Plan Your Strategy: Are you an income or a growth and income investor? Are you looking to minimize taxes as a priority or do you value liquidity? Before the Great Recession -2 I had a husband and wife who drove me nuts. They changed their investment strategies almost every quarter from income to growth to tax managed. They even got their accountant into the game who suggested I minimize taxes without selling current assets. The fact is they didn’t have a strategy and just wanted whatever struck their fancy at the moment without selling or buying anything. When they left to return to their previous broker I breathed a sigh of relief. Investors should have a plan more than just making more money than they did the year before.
Ask yourself the question- What’s important to you? Dividend income? Liquidity? Speculation? Minimum taxes? Preservation of principal. 
Once you know what you want stick with the plan. Don’t fixate on preservation of principal and then get bent out of shape when the markets roar ahead. But if you do change your plan make sure you follow through. And if you don’t really have a plan there is always the default non-spoken, unwritten plan that is to perform as well as the broader markets. You’ll always have that.
Sunday’s July 21st WSJ reported that the long awaited ‘acceleration’ in the U.S. economy has once again been stalled. 
Previous forecasts were particularly optimistic, said Tara Sinclair, a George Washington University economist. Both the retail and restaurant industries have seen signs of weakness in growth and hiring. 
Some One’s Got to Do It. 2013 Best and worst investments year to date according to Bloomberg posted Saturday July 13th.
- Best Large Cap Stock- Tesla Motors
- Best International Stock-Tokyo Electric Power Company
Yes, that power company! - Worst International is Spanish Bank Bankin SA.
- The worst US stock is Newmont Mining Company.
It’s Back to Growth & Income Funds for The Foreseeable Future.
The Summer of The Non-Consumer!
U.S. retail sales rose 0.4% in June and just 0.1% excluding autos. According to Aaaron Task in The Daily Ticker, July 15th, the report raises questions about the strength of the consumer, the US economy and the timing of any Federal Reserve tapering. Jeff Macke notes that the death of the US consumer are always premature. In a same day video report Macke wouldn’t give up on the U.S. consumer just yet. With both Wal-Mart and Target not providing same store sales data the governments data is the best indicator and that’s probably flawed, Macke said.
The Ben Bernanke Soothed Markets by Saying Nothing. The Fed Chief testified to Congress this past week and stressed that rates would stay low for a long time. But as previous Administrations learned the Fed may have very little to do with interest rates. The Federal Reserve may have an official line in the sand but that doesn’t mean investors cannot and indeed have caused rates to rise and fall.
Bob Pisani at CNBC Friday the 19th of July reported that the Stock Market reached new highs despite some big earning misses.
Google, E-Bay, Intuitive Surgical, Microsoft, Honeywell, General Electric and Intel all missed. Financials hit the ball out of the park with low rates assisting banks bottom line.
But, as Pisani reported, earnings were not great overall (up 3.6% this past quarter). Revenue was flat. The Federal Reserve tailwind isn’t what it used to be. And global economic data, and to some degree, U.S. economic data was and is not robust enough to instill confidence (going forward).
Finally- Earnings may get bumpy this week, according to Marketwatch.com on July 21st. McDonald, Ford, Starbucks, GM, Netflix, Apple, Dupont, Dow Chemical, Boeing, United Technologies, Corp., Caterpillar and 3M to name a few will be reporting. The key will be consumer based, wrote Wallace Witkowski.
Last week multi-nationals had a rough go while more domestic earning companies beat expectations.
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