Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of November 19, 2013?

Article Excerpt

A new stock issue is what you have when a company first sells stock in itself to the public. As a general rule, it pays to avoid them. The reason is straightforward. New stock issues tend to come to market when it’s a good time for the company or its insiders to sell. That’s not necessarily, and often isn’t, a good time for you to buy. In fact, it’s often a bad time for you to buy. Unfortunately, investors seem to focus on the rare new issue that seems to start out with a flash of instant success. Twitter is a recent example. It shot up 74% on November 7, its first day of trading. The problem is that Twitter-style successes are extremely rare among new issues. When they do come along, brokers reserve them for their best and biggest clients. Some conservative investors look on Twitter’s initial success as a bad omen. They think it’s a sign that we’re in…