What We're Reading

Forgetting your wallet at home may no longer be a problem when picking up prescriptions or incidentals, as the nation’s biggest drugstore chain Walgreens and other major retailers partner with Apple and its new mobile payment system. Apple’s new mobile payment system — Apple Pay — could certainly make life for consumers much easier. But the move also makes the iPhone a virtually indispensable — and invaluable –piece of property that will be even more vulnerable to security risks if lost, stolen or hacked.

Walgreens, Target, Staples, McDonald’s, Sephora, Starbucks, and Groupon are among the 12 retailers to accept Apple Pay in October. The system was unveiled Sept. 9 along with the latest iPhone and the highly anticipated Apple Watch.

Apple Pay will allow consumers to pay for items using near field communication, a wireless technology that transmits payment information from the mobile device to a store’s checkout system. The SIM card in the mobile phone, which stores users’ personal in

Companies would expect their investment firm, especially management and Senior members, to not only dissuade insider trading, but to lead by example.  Here's a complete failure.

Case in point Mr. Michael Anthony Dupre Lucarelli.  The Director of Market Intelligence at a Manhattan-based investor relations firm.  Market Intelligence?  Serious oxymoron going on there?  Maybe not an oxymoron such as "honest politician" or "almost pregnant" but snake in the grass, no doubt (allegedly).

Today the SEC charged the "Director" of insider trading by more than a dozen clients.  The charges were filed against Mr. Lucarelli alleging he garnered nearly $1 million in illicit profits.

An SEC investigation and ongoing forensic analysis of Lucarelli’s work computers uncovered that he repeatedly accessed clients’ draft press releases stored on his firm’s computer network prior to public announcements.  The SEC alleges that Lucarelli, who had no legitimate work-related reason to access the draft press r

Over the years, I've read over and over again that consolidations in an uptrend were a healthy phenomenon. Inability to break down meant investors (basically) have every faith in a companies abilities and find value at the current price.  After a consolidation (the longer the better) a move higher would come.  Let's look a few examples: (click all charts to enlarge)

AAPL is very well known for it's consolidations, or taking a "rest" before moving higher as this weekly chart reveals.  Investors clearly believed in their innovation and were willing to add to positions during these consolidation periods; thus holding up  the price and holding the range.   That's called appetite, right there.

In fact, the longer the consolidation, the greater the move holds true; especially when you take a look at the biotech ETF IBB.  After it's debut as a new ETF, investors found value in it at $40 and began to accumulate.  After a brief reversal up, held it in consolidation for an amazing eight year