Archive for the ‘BCM in the News’ Category

The following article is posted courtesy of AUSTIN WOMAN MAGAZINE and features Melanie Johnson of Beck Capital Management…

Managing money poses special challenges for women, but these 10 tips can help you get on the road to financial independence.

by S. Kay Bell

Everyone, regardless of gender, needs to have a financial plan. But women do have some special needs.

In most cases, women make less money than men in the same positions. Women tend to take more time from work to take care of family. That not only inhibits job promotion and the accompanying raises, but also reduces our contributions to pensions and Social Security. And less retirement savings are a big problem, since statistically, women live longer than men.

Read the rest of this entry »

Louis Rukeyser – interview date Oct 16, 2008; publish date Oct 20, 2008. Top of page 2, I recommended avoiding financials (financial index is down over 34% since that day), buying gold (up over 65% since), and under “What to Buy Now” I suggested FCX (+200%), MCD (+49%), YUM (+%), and APL (+327%), all included dividends paid. During the same time frame, the S&P 500 is up 48%.

To read the article, click here:

October 17, 2008
Bonds, Baseball King
MarketBeat HOME PAGE

By David Gaffen
Rob Curran reports:

The U.S. stock market is so rough that even Major League Baseball players are scared — and stockpiling government-guaranteed bonds.

Frank Beck manages money for professional baseball players and other heavyhitters as chief investment manager at Capital Financial Group and affiliate Pro-Player Investing in Austin, Texas. During the summer, Mr. Beck reduced stock weightings for his sports clients to about 25%, positioning about 50% in cash, with 6% in gold bullion and the remainder in bonds.

Recently, he started buying his clients agency mortgage bonds, the securities sold by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that are now guaranteed by the government.

Among stocks, Mr. Beck likes natural-gas pipeline operators structured as dividend-paying master-limited partnerships. These companies, like Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP and El Paso Pipeline Partners LP have sold off sharply with natural gas — even though their business models are more dependent on volumes than prices of natural gas. Plus, they pay a generous yield — 12% in the case of Boardwalk Pipeline, and 9% in the case of El Paso. Read the rest of this entry »

August 6, 2008  – Beck Capital was 50% cash and Frank suggested avoiding banks.  He said there would be choppy waters for 6-8 months while the adjustable-rate, subprime loans that were written from September thru December in 2006, would be adjusting from their 1% levels to 7% and the loans had grown while the home values shrank. The S&P 500 was at 1283 that day and exactly 7 months later it bottomed at 667.  In March of 2008, while the government began a near trillion dollar stimulus, Frank wrote a Forbes article (see March Forbes) proclaiming the massive government spending would inflate all markets.

September 11, 2008 – Still liking cash, WMT, MCD, YUM (for growth in Asia) and avoiding the consumer

November 12, 2008 – “tip-toeing” back into the market, we are buying companies below book value or at very low price-to-book, with continuing strong earnings and buying very discounted bonds.