Festival of Stocks #172

This week we have the honor of hosting the 172nd edition of the Festival of Stocks.  According to the festival’s original sponsor, ValueInvestingNews, “The Festival of Stocks is a blog carnival dedicated to highlighting bloggers’ best articles on stock market related topics. This will include research and commentary on specific stocks, industry analysis, ETFs, REITs, stock derivatives, and other related topics.”  This is the tenth time ModernGraham has hosted the festival, and we are looking forward to hosting it again in the future.

Before I get to this week’s submissions from some of the best financial blogs on the web, I want to take a moment to introduce new readers to our site here at ModernGraham.  Since August of 2006 we have been devoted to the study and modernization of Benjamin Graham’s teachings from his classic book, The Intelligent Investor. Some features you may find interesting include our valuation calculator, where you can estimate the value of a company based on the formula Graham presented, our valuation database, a growing list of companies that we are tracking, and our ValueInvesting Search Engine, a search engine focused on providing content relevant to the value investor.  Please feel free to subscribe to our site, by RSS feed or email, and come back again to use our features.  In addition, we are currently looking for guest authors as well as full-time contributors.  If you are interested, please contact us.

Now, on to this week’s submissions.  There are a lot of great posts included here from some great writers and thinkers.  Enjoy!

Magic Diligence presents Magic Formula Stock Review: McKesson (MCK).   McKesson enjoys a tight oligarchy in its pharmaceutical distribution business, and a highly profitable healthcare software unit adds both margin and growth advantages over competitors. A good Magic Formula buy.

ETF Database presents The Definitive Guide To Inverse Gold ETF Investing.

ZachStocks presents Talecris Bounces Off IPO Price – Strong Growth Potential.   Talecris Biotherapeutics (TLCR) is trading above its IPO price and should gain more strength due to strong earnings. Debt levels are high but strong earnings should bolster the stock price.

Dividends Value presents Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF) Dividend Stock Analysis.   Cincinnati Financial Corp. markets primarily property and casualty coverage; it also conducts life insurance and asset management operations. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

Darwin’s Finance presents Will the ETF be Viewed as Another Financial Innovation Disaster? Could ETFs be the next financial innovation to backfire? While the low fees and tax efficiency seem to be huge wins for retail investors, there are several hidden bombs waiting to explode that we may not have considered yet.

The StockMasters presents Sony Corp.’s PS3 a Big Hit, Also a Big Cost (SNE).

Bargaineering presents Introduction to FOREX Investing.

Personal Dividends presents Disciplined Investing: Value Averaging versus Dollar Cost Averaging.

The Digerati Life presents Where To Invest Extra Cash and Savings Today.

The Dough Roller presents Frontier Markets: To boldly go where few investors have gone before!