The Aggressive Investor

Article Excerpt

Years from now, I suspect we’ll look back on the Bear Stearns collapse as having happened around the end of the 2007-2008 market downturn. That doesn’t mean the market will turn around tomorrow. The bottom could come in a month or two, or prices could fluctuate around the lows for some time. Even if the bulk of the drop in the indexes has already taken place as I suspect, you need to stay alert for areas of high risk. For instance, many recent new issues may perform miserably in the next few years. At the best of times, we generally avoid new issues, because the odds are tilted against investors. New issues come to market when it’s a good time for the company or insiders to sell. That may not be – and often isn’t – a good time for you to buy. Insiders and underwriters can tart up a new issue – ‘put lipstick on the pig’, as brokers say – so…