All The Reformed Broker

Asset reflation has allowed the US to slowly pull out from the recession, while spending cuts across Europe have crushed recovery, Brown says. Depending on the outcomes of elections in Germany, Europe may begin pursuing much looser monetary policies.

What distinguishes one investor from another is his or her ability to predict what the crowd is about to do next, Brown says. 

Tumbling down in its worst weekly drop of 2013 so far, the S&P 500 fell by 2.1 percent last week. Retail investors, however, bought on a net basis. 

While private clients and institutions are adding to stocks, hedge funds are becoming net sellers, pitching the two groups against each other in a stock market tug-of-war, Brown says. What effect will the opposition between the two groups have on the market in the long run? Brown breaks down the Bank of America Merill Lynch's latest equity flow report.

Financial news can be fraught with superflous news that seeks to explain random events, Brown argues. Savvy investors should read everything with skepticism and remember to pay attention to historical context when they're trying to analyze what the market is doing.

After a booming January through May, US stocks are coping with rising interest rates and concern for overseas markets. Investors should factor heightened market volatility in their decision-making. 

Unemployment rates are slowly falling for all groups, but those who have a college degree are faring better. The recovery for this group looks significantly different than it does for groups with lesser educational backgrounds.

Although the recession is still on the forefront of many investors' minds, Brown says Wall Street is optimistic. The relative stability of asset markets, rise within market charts, and growing compensation of advisors has brought a welcome change in atmosphere to the floor.

The stigma of resigning one's self to hands-off, average returns is almost non-existent now, Brown writes. It would have been unthinkable to investors just fifteen years ago.

Apple has just informed us that they plan to return $100 billion dollars to you, if you are a shareholder, over the next 36 months, Brown writes. If you stuck it out with Apple over the last year, you don't sell last night's news. You stick around.

Europe's leaders may be revisiting austerity policies in the face of slow economic growth and weak public support. Will that lead to concrete changes?

There is still way too much belief that Intel can seamlessly compete in mobile and cloud, Brown writes. Until there are signs that Intel has either truly turned things around, he says there is very little opportunity for an investment.

There is zero correlation between economic growth and stock market returns, Brown writes. They head in the same direction over time, but the stock market and the economy are only loosely related.

The sequester – while short-term painful – will likely prove to be not the worst thing in the world and that the economy, the consumer and corporate profits were able to weather it and make it through to the other side, Brown writes.

US is poised to enjoy the healthiest and most rational era of big mergers and acquisition in a very long time. That's a far cry from the bubbles of yesteryear. 

Apple's 30 percent sell-off was predicted by technicians who study price, Brown writes. Price action, he adds, flashed a screaming sell signal way before the turn in the Apple's business prospects had become evident.

Brown explains his renewed fondness for energy-related equities, despite the energy sector being a huge laggard last year.

Warren Buffett's head-and-shoulders above all other investors stature has only been cemented during this last five years, Brown writes.

Four years after wrongly predicting doom because of the fiscal stimulus, some naysayers are still unrepentant – and wrong.

Investors' moves to ETFs, emerging market debt, and the next generation of high-tech startups are three themes for the new year.