Superhero Buffet vs. Economic Kryptonite by Jack Crooks Dear Subscriber,
I can't help but lead with this Bloomberg.com headline ... even though it has little to do with me or currencies: Buffett's Berkshire Has AAA Debt Rating Cut by Fitch You mean to tell me the "Oracle of Omaha," the "Investor Extraordinaire," didn't have the market savvy to change tack and drive his precious Berkshire to tighten up their exposure and shore-up their risky investments? It seems the financial world can't go a day without finding this chosen one's name saturating the media. And his company now loses its triple-A rating? I believe the phrase is: Man, oh man. I mean, I'm not surprised that Berkshire is undergoing challenges during such tough times. But based on the superhero status the investment crowd has bestowed upon Warren Buffet, you'd think he'd be able to at least pull his own company from the jaws of misery. Nope. Even investment icon Warren Buffett is having a tough time coping with the turbulent stock market. It's A Whole New Ball Game To be partially fair, this investing environment is eluding some of the most tuned-in stock market participants. It's almost become a full-time job trying to predict the buying opportunity of a lifetime in the stock market. It's not a game of here's what company looks good; it's a game of here's what company is going to look good, we hope. Forget the fact that headlines are highlighting the potential that GM and Citigroup become delisted from the Dow because of dismal share performance. Sure, shares of many companies are trading at fractions of the prices they fetched a year ago. But you want to know what? Five dollars per share can be halved just as easily as fifty dollars per share. In other words, be careful. Or shake things up and get your money in currencies. If you've got time and the funds, then buying stocks at current levels may be fine, assuming you don't get stuck in shares that cease to exist in three months. But if you need to be proactive with your money, then struggling to time the bottom in stocks probably isn't the approach you should be taking. Not when currency instruments are offering all kinds of opportunities in the meantime. Just as the shifting sands of the global economy have shaken up equity markets, they're influencing currencies, too.
