As sales of blockbuster drug Acthar begins to crack Mallinckrodt (MNK) is in desperate need of a new narrative. Management is trying to sell investors on the idea that it can generate new products from its R&D pipeline. In the meantime it is also looking to diversify its revenue and earnings stream via acquisition. Last…
With 2018 fast upon us, we can’t help but look back on the past 12 months, a year that was a whirlwind politically, socially, culturally, and economically. While the U.S. dealt with everything from natural disasters and gun violence to protests about racial inequality and the sexual harassment reckoning, the stock market reached extraordinary highs….
While there are many factors that determine option prices, stock option premiums move in unison with the underlying stock price. The most popular method for determining option value is the Black-Scholes Model. There are six factors in this model: Stock price is the most important factor in an options price as changes in stock price…
The Canadian dollar is at an interesting juncture. Strong economic data has strengthened the currency but the Bank of Canada (BoC) has applied brakes on the currency’s rally. The Canadian dollar weakened in the wake of policy statements in October and December. The last word of 2017 went to the economic data as hot inflation…
2017 has just ended so it is a good time to make predictions for 2018. However, the problem is that I do not make predictions – I have no crystal ball and no idea what will happen this year. The only thing I can do reliably is to look at the current state of a…
Did you know U.S. stocks rose in 2017? We didn’t. Because the “dishonest media” never talked about it. If you exclude every major financial news network and if you also don’t count CNN Money or Fox News or any other American media outlet, literally no one mentioned record high stock prices. We had no idea…
I spent a lot of time in the 2017 End of Year Special Edition looking back across 2017. I covered some of my best charts and market/macro calls of the year (and some of the worst!), along with my favorite charts, and a few other things. But this article provides a look at the most important part of…
Early in 2017 I made a prediction. I knew all year long that we would see one analyst after another try to call a top in this bull market. I also knew every one of them were going to be wrong. A perma bear bias is a great way to sell newsletter subscriptions, but it…
It seems like every day another financial luminary declares the death of bitcoin… For example, in just the past few months: Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan said bitcoin will ultimately “prove worthless.” Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Stiglitz said bitcoin “ought to be outlawed.” And billionaire investor Howard Marks said cryptocurrencies “aren’t real”. These…
The tax bill recently signed by President Trump should be a boon to corporate America. The bill will drop the corporate tax rate from the current 35% to 21%. But energy companies, which have historically had a higher tax burden than other companies, stand to benefit the most. The Highest-Taxed Sector According to the corporate…
