My final Saturday report for 2013 means there can be only two really important questions to tackle. The first has to be: can I build the case for stocks next year, again! And second, if 2014 is another up-year,..

I have to say I love Christmas, and I especially love it when Santa arrives in the nick of time with an end-of-year rally. Our market is up over 200 points since Thursday last week. And I loved waking up this m..

US-dollar earning global companies will lead the ASX next year, which is why Charlie’s stock picks are all of those things plus more.

Read this if you want to know some golden rules for investing and how to play the investment markets next year.

It’s been a big week of revelations for me. The overdue correction, or pullback, that we’ve endured on our market has finally spread to the USA. It now looks like a Santa Claus rally, which turns up 80% of ..

In the first of a two part series, Charlie shares his forecasts for 2014 and explains why it’s time to rotate into wealth managers, property developers, building materials, steel, transport, infrastructure co..

Even if the share market doesn't hit our forecast of 5500, if you followed our advice, you would have still made a bucket load.

When I woke up at five o’clock this morning, the Dow was up 198 points and I was caught in a market dilemma. Based on that market reaction, I thought: “Must have been bad news on the jobs report”. However..

Ben Griffiths, from award-winning small cap fund manager Eley Griffiths Group, explains why this aged-care accommodation provider and developer’s move into manufactured home estates (MHE) is a story worth bel..

Takeovers are all the rage at the moment, and the best advice on how to make money out of them came from none other than the late Rene Rivkin.

It’s Black Friday in the US and it’s not December 13 - that comes next week - which means the Yanks will get two Black Fridays in two weeks! No, this is not a calendar freak out. It’s just that in America..

As good trustees we know that we need to examine our portfolios on a regular basis and rebalance or reallocate when necessary. This is what we are doing now.

It’s time to look outside the big players when it comes to yield. Here’s a list, which includes Ruralco, Ardent Leisure and Hanson, that was put together by the experts.

One of my most important tasks in my working life is to be a human thermometer, perpetually checking the heat of the stock market so I can, hopefully, alert all my subscribers and financial planning clients whe..

It’s the question on everyone’s lips – when will QE start? It won’t be far away and there will definitely be stocks to benefit. Find out below why QBE is one of them.

Fed boss-in-waiting Janet Yellen is delivering her Christmas presents early, but that doesn’t mean the party is over. There will be plenty of stocking fillers left!

When I was a youngster with long, blonde hair - yep, there was a time - there were two surf clubs and two surfer clubs at the iconic Bondi Beach. There was Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, allegedly the oldest club..

There are plenty of factors unique to Australia that underpin the property led East Coast recovery. Companies like these three are set to benefit, even if the rest of the analyst community are not so sure.

While there may be a few ups and downs along the way, I'm with Tanya Branwaite, who's expecting a slow grind higher for the world and local economy.

Well blow me down — Wall Street went higher on a miles better than expected jobs report that has now brought the prospect of tapering from April to possibly December!

The majority of analysts are completely wrong on CBA, according to Charlie, who predicts a share price of well over $80.

It might be a lame argument, but there is a possibility that we could really be heading into a new paradigm. Here are the reasons why.

Wall Street not selling off, a shooting in LA airport, a drone takes out a Taliban leader, insurance companies cancel millions of health policies because of Obamacare and Halloween zombies takeover the subways ..

Things are looking brighter for the Australian consumer, which means we might all be spending more come December. JB Hi-Fi will be the best placed stock to benefit.

When things start looking good, the pessimist in us gets jumpy. While the market has been particularly strong, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re in for a correction. In fact, the reverse might be true.

The working week began with a car trip up the Hume Highway, leaving the Melbourne marriage of my son, which went off like a dream, behind. However there was a fatherly price to pay — Dad volunteered to drive ..

Following on from Barrie Dunstan’s analysis earlier on Monday, our intrepid analyst Charlie, is even more convinced of the growth profile of Telstra, after a meeting with management.

Don’t believe everything you read in the financial papers. You need a healthy dose of scepticism to interpret some of the opinions that are being bandied about at the moment.

It’s Caulfield Cup day in Melbourne but the Switzer clan won’t be focusing on Gerry Harvey’s Royal Descent in the Cup or his mate John Singleton’s Dear Demi in the big race. We’ll be fully engaged wit..

Just because a stock is unloved doesn’t mean it isn’t a good buy. In fact the trick to finding outperformance is finding these companies before anybody else does. Charlie explains why four laggards, and esp..

In these abnormal times of low term deposit rates, there shouldn’t be any further RBA cash rate cuts, so there’s only one way to go, and that’s up!

Looking at this week on the stock market, all I can say is “what just happened?” I know it was a 2008 movie starring Robert De Niro but what we saw unfold in Washington, and then later on Wall Street, was t..

The stars are aligning for Qantas, with bottom up fleet efficiency initiatives combining with an improving domestic economy. Charlie Aitken says Qantas is a “strong buy” under $1.50 – his target is $3.00.

With the US government in shutdown mode and concerns about a debt default looming, a market analyst has predicted a 13% pullback in stocks.

guess the Yanks are getting what many of us have often asked for — a shutdown of government — but, when you see it in reality, you just can’t believe it.

The Switzer Super Report income and growth-oriented portfolios both outperformed a nine-month gain in the ASX200 Accumulation Index of 16.22%, by 3.2% and 4% respectively.

Self managed super funds seem to be everybody’s favourite enemy, but they are actually doing retirement savings a service. The self-interested big guns need to lay off.

This week saw Tony Abbott maintain his ‘Get Smart-style’ cone of silence, though he did come out of his bunker to kick Christopher Pyne up the bum for alluding to a potential break of a promise on uni-stude..

The Queensland vision is looking bright after a few years of headwinds, which means it’s time to look outside the Big Four for bank exposure.

Pundits are predicting at least another two years for this bull market but that doesn't mean there won’t be hiccups along the way.

Just when we thought the Fed’s delay of tapering was taking us off to the races, a hurricane of headwinds looks to be brewing that could upset the expected profitable trip to the ‘track’. And two of headw..

Can you pay yourself a benefit out of your super fund with an asset of the fund instead of using a cheque, cash or electronic funds transfer?

Tony Abbott wants to become the “infrastructure” prime minister, which means its time to own companies like Leighton, Lend Lease, Downer EDI and Boral.

Investment fads and trends come and go, but there’ll always be a place for income-paying investments.

Friday the 13th came five hours early for me with my Thursday Switzer program on the Sky News Business channel attacked by a gremlin in the computer system, so my show didn’t happen!

A new government means the beginning of a new business confidence cycle with companies exposed to discretionary spending – travel and entertaining, marketing/advertising and telecommunications/IT – set to b..

We never stay down for too long. All consumers eventually head back to the shopping malls, which means the outlook appears bright for the market.

After a week that ends the longest stretch of pre-election dread in our history, and one that has been dragging on since January 30, the big day has dawned.

As we head into the silly season, it might just be time to call the end of austerity. A pick up in confidence should see us all spending more on food, liquor and electronics, come December.

As the hoopla continues around the election, it’s a good time to consider the common sense advice of one of the best investors in the world.

Broker sentiment on Woolworths is poor, but that could be because analysts believe it has to be an either/or with Wesfarmers. Here we explain why sometimes it’s worth being a contrarian.

It’s ok to be a glass half full kind of person, if you understand the risks. This week we take a look at when the tapering might ease, and why it’s such a big deal.

NAB and Suncorp are proving that you can resurrect yourself if you have good management that focuses on what you’re good at.

There are plenty of pundits – including Treasurer wannabe Joe Hockey and investment guru Mark Carnegie – who think we might be headed for a fall, sooner rather than later. But is this really the case?

Coffey and Bradken have already announced their results and while solid, they do not have a convincing percentage of their order book contracted and underway.

It’s that time of year again. The time of year that global markets take a holiday from reality, regardless of what else is going on. Here is what you can do about it.

Binding nominations do not automatically apply to SMSFs so you need to make sure your estate planning is in order if you don’t want one miscreant member to make off with all the funds.

PM Rudd has finally called the election and come September 7, regardless of who wins, some finality should return to policy and hopefully the market.

Is Woodside a resource stock or an industrial manufacturing stock, which could produce a fully franked dividend of 7%? Charlie’s answer will surprise you.

It’s the age-old question, when is it time to lock in a low fixed rate, if ever? While most of the time you’re probably betting against a team of boffins at the bank, there are a few instances, like now, wh..

Charlie Aitken joins Peter Switzer for an exclusive chat about what’s driving the market and stocks that he likes.

The telecommunications giant has plenty of factors stacking up in its favour, not least of which is the growth in the use of smart phones.

Paul Rickard was the founding CEO and managing director of CommSec and chairman until 2009. He started up his SMSF just four years ago and hasn’t looked back.

The millionaire’s factory may still be a factory of millionaires but its business model has radically changed since the GFC, which means shareholders could be getting two for the price of one.

Commonwealth Bank has everything in its favour, including a massive funds management arm and the biggest online stockbroker in Australia.

The rumours of the demise of the mining boom have been greatly exaggerated, according to head of research at Kimber Capital, Greg Fraser. Here he explains why Fortescue Metals will still prosper.

QBE overcame a major hurdle earlier this week when chief executive John Neal outlined an increasingly positive cost out story for the company. ‘Top down’ has just met ‘bottom up’.

Sometimes, when it comes to your SMSF, you need to take a long-term view and focus on the income, just like you would when buying an investment property.

As many of us woke up this morning with something resembling a hangover, the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is preparing for action. But does it mean anything at all for superannuation policy?

It’s still buying time and dollar-cost averaging into the market on down days is a good way to gain continued exposure to the best opportunities.

A double-whammy has hit our stock market today, with the Federal Reserve in the US set to taper QE and weak manufacturing data out of China. So are we in the buy zone?

Volatility is set to continue on the share market but don’t despair, it could be the perfect opportunity to get back in, if you’re prepared to look around for good value stocks.

A new IPO, the Domus US Multifamily Real Estate Fund does just what its name suggests – it’s a REIT formed to invest in multifamily residential real estate. But it’s proving to be a difficult deal. Here�..

With the stock market dropping 9.25% in recent times, this could be the buying opportunity Switzer has been talking about.

As the Aussie dollar begins to waver, it brings home the message that if diversifying overseas, you’ve got to think long-term. Here are five funds offering great prospects of doing a good job investing overse..

A big dump on Wall Street on Friday could have been the pros selling, but whether or not they “go away” will depend on a rash of data out this week in the US. Wait for that data before buying in again.

The government has abandoned proposals that would have made off-market transfers much harder.

The market hasn’t had a good start to the week but is this the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? Smart SMSF investors know that a market lull can also be a buying opportunity, if timed correct..

Mature investors understand there will always be disagreement over stocks, otherwise there wouldn’t be a market. Here’s the other view on BHP.

Roger Montgomery is a very respected stock analyst but not all analysts are right all the time. We see BHP as a buy.

Question: I should like to invest in Index Linked Bonds (ILB) and Indexed Annuity Bonds (IAB) but cannot find brokers who offer these instruments. Can you please advise where to purchase? Answer: Thanks for t..

Budget night was pretty much a snooze after the government announced all of its super changes a month ago. Pay attention to the Budget reply tonight, as there might be more chance of those policies being adopte..

We know that forecasting is a mug’s game, but we think we’re better than most when it comes to getting our calls right, and that means you shouldn’t have too much to worry about in tomorrow’s budget.

Telstra is at almost double its November 2010 share price, but it could be in for a fall, with brokers quoting a much lower target price – for now.

Sentiment is mixed on the fate of the BHP share price, even between two of our experts Peter Switzer and Roger Montgomery. Here’s the case for a buy.

Our growth-oriented and income portfolios have had a good start to the year. For the first four months to April, they have outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index by 1.5% and 4.6% respectively.

As we head into that month where everybody likes to sell and then go on vacation, it’s time to look at the factors driving the US market, and therefore ours, and decide whether or not it’s a good time to do..

Primary Healthcare has been dogged by its expensive 2008 acquisition of Symbion, however the future is starting to look brighter.

Chinese economic growth wasn’t as strong as expected but is it really something we need to worry a lot about? The answer might be in understanding who is talking it down, and why.

Coming into May, it’s worth taking a look at one of the most talked about phenomena on markets. Is it true, or just an old wives’ tale?