The Sun's Financial Diary

When Uncle Sam wrote that $85 billion dollar check to save AIG last night, he probably didn’t expect this to happen on the Wall Street today: a nearly 450-point plunge of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The government’s effort failed miserably. Not only the $85 billion bailout didn’t prevent AIG’s share from plummeting another 46%, [...]

So Lehman is gone and Merrill is swallowed by BoA. Over the weekend, two of the four largest investment banks disappeared from the Wall Street (the fifth, Bear Sterns collapsed in March). Though many small investors may not use Merrill Lynch as their stock broker, the fall of the two big brokerage firms reminds us [...]

Last time the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index lost more 500 points in a single day was almost 7 years ago on September 17, 2001, shortly after the terrorist attack that brought down the World Trade Center. Today, the stock market was hammered by what happened not far away from where the towers used to [...]

I have complained many times in the past the ugliness of Zecco’s interface. Not just because of its main color is gray, but also it’s difficult to use in general. Among the brokers I am using now or have used in the past, Zecco’s interface is probably the worst. Every time I use it, I [...]

I gambled today again on Washington Mutual (WM). Two months ago, I bet on Freddie Mac (FRE) when the stock was traded below $7. For a company like Freddie, I thought that was an attractive price. That trade was proven to be as bad as it could be: The $100 I spent on the stock [...]

Seven months ago, I made part of my Zecco account a “play account” with a small amount of play money in it. For most of the stocks I purchased, I have hold them for quite a long time and have gone through the ups and downs through out the years. I am still planing to [...]

Yesterday, financial stocks led a broad rally after the government’s effort to support the mortgage market by bailing out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Today, however, all the gains from yesterday were gone and the Wall Street was again dominated by fears of the financial sector. This time it’s Lehman Brothers (LEH)that brought [...]

About a year ago, I looked at the performance of small-cap funds and compared it with S&P 500. The topic interested me because I am a fan of small-cap funds and have been buying them since I started investing in mutual funds. The last time when I checked the asset allocation of my portfolio, small-cap [...]