Category: Online Stock Trading Software

Continuing the series of articles on the world economy, today our focus will be on Canada. Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world in terms of landmass after Russia. In addition, Canada is a sparsely populated country with the largest portion of the country’s population living in close proximity to its southern neighbor the United States.

The March Madness basketball fever is about to reach its zenith for the year with the culmination of the NCAA basketball tournament championship. With the final game being played on April 2, it appears the madness will extend into the month of April; hence the term “March Madness” may now give way to “March-April Madness”.

In article, “CME Buying CBOT”, we analyzed Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) purchase of CBOT (BOT), and in article, “CME Bull Put Spreads Strategy – Returned +7.5% in Feb. 07”, we illustrated the profit potential of a bull put spreads strategy for CME and we selected positions for options expiration in March of 2007, which returned a very nice +10.5% in 22 days.

In recent articles, we have focused on Japan, “Land of the Rising Sun is Looking Up”, and on Mexico, “Cure for Montezuma’s Revenge – Covered Calls”, and today we will examine Germany. Signup now for PowerOptions free 14-day trial Germany has the third largest economy in the world after the United States and Japan. After World War II, Germany was split into the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). In 1990, the two countries were reunited into one country.

There is speculation in the air about whether Ford will retain its majority ownership of Jaguar and Land Rover as the formerly 2nd largest car manufacturer announced it will no longer be the majority share holder in the Aston Martin luxury brand. Some analysts feel the time may be right for Ford to get an attractive bid for its luxury brands.

A team of corporate leaders from Exxon Mobile (XOM) met with the president of Guyana this week as the oil companies try to elbow and box out their competitors. It is expected border disputes with neighboring Suriname will be cleared up by the UN shortly, and this will clear the way for companies to invest in off shore drilling.

U.S. productivity slowed in the fourth quarter of 2006 and labor costs were on the rise. Nonfarm productivity increased only 1.6% the last quarter of 2006, significantly down from the original estimate of 3%. Unit labor costs increased 6.6% in the last quarter, significantly up from previous estimates of 1.7%. This bodes well for the temporary staffing industry. As the labor market tightens and labor costs rise, companies will shift to staffing with more temporary labor. And when the economy slows down, as it always does, temporary staffing will allow companies to more easily reduce their workforces.

On the heels of an announcement the company would no longer actively lobby for Cervical Cancer Vaccine Laws, Merck (MRK) announced it is raising its first quarter earnings estimates.

Is this an aberration? Are energy companies really yielding to environmental demands? Texas Utilities (TXU), the Texas energy giant, has scrapped plans to build 11 coal fired power plants and will give a 10% price cut to many of its residential customers.

In the article, “Visa – Plastic Money – IPO”, we analyzed the credit card industry and illustrated how profitable a covered call strategy for credit card companies can be. In article, “Making Money on Credit Returns +4.3% in Dec 06”, we selected two covered call positions for MasterCard (MA) for January stock options expiration and both positions were profitable returning an average of +4.8% in only 22 days! The credit card covered calls investment strategy has worked so well we will try it again for next month’s stock options expiration. Using PowerOptions SmarSearchXL stock options search tool, we found the following position for stock options expiration in March of 2007: