the risk of loss of capital of this magnitude. That seems like a crazy bet.

It is a miracle that there are buyers.

In the short term, I can three things-think, and she would probably jointly submitted.

Initially, the yen could cease to rally against the dollar. If the yen fell, money in dollar-denominated assets, including Treasury bonds flowed, because the dollar as a safe haven from the decline in the yen provided. Extreme liquidity of the Treasury market-it is so great that it is easy in to move, also if you large Positionen--added to the attractiveness of the market as a safe haven.

On 7 June, the dollar stopped its fall against the yen, and today the greenback recovered, climbing 1.6% against the yen. After the drop in the value of the dollar against the yen, the currency would have enough room for manoeuvre to the yen-a

Moving from Friday 97,56 Yen to the dollar at the top of the pre rally close range near the town of 103-to buy Treasury bonds an attractive bet on a rising dollar.

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When generosity hurts relationships

8:00 AM generosity, hurts, relationships No Comments

| By Karyn Polewaczyk, LearnVest

Do you have a rule about loaning money to friends and family? Maybe you should draw one up.

When my younger sister was in college, she needed help with the down payment for a new car.

I wrote her a check -- coincidentally, her birthday was just around the corner -- and sent it in a card, with the understanding that when she was solvent, she’d pay me back.

Almost a decade later, that portion of my coffer remains empty; in fact, it’s permanently closed, since the one time I suggested she might pay me back, it caused a battle so ugly that my father had to step in to break up a fight between his adult daughters.

There’s no place where financial generosity shines through more than with the people we love. While giving can feel good, it can also create discomfort if we’re repeatedly on the giving end of the stick -- or, conversely, if the gifts bestowed upon us by friends are the kinds that we can’t match.

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the international best-seller “Eat Pray Love,” has written about her own tendency to be not just generous but overly generous. She calls the phenomenon being an “over-giver.” In other words, she’s inclined to give everything she’s capable of giving, regardless of what the recipients feel comfortable receiving. In fact, after her book rendered her very wealthy, Gilbert writes: “I was a dream facilitator, an obstacle-banisher, a life-transformer.”

Psychotherapist and executive coach Jonathan Alpert says that over-givers and people pleasers go hand in hand. “Over-givers use gifts as a way to gain and keep friends, because they think they need to be overly generous to be liked,” he says. It becomes problematic, he continues, when the giver is constantly putting others ahead of herself, like the woman profiled in his book who skipped a family funeral to work, for fear of letting down her boss. “People pleasers are afraid of disappointing others, to the point where they neglect their own needs.”

Sound familiar? If you’re an over-giver . . . or know someone who is, read on to learn how to extricate yourself from an awkward situation -- or stop creating one.

Saturday night cocktails here, Sunday brunch there; sure, you’re happy to cover it. But when history repeats itself and you wind up footing the bill every time you meet up with a particular friend, or worse, loaning friends and relatives bigger chunks of money, things can go downhill, fast -- even if your intentions started off good.

Who overgives . . . and why? Most commonly, people who give too much are suffering from low self-esteem, explains Alpert. “They think they have to rely on giving to be seen in a positive light,” he explains, and fit the classic people-pleasing profile. “It’s usually people who feel that they don’t have anything to offer a friend beyond their wallet.”

How it can hurt: Unpaid debts or inequalities (like picking up the tab for dinner five times in a row) can cast a pallor over your friendships. A study profiled in The Economist found that, surprisingly, people don’t really like people who are too generous. In fact, they dislike extreme selflessness as much as they dislike selfishness. Why? Simply put, your unabated giving makes them look -- or just feel -- bad. So, even as over-givers try to connect with others by giving gifts, they’re likely to create feelings of guilt instead of gratitude.

Plus, as Alpert points out, there’s a difference between giving because you want to and giving because you feel you need to. The first may give you satisfaction, but the second could easily lead to resentment -- that feeling you have when you covered brunch because your friend “couldn’t afford it,” only to see his vacation photos fill up your Facebook newsfeed days later. How could he afford that, but not this?

What you can do: It comes down to examining your motives: Why are you giving so much? What do you hope to gain? Or, Alpert puts it another way: Are you giving to preserve your friendships? If so, you might want to re-evaluate. Odds are, the people in your life will love you just as much without the lavish gifts.

Then again, maybe you have a dynamic with a certain friend who tends to goad you into picking up the check: ”If someone’s taking too much, stop,” says Ryan Morgan, a loan officer with Mortgage Corp East. “It’s not their fault -- it’s yours for giving.”

In other words, if you’re constantly swooping in to rescue a pal in need and realize the arrangement is no longer sustainable, be kind but be honest: Explain that you appreciate their friendship, but that you simply can’t provide for them anymore. “You don’t need to give them a list of reasons, either,” advises Thomas P. Farley (aka “Mister Manners”), a New York City-based manners expert and author. “Just keep it simple.”

I have a friend I’ll call Rachel who loves to give her friends gifts: big, lavish gifts, like a $100 gift certificate to the spa for your half-birthday, or a beautiful box of hand-milled soaps, just because you happened to meet for brunch. While I, and all of our friends, love to receive what she gives us, at a certain point it becomes uncomfortable. It starts to feel imbalanced, and there’s only so many thank-you notes one person can write.

Why over-giving happens: In her essay, Gilbert describes her over-giving as a way to be "petted and feted and praised and loved unconditionally for the rest of time." That’s the reason she mainly gave to her nearest and dearest instead of to faceless causes. "I could see (and feel!) the gratitude so personally; it was a drug-like pleasure," she writes. She confesses that her giving made her feel like she was “leveling off the apparent imbalance of my own crazy success -- an imbalance that had left me feeling profoundly uncomfortable." Giving benefited her friends, but it benefited her too.

How it can hurt: And what’s the problem, exactly? Farley acknowledges how tricky it is to address the situation if you’re the one being doted on. "It can make you feel like a kept friend," he admits. In the case of Rachel, my friends and I don’t know why we’re getting all this stuff and we can’t afford (and don’t necessarily feel the need) to reciprocate. But should we?

"The person who receives can feel indebted or inferior," says Morgan. "And the person who gives could hold that over the other person’s head. If I go to you and ask for money, it may help me out, but it could also make me feel irresponsible, reckless or inferior because I had to ask." Money isn’t the only issue -- in the case of a friend who constantly picks up the tab or presents you with tokens, ask yourself: Would you still be friends with them were that to change? If you feel like you owe them friendship in return for their gifts, it’s a problem.

What you can do: Here’s a question: Are you encouraging the over-giver? Are you putting yourself in situations where it’s easier for her to spot you than not? For instance, she might feel the need to cover your dinner bill if you’re picking it apart. “If you’re someone who does that,” says Farley, "it means either that you’re not enjoying yourself, or that you probably can’t afford to be out at that time -- so you shouldn’t be."

If you haven’t been encouraging her generosity and you’re an unwilling recipient, Farley advises sitting down with the friend or family member in question, in private, and approaching the conversation with gratitude. Often, he says, the giver has no idea just how offensive her social miscues have been, and having it brought to her attention can feel like a shock.

"You could say something like, 'I'm so appreciative of your kind gestures -- thank you -- but I really can’t accept your gifts anymore,'" Farley suggests. It’s simple, to the point, and can prevent hurt feelings.

Like anything else: If it’s making you uncomfortable, it’s up to you to change it.

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5 companies still growing fast

11:30 AM companies, growing, still No Comments

| By Kathy Kristof, Kiplinger

The economy may be slowing down again, making companies racking up gains even more valuable to investors. Here’s a look at Google, Angie's List and three others.

The companies you're about to read about appear to have little in common. Some are huge, some small. They operate in fields as diverse as security and content creation. But what connects them all is that they are using technology to spur blistering sales growth. Why is that important? Because after zealously trimming fat in recent years, companies are limited in how much they can boost earnings by slashing costs. So one sure way to identify firms with brisk profit growth is to identify those that can generate rising revenues in good times and bad.

To be sure, some of the five stocks described below look pricey by traditional measures. That shouldn't be surprising, says Russ Koesterich, BlackRock's chief investment strategist. "When you see companies growing rapidly in a slow economy, you know that they are in an attractive niche market or they are gaining market share," he says. "Either way, companies with rapid top-line growth are worth a premium price."

Consider Qualcomm (QCOM), which was founded in the mid-1980s with a mission to make it easier to communicate in remote areas. Qualcomm developed a satellite communications system, initially to help truckers track their fleets, and started patenting its technology. That technology is now a cornerstone of wireless communications. The San Diego company earns royalties from wireless-phone makers all over the world. "Qualcomm is platform-agnostic," says analyst James Ragan, of Crowell, Weedon & Co. "You don't have to care who wins the cell-phone wars; it makes chips for all the operating systems."

Qualcomm's shares stumbled in late April, after the company issued an earnings forecast that wasn't quite as rosy as some analysts had expected. As a result, the stock is now in bargain territory, selling for 14 times estimated earnings for the fiscal year that ends in September.

Search star Google (GOOG) is another giant with sizzling revenues and profits. The undisputed leader in Internet advertising promotes innovation by giving its employees the equivalent of one day a week to work on their pet projects, some of which the Mountain View, Cal., firm turns into new products and services. As a result, Google is now into everything from e-mail and maps to cars that drive themselves and eyeglasses that double as mobile computers.

But Google has never become so distracted by new ventures that it ignores its core business of Web search and advertising. Google's first-quarter revenues soared 31% from the same period in 2012, and profits jumped 16% -- the vast majority coming from Web ads. The stock sells for 18 times projected 2013 earnings, a reasonable price-earnings ratio for a company that's expected to produce earnings growth of 15% annually over the next few years. UBS analyst Eric Sheridan thinks the stock will hit $945 in a year.

At the other end of the size and profitability spectrum is Angie's List (ANGI), the vetted listing of service-provider reviews launched by an Ohio woman who was frustrated in her search for a good contractor. Angie Hicks ramped up national expansion after offering shares to the public in November 2011. Now based in Indianapolis, Angie's List has spent a fortune on advertising to get a firm foothold in major markets around the country. The outlay is necessary to introduce the service to the roughly 30 million households that are seen as potential paid subscribers to the site, which already boasts some two million clients.

Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler thinks the number of memberships could easily triple over the next few years, feeding a virtuous cycle. Subscribers become reviewers of the people they hire. As the site accumulates more reviews, it becomes more valuable to both subscribers and paid advertisers. Unlike Yelp, where advertisers complain of "too many tire-kickers," Angie's members are serious buyers, Kessler adds. That has led to dramatic growth in the number of contractors willing to buy ads and helped fuel stunning revenue growth, from just $90 million in 2011 to an estimated $247 million this year. The company is losing money, but analysts expect Angie to earn 31 cents a share next year and 89 cents in 2015.

Like Qualcomm, Aruba Networks (ARUN) is all about keeping people connected. However, Aruba's goal is to help companies keep their workers connected with their colleagues on a variety of devices -- such as computers, phones and tablets -- even when they're on the go or using a personal device. Aruba's products are designed to do that without sacrificing connection speed or the employer's companywide security.

That's a tall order, but analyst Rajesh Ghai, at Craig-Hallum Capital Group, thinks Aruba does it better than even such big, well-known rivals as Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard. Aruba continues to gain market share in a rapidly growing business. That has fueled double-digit revenue growth, including a 22% gain in the first half of the fiscal year that ends in July 2013.

Profits have often been elusive, partly because Aruba must invest heavily to develop new technologies to maintain its competitive edge. But in the quarter that ended January 31, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company earned 4 cents per share, and analysts expect rapid earnings gains in the future. The stock trades at a lofty 27 times estimated 2013 earnings, but Ghai considers the price reasonable given Aruba's prospects.

Cybersecurity has long been a hot topic in government circles, and it has become a Main Street topic as major corporations increasingly see malicious hackers attack their websites. That's created opportunity for Sourcefire (FIRE), a 12-year-old cybersecurity firm that got its start protecting the government from electronic intruders.

Sourcefire develops complex algorithms that try to determine if a Web visitor is malicious. Suspicious traffic is then blocked or sidelined to areas where it can't do damage. The Columbia, Md., company's strong relationship with the open-source community -- a loosely linked cadre of tech wizards who help each other find program glitches and solutions -- also gives it a jump on its more secretive competitors, says William Blair & Co. analyst Jonathan Ho. The stock sells for a sky-high 56 times projected 2013 earnings. However, with both revenues and profits expected to grow by more than 20% annually over the next few years, the stock should still outperform the market, says Ho.

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Boston Scientific, 9 other hot stocks

2:30 PM Boston, Other, Scientific, stocks No Comments

| By Mark Baumgartner, MSN Money

The second-largest supplier of pacemakers and heart stents in the United States appears on an MSN Money list of recommended stocks.

A weak economy and a questionable acquisition have hobbled medical-device maker Boston Scientific (BSX). But Wall Street is heartened by some new products and a chief executive who took over in November vowing to return the company to profitability. While the stock is off about 30% from pre-recession levels, it is up 62% this year.

Austerity measures in Europe and a sluggish U.S. economy have dampened demand for surgical procedures and compelled health insurers and hospitals to press for lower prices and bigger discounts for medical devices. Additionally, well-publicized problems with drug-eluting stents have convinced some cardiologists to become more conservative in administering invasive procedures to treat blocked coronary arteries.

The company is now touting five products that just reached the U.S. market or are in late development that executives say could help put Boston Scientific back on a growth path.

The Natick, Mass., company appears on a daily list created using StockScouter, an MSN Money tool that identifies stocks with strong growth prospects in the near term. All stocks with Scouter ratings of 8, 9 or 10 are considered for the list, which is then shortened to exclude those with a trading volume of less than 50,000 shares a day. The remaining stocks are ranked on the basis of market capitalization, sector membership and whether they are growth or value stocks.

Boston Scientific's stock jumped about 20% in mid-May after the company released clinical-trial data on its implantable Watchman device, designed to reduce the risk of strokes in patients with irregular heartbeats.

Atrial fibrillation patients given the device were 40% less likely to have a stroke, form a clot or die than those getting the blood thinner warfarin, according to a study presented May 9 at a meeting of the Hearth Rhythm Society.

More than 2.7 million Americans and 15 million people worldwide suffer from atrial fibrillation, Bloomberg News reported. The condition causes the heart to quiver instead of beating efficiently, allowing blood to pool and potentially form clots that cause strokes. Boston Scientific predicts a $500 million annual market for Watchman if it gets regulatory approval for sale in the United States. The device was approved for sale in Europe in 2005 and some Asian countries in 2009.

Getting Watchman approved in the United States is a key component of CEO Michael Mahoney's growth strategy. Mahoney, who previously worked at health products giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), pledged to turn around Boston Scientific through innovation, overseas expansion and making operations more efficient.

Mahoney took over just as Synergy, a drug-eluting stent, was approved for sale in the European Union and shortly after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration OK'd sale of the company's S-ICD, the first heart defibrillator that can be implanted under the skin instead of connecting directly to the heart.

Mahoney has pledged to speed up innovation at the company and expand markets for its products. He has said he sees significant opportunities to increase international sales, particularly in China, Russia, India and Brazil.

Mahoney has been forced to deal with the significant rise in long-term debt incurred when Boston Scientific acquired stent-maker Guidant in 2006 after a bidding war with Johnson & Johnson. Many analysts at the time said Boston Scientific paid too much for Guidant. The subsequent downturn in sales and prices, while largely the product of an ailing economy, has continued to cast the deal in a negative light.

Although best-known for its cardiovascular and cardiac rhythm products, Boston Scientific also makes devices used for electrophysiology, endoscopy, pain management, urology and women's health. It has some 13,000 products sold in about 100 countries.

The company's sales force, active in about 40 countries, has been pared as part of a restructuring that was started in 2011 and renewed this year. The latest payroll cuts were made, in part, in anticipation of a new medical device tax from the U.S. health care overhaul to help pay for coverage of millions of uninsured people. The 2.3% tax on sales of devices used mainly by doctors and hospitals is expected to collect more than $29 billion from the industry over 10 years.

Five of the 18 analysts covering the company rate the stock a "buy" and 13 have a "hold" recommendation.

Boston Scientific has a StockScouter rating of 10, meaning the stock is expected to significantly outperform the market over the next six months with less than average risk.

Here at MSN Money, we think our StockScouter rating system is about as good as it gets when you're trying to decide where to invest. StockScouter looks for stocks whose business fundamentals, price behavior, valuation and stock-ownership characteristics appear to predict a rising price in the future, based on how those factors have influenced stock prices in the past.

The system assigns each stock an expected six-month return and balances that return against the stock's expected volatility. Scouter rates stocks on a scale of 1 to 10, and ratings can change daily. Ratings and data in the chart above were current as of this article's publication date.

In addition to the daily top 10 list described above, StockScouter is used by investment research firm Verus Analytics (previously known as the quantitative business unit of Gradient Analytics) to generate a monthly benchmark portfolio of stocks that, refreshed monthly, has outperformed the market since its inception in August 2001.

An investor who began in 2001 by investing in each of the benchmark portfolio's top 10 stocks at the start of the month, selling them at the end of the month and then starting fresh with a new group of 10 stocks, would have generated returns, before trading costs and taxes, of 890% through May 31, 2013.

Writer Jon Markman, at the time a columnist for MSN Money, collaborated with company researchers on the tool. Markman suggested rolling over the top 10 stocks every six months to hold down trading costs, a strategy that might be a better fit for most investors; that would yield different results, which would vary based on your starting point.

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