Fortunately my portfolio management methods don’t revolve around  frequent trading.  One of my kids came up to me recently and said, “What did you do today, Dad?”  I said, “I made one trade, and I did a bunch of research.”  He then asked, “How often do you trade?”  I answered, “That was my first trade in a week, and I haven’t traded much in the last two months, but that’s not normal.  There is no normal for me. When the market is really volatile, I trade a lot more, selling when stocks are rising, and buying when they are selling off.  When the market is relatively placid, I don’t do much.” He looked at me, kind of smiled, and moved on.  Information overload from Dad. Most people and investment managers trade too often.  They sell their winners too rapidly, and panic too soon on their losers.  Now, I’m not advocating “buy and forget,” or Buffett’s statement, “Our favorite holding period is forever.”[More...]

Carry trades use to be one of the most popular trading strategies for retail forex traders, but in the past year, that has changed significantly. The Japanese have always been the biggest buyers of carry trades but having been burned significantly, they are finally starting to cut their losses. According to the latest data from [...]

Teleflex Incorporated engages in the design, manufacture, and distribution of specialty-engineered products for medical, aerospace, and commercial markets in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. It operates in three segments: Medical, Aerospace, and Commercial.TFX is not a dividend aristocrat, but a member of the dividend champions. It has been increasing its dividends for the past 30 consecutive years. From 1998 up until 2007 this dividend growth stock has delivered an annual average total return of 6.90 % to its shareholders. <img alt="" src="http://www.istockanalyst.com/images/articles/tfx.gif20087400smal [More...]

from Catherine Horner of Theflyonthewall.com

Supreme Court Patent Ruling Has Wide-Ranging Effects

Patents are not typically the most exciting branch of the law -- they've yet to come up with a Law & Order: Patent Infringement. But the April Supreme Court decision on KSR International v. Teleflex Inc. (TFX) is still making headlines three months after the fact. The ruling turned on the definition of "obviousness," a cornerstone doctrine of patent law established in 1851 which stated that a patent needed greater "skill and ingenuity [than] an ordinary mechanic acquainted with the business" would have. Post-KSR, a patent is deemed obvious if a person with general knowledge of the relevant subject can "fit the teaching of multiple patents together like pieces of a puzzle." As almost all litigated patent cases deal with claims of obviousness, KSR is being called one of the most important patent rulings in history.

Indeed, just three months after the decision was announced, KSR is already being invoked in patent hearings across the country. Last week, San Francisco federal judge William Schwarzer dismissed a patent-infringement lawsuit against RealNetworks Inc. (RNWK) which he had previously allowed to proceed. Schwarzer is believed to be the first trial-court judge to reverse his position and dismiss a case in the defendant's favor while citing the KSR ruling. When asked about the meaning behind the KSR decision, Schwarzer replied "Patents are being issued on obvious inventions, and [the Supreme Court] tightened the reins." Schwarzer's decision on the RealNetworks case is hardly the only instance of KSR's effects on patent lawsuits. In the wake of the KSR ruling, the International Trade Commission agreed to review a decision that pronounced 24 companies in violation of Seiko Epson Corp. (SEKEF) ink cartridge patents. KSR is also being invoked in the ITC battle between cell phone chip makers Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) and Broadcom Corp. (BRCM). Qualcomm urged the ITC to respect the precedent set by the Supreme Court and dismiss as obvious Broadcom's patents on its 3G cellphones. Although the ITC sided with Broadcom, banning the importation of cell phones containing Qualcomm chips, Qualcomm is now calling for a Presidential veto of the ruling.

Companies like Qualcomm facing patent-infringement lawsuits are clearly happy with the RealNetworks' ruling and can only hope that more courts will follow Judge Schwarzer's citing of KSR. More such decisions would give companies a leg-up on patent-licensing and holding firms, which buy patents in order to collect royalties on alleged infringement, and encourage such firms to settle disputes as opposed to risking a court case which could result in a complete invalidation of their patent. As Dennis Crouch of the University of Missouri pointed out in a recent Wall Street Journal article, "Patentees have long had the upper hand in patent litigation but the KSR case has shifted that balance of power back to defendants." The Journal also pointed out that, with the increased flexibility granted to judges in determining the obviousness of patents, companies with large lobbying and litigation budgets, as well as good public relations, are more likely than ever before to influence court decisions. It's already evident that the KSR ruling will have big implications for the future of patent law.