3 Stocks Rising on Big Volume

DELAFIELD, Wis. (Stockpickr) -- Professional traders running mutual funds and hedge funds don't just look at a stock's price moves; they also track big changes in volume activity. Often when above-average volume moves into an equity, it precedes a large spike in volatility.

 

 

Major moves in volume can signal unusual activity, such as insider buying or selling -- or buying or selling by "superinvestors."

 

Unusual volume can also be a major signal that hedge funds and momentum traders are piling into a stock ahead of a catalyst. These types of traders like to get in well before a large spike, so it's always a smart move to monitor unusual volume. That said, remember to combine trend and price action with unusual volume. Put them all together to help you decipher the next big trend for any stock.

 

 

With that in mind, let's take a look at several stocks rising on unusual volume recently.

 

KEYW Holding

 

KEYW Holding (KEYW), through its subsidiaries, provides mission-critical cybersecurity, cyber superiority, and geospatial intelligence solutions to the U.S. Government defense, intelligence, and national security agencies, and commercial enterprises. This stock closed up 5.5% to $10.70 in Monday's trading session.

 

Monday's Volume: 1.27 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 601,773

Volume % Change: 108%

 

From a technical perspective, KEYW ripped higher here right off its recent low of $9.98 with above-average volume. This stock has been downtrending badly for the last two months and change, with shares sliding lower from its high of $23.09 to its recent 52-week low of $9.98. During that downtrend, shares of KEYW have been consistently making lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. That said, shares of KEYW are now starting to rebound off its 52-week low of $9.98 with strong upside volume flows. This move could be signaling a trend change is in the cards for KEYW in the short-term.

 

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in KEYW as long as it's trending above Monday's low of $10.31 or above its 52-week low of $9.98 and then once it sustains a move or close above Monday's high of $11.15 to some more near-term overhead resistance at $11.50 with volume that hits near or above 601,773 shares. If that move kicks off soon, then KEYW will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $13.35 to its 200-day moving average of $14.37.

 

InterMune

 

InterMune (ITMN), a biotechnology company, focuses on the research, development, and commercialization of therapies for pulmonology and orphan fibrotic diseases in North America and Europe. This stock closed up 13.4% at $38.92 in Monday's trading session.

 

Monday's Volume: 11.92 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 3.56 million

Volume % Change: 350%

 

From a technical perspective, ITMN gapped sharply higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $32.38 with heavy upside volume. This monster spike higher on Monday pushed shares of ITMN into breakout and 52-week-high territory, since the stock took out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $36.71 to its former 52-week high of $38.73. Market players should now look for a continuation move to the upside in the short-term if ITMN manages to clear Monday's intraday high of $39.90 with strong volume.

 

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ITMN as long as it's trending above $37 or above Monday's low of $35.85 and then once it sustains a move or close above $39.90 with volume that this near or above 3.56 million shares. If that move starts soon, then ITMN will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that move are $45 to $50.

 

Guidewire Software

 

Guidewire Software (GWRE) provides system software to the property and casualty insurance industry primarily in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and internationally. This stock closed up 4.6% at $37.57 in Monday's trading session.

 

Monday's Volume: 1.14 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 673,646

Volume % Change: 96%

 

From a technical perspective, GWRE ripped higher here right above its recent 52-week low of $33.66 with strong upside volume flows. This stock has been downtrending badly for the last two months and change, with shares moving lower from its high of $58 to its 52-week low of $33.66. During that move, shares of GWRE have been making mostly lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. That said, shares of GWRE are now starting to rebound off its 52-week low of $33.66 with bullish upside volume flows. This spike higher on Monday could be signaling that shares of GWRE are ready to enter a new uptrend in the short-term.

 

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in GWRE as long as it's trending above Monday's low of $35.68 and then once it sustains a move or close above Monday's high of $37.84 to some more near-term resistance at $39.91 with volume that hits near or above 673,646 shares. If that move begins soon, then GWRE will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $43.30 to its 50-day at $43.85, or even its 200-day at $46.58.

 

To see more stocks rising on unusual volume, check out the Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume portfolio on Stockpickr.

 

-- Written by Roberto Pedone in Delafield, Wis.

 

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>>5 Stocks Set to Soar on Bullish Earnings

 

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>>5 Rocket Stocks Ready for Blastoff

 

Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

 

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

 

Roberto Pedone, based out of Delafield, Wis., is an independent trader who focuses on technical analysis for small- and large-cap stocks, options, futures, commodities and currencies. Roberto studied international business at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and he spent a year overseas studying business in Lubeck, Germany. His work has appeared on financial outlets including CNBC.com and Forbes.com. You can follow Pedone on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zerosum24 or @zerosum24.

Little-Known Billionaire's Book is the Holy Grail for Investors

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBillionaire Seth Klarman. Among the tattered cookbooks and celebrity biographies at thrift stores and yard sales, you might find financial books whose advice on investing once seemed relevant but now just seems silly. However, the next time you find yourself in this situation, take a closer look, because you might also find the Holy Grail of investment books. Boom and bust cycles in the economy and the stock market often give rise to short-sighted investing theories which financial writers try to exploit. Perhaps the best example is "Dow 36,000," written by Harvard-educated journalist James K. Glassman in 1999 at the height of the dot-com bubble, which predicted a 300 percent rise in the market within 10 years. We're still waiting, James. 'Margin of Safety' It is very rare to find an investing book that stands the test of time, and perhaps the rarest of the rare in that category is "Margin of Safety," written in 1991 by billionaire investor Seth Klarman. Long out of print, less than 5,000 copies of this hardback book exist, and used copies regularly go for $2,500 or more online. The book is divided into three sections: "Where Investors Stumble," "Value Investing Philosophy" and "The Value-Investment Process." He explains his motivation in the introduction:

Investors adopt many different approaches that offer little or no real prospect of long-term success and considerable chance of substantial economic loss. Many are not coherent investment programs at all but instead resemble speculation or outright gambling. Investors are frequently lured by the prospect of quick and easy gain and fall victim to the many fads of Wall Street. My goals in writing this book are twofold. In the first section I identify many of the pitfalls that face investors. By highlighting where so many go wrong, I hope to help investors learn to avoid these losing strategies. For the remainder of the book I recommend one particular path for investors to follow -- a value-investment philosophy.

Warren Buffett Is a Fan If you think that some of this sounds familiar, you might be right. Klarman, 56, is often called the "Warren Buffett of his generation," and Buffett is said to have a copy of "Margin of Safety" on his desk. But the connection between Klarman and Buffett doesn't stop there. Both run multibillion-dollar funds; both use the concepts pioneered by legendary value investor Benjamin Graham when evaluating their investment portfolios; and Klarman's name has long been floated by Berkshire Hathaway shareholders as a potential successor to the Oracle of Omaha. Klarman has had an impressive financial career which, unlike Buffett's, has largely gone unnoticed by the public and financial media. A product of Cornell and Harvard, where future CEOs, GE's (GE) Jeff Immelt and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), were among his classmates, Klarman initially worked for Franklin Templeton Funds before starting Baupost Group in 1982. Baupost manages more than $25 billion in client funds and has an astounding performance record, averaging 20 percent annual returns since its inception. Numbers like that consistently rank Klarman in the top 25 highest-earning fund managers by Forbes, with his total compensation for 2013 coming in at $350 million and net worth estimated to be $1.3 billion. How much of that net worth is comprised of unsold copies of "Margin of Safety" is unknown, but fortunately, you don't have to have big bucks in order to read it, as it's available online in PDF version for free.

Stocks Going Ex-Dividend on Friday, April 11 (ABBV, ABT, More)

Ex-dividend dates are very important to dividend investors, since you must purchase a stock prior to its ex-dividend date in order to receive its upcoming dividend payout. For more information, check out Everything Investors Need to Know About Ex-Dividend Dates.

Below we highlight seven big-name stocks going ex-dividend on Friday, April 11.

1. AbbVie Inc.

AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) offers a dividend yield of 3.32% based on Wednesday's closing price of $50.63 and the company's quarterly dividend payout of 42 cents. The stock is down 2.6% year-to-date. Dividend.com currently rates ABBV as “Recommended” with a DARS™ rating of 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.

2. Abbott Labs

Abbott Labs (ABT) offers a dividend yield of 2.34% based on Wednesday's closing price of $37.63 and the company's quarterly dividend payout of 22 cents. The stock is down 1.57% year-to-date. Dividend.com currently rates ABT as “Neutral” with a DARS™ rating of 3.4 stars out of 5 stars.

3. Trinity Industries

Trinity Industries (

Hong Kong stocks fall on liquidity concerns

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Hong Kong stocks opened lower Tuesday, after China's central bank reportedly drained 48 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) from the money market on Tuesday through bond-repurchase agreements. The Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI) moved lower by 0.3%. Banks retreated, as China Merchants Bank Co., (HK:3968) (CIHHF) declined 2.2%, Bank of Communications Co. (HK:3328) (BKFCF) fell 1.6%, China Minsheng Banking Corp. (HK:1988) (CMAKY) lost 1.4%, and China Citic Bank Corporation (HK:998) (CHCJY) dropped 1.2%. China's Dongfeng Motor Group Co. (HK:489) , currently in negotiations to buy a stake in PSA Peugeot Citroen, suspended trading of its H-shares in Hong Kong markets. The state-owned car maker didn't clarify the reason in the announcement. On Monday, the company said in a filing that its commercial-vehicle unit has been served with a request for arbitration by a Brazilian firm, which is seeking damages of approximately 1.67 billion Brazilian reals ($700 million) for Dongfeng's failure to establish a joint venture with the firm. On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index (CN:SHCOMP) gave up 0.5% to 2,125.54.

Market Comeback Fails: It’s Never Enough

The bad news: Major stock indexes finished lower today. The good news: The damage was not as bad as it could have been, as Walt Disney (DIS), International Business Machines (IBM), 3M (MMM), Walgreen (WAG) and Genworth Financial (GNW) rose.

Bloomberg

The S&P 500 fell 0.2% to 1,751.64 today after falling by as much as 1% earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, finished little changed at 15,440.23 after falling by as much as 0.7%.

Instinet’s Frank N. Cappelleri assesses the half empty/half full trading day:

…it was good seeing 1740 hold, but I would have like to have seen yesterday’s high broken on this afternoon’s strength, as well…The more times the market fails at leveraging this oversold condition, the higher the likelihood that this current pattern turns into another bearish flag formation, in my opinion. We’ll just have to see of the bulls can follow through on the demand that did appear today.

U.S. Bank Wealth Management’s Terry Sandven isn’t worried by the market’s recent weakness:

In our view, equities seem likely to continue to trend higher in 2014, but at a more moderate pace compared to 2013. Following the recent price decline, the risk/reward profile has arguably improved. The extent to which the extreme cold weather conditions have negatively impacted the economy near term is not likely to be determined until after another round of readings are released between now and early March. This may imply a generally sideways-trending market in February as investors maintain a wait-and-see approach.

Shares of Walt Disney rose 1% to $71.76 ahead of this evenings results (it beat), while International Business Machines gained 0.8% to $174.24 and 3M advanced 0.5% to $127.36 after announcing a new plan to buy back its stock. Walgreen gained 3.4% to $57.85 after its same-store sales rose 2.9%, beating analyst forecasts, while Genworth Financial advanced 2.8% to $14.93 after beating earnings.

Economic Outlook 2014: Hopes for big step forward

The economy abounds with hopeful signs as the new year arrives, enough that the Federal Reserve will begin to put its easy-money punch bowl on a higher shelf by trimming its bond purchases this month. But after five years of crisis, recession and an aren't-we-there-yet recovery, we don't fully trust the signs.

And that's why Mesirow Financial economist Diane Swonk sums up the outlook in a nutshell:

"2014 could be the breakout year,'' she says. "This is the year when we're going to find out.''

Find out what?

• Whether young adults who have put off forming households finally move out of Mom and Dad's, giving housing construction a needed boost.

• Whether the economy can really grow at an annual pace of 3% to 3.5%, generating 250,000 jobs a month and pushing unemployment to near 6% of the workforce, once freed of the drag from higher federal taxes and spending cuts that depressed 2012 and much of 2013.

• Whether the torpor of the last few years, in other words, was simply a bad hangover from an especially nasty, debt-fueled recession — or whether the economy has entered a sluggish New Normal, where 2% to 2.5% annual growth and a 7%-ish unemployment rate are as good as it gets.

2014 STOCK OUTLOOK: Can mighty Wall St. bull keep charging in the new year?

5 RISKS: Potential problems that could derail the bull market

For the first time in years, forecasters got the U.S. economy basically right in 2013. The consensus outlook said the private economy would grow 3% or more, while a shrinking government would cut as much as 1.5 percentage points off growth, either directly or indirectly, leaving the overall economy growing 2% or so.

That's what has largely happened, at least until a fall surge in spending and hiring raised hopes before the final numbers are calculated.

November data were better-than-expected across the board, with hiring and retail sales beating forecasts and unemployment dropping to 7.0% for the first time in five years. And! a big upward revision in data on the economy's third-quarter growth, announced Dec. 20, to 4.1%, suggests the push began sooner.

The optimism, as always, is qualified. The bull case depends on a sustained upturn in housing, as prices that are rising, if more slowly than in early 2013, spur significantly more construction to match the ongoing surge in auto sales. That's an especially big factor in the South, where half of new homes are built. But to get there requires better wage gains to support home payments and consumer confidence as interest rates rise to more normal levels — and those wage gains have only recently begun.

Here are four reasons to expect growth to pick up — and four more to worry that it won't.

1. The housing recovery seems real this time.

The top reason the recovery feels different this year is that housing is on more solid footing. The big question is, exactly how solid is it?

The biggest missing gap in the job market is that construction employment is down 1.9 million from 2007, including 1.4 million in home building and related categories. With total private-sector employment only about 700,000 below the peak — and manufacturing output back to setting all-time highs — the importance of housing is clear.

2014 forecasts for housing starts run from just under 1 million to as high as 1.35 million, up from about 950,000 in 2013. Moody's Analytics estimates each extra start is worth about 4.5 jobs, though rival consulting firm IHS says it's closer to three (Moody's includes more of the workers in ancillary industries, such as home-improvement stores). A housing market near the high end of forecasts could generate a million new jobs, pushing unemployment down by 0.7 of a percentage point or more.

2. State and local governments have healed.

One of the biggest changes in 2013 was that state and local governments went from firing people to hiring again, adding 127,000 workers through November on a base of about 19 million. That's! because ! their spending turned slightly higher in the second and third quarter, the first two-quarter gain since the recession. Coming out of the last three recessions, state and local governments added 150,000 to 200,000 jobs a year, on a smaller base.

The state and local government recovery has room to grow more. Outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke pointed to one reason in his final press conference Dec. 18 — in the last three recessions or their immediate aftermath, government employment actually rose. This time, governments have shed about 1.1 million workers since 2010.

3. Falling energy prices and slower increases in health care costs are keeping inflation low.

The collapse in medical inflation since 2007, and the containment of total health spending it helps to enable, is one of the best things the economy has going for it. Medical inflation is at a 50-year low, with prices rising just 2.2% in the last 12 months. With the most important cost-containment measures in the Affordable Care Act just beginning to be implemented, it stands to stay low. That lessens a key cost pressure on businesses — and may free up more money to pay higher wages. Also, energy prices have fallen 4.8% in the last year, the government says, helping both household budgets and corporate income statements.

4. Washington has shut up — mostly.

Economist Joel Naroff's favorite political joke is that "the only thing we have to fear is Washington itself.'' And Washington's actions did cut growth nearly in half in 2013 by many estimates. But budget cuts coming this year are much smaller, shrunk even farther by the budget deal reached in December that reworked automatic spending cuts mandated by a 2011 law. Plus, no major tax increases are planned. Compared with 2013, less Washington drag on the economy could mean an additional percentage point or more in growth.

Four reasons why the economy won't break out:

1. Washington is not that good — and we still have the debt ceiling.

Federal! spending! cuts will still shave a few tenths of a point off GDP growth this year — reducing the growth rate about 0.3 percentage points, Naroff said. The main risk from D.C. early in 2014 is that there may be another showdown over the debt ceiling. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Republicans want concessions for raising the borrowing limit before March — but haven't decided what.

2. Capital investment is low.

Growth in spending on business equipment, the category of investment most closely tied to boosting productivity, plunged to near zero by the third quarter from a double-digit pace in 2010 and 2011, helping to fuel a $2.2 trillion "investment gap,'' of money not spent since 2007, according to the Progressive Policy Institute. Next year, it's expected to grow just 3.1%, the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation says. That's versus double-digit percentage gains in 2010 and 2011.

This problem may evaporate by the second half of the year, especially if consumer spending sustains its recent pickup into early 2014, Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius argues. Historically, capital spending has depended on consumer spending and credit availability — and both are improving, he says.

3. Interest rates will rise this year, which may slow the housing recovery.

As the Federal Reserve reduces and eventually ends its $85 billion of monthly bond purchases, mortgage rates are likely to rise — just as they did in the summer, when the Fed first hinted at the so-called "taper.'' In 2013, that blip caused momentum in the housing recovery to stall briefly.

With the average rate for 30-year mortgages now 4.48%, up from 4.1% in late October, and the National Association of Realtors projecting that they will rise another percentage point next year, it's too soon to know whether higher rates will slow the hoped-for construction boom. New-home sales and construction data from the fall suggest not. But it's a risk that bears watching.

4. Wage growth is still tepid! , and a r! ecent improvement is not well-established.

After a long decline, wages and personal income have turned higher in late 2013. The hope is that workers will get better raises as unemployment falls toward 6%. But the average gain in the last 12 months is just 2% — enough to offset the expiration of the payroll tax holiday last January, but no more than that.

If employers keep the upper hand in wage talks, that hurts consumer spending and home buying — and risks another year of sluggish growth. Goldman's Hatzius says consumer spending can sustain its recent gains with inflation-adjusted wage gains around 2%, because rising household wealth and an improving jobs market let consumers save less without taking a risk.

If wages rise faster, that would be the icing on the cake, Hatzius says. Higher wages and more plentiful jobs might also prove key to people forming more households, buying more homes, and even having more babies and spending more on diapers and clothes, Swonk said. The recession and its aftermath didn't just change how people shopped — it changed how they lived, she said. A lot depends on whether young people who have struggled to build careers and begin families amid the post-2008 mess move on with their lives, she says.

We'll find out beginning this week.

Oil futures slip ahead of U.S. inventory data

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures pulled back on Tuesday as investors await weekly data on U.S. crude supplies.

Crude oil for January (CLF4)   fell 20 cents, or 0.2%, to $97.28 a barrel in electronic trading.

Oil prices on Monday rose 88 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $97.48 a barrel, on the prospect of tighter supplies after Libyan rebels refused to open three oil ports .

The American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly inventory report later Tuesday, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, followed on Wednesday by weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Shutterstock.com The mix of plant chemical fertilizer and manure on farmer hands.

U.S. crude oil stocks are expected to have fallen 4 million barrels during the week ended Dec. 13, according to oil analysts surveyed by the Platts.

Crude supplies have fallen more than 16 million barrels during the past three reporting weeks.

Meanwhile, U.S. distillate stocks are expected to have fallen 1 million barrels last week, while gasoline stocks are estimated to have increased 1.4 million barrels, the Platts survey said.

In other trading on Tuesday, Brent crude for January delivery (UK:LCOF4)   climbed $1.63, or 1.5%, to $110.46 a barrel.

January gasoline (RBF4)   inched up less than 1 cent to $2.65 a gallon, while January heating oil (HOF4)   was unchanged at $2.99 a gallon. January natural gas (NGF14)   added 1 cent, or 0.3%, to $4.29 per million British thermal units.

Don’t let retirement stress marriage: Plan to b…

Author and former financial planner Frank Maselli tells a story of a man who retired and went home to spend his days with his wife. It didn't take long for him to become a major intrusion in his wife's world. He told her the way she did everything was wrong, even the garden she had tended for 25 years.

"She had to kick him out of the house," he said. "She made him get involved with a charity group and start going to the gym."

It's a huge adjustment to shift from spending two or three hours a night to spending all day together, says author and psychologist Robert Bornstein. "It happens all at once. It would be nice to go from full-time to half-time to quarter-time, but that's not how it works."

"Take the normal stress of a transition into retirement," says Maselli, "and throw in the fact that your wife can't stand seeing you all day."

People are working with financial planners to make sure that they will have enough money to retire. But what they are not doing, retirement experts say, is preparing psychologically for retirement. And as a result, three big problems are popping up.

First, retirees without any kind of a plan are just going home to their spouses with nothing to do and causing stress in their marriages. "We are the first generation who is going to live 30 years in retirement," says Maselli, who is based in Raleigh, N.C. "We are not prepared financially or emotionally. It will be a major issue."

Second, people who have been working for 30 or 35 years are suddenly home with absolutely nothing to do. "You lose a ready-made social network," says Bornstein. "We don't think about it that much. Much of your daily social contact comes from the office. When you are no longer going into the office, it's not uncommon for people to discover that they have few or no friends."

Third, says Bornstein, people underestimate the loss of status and self-esteem that comes from working. "So many people identify with their career or the company they own," he says. "Their pr! ofession and their identity are intertwined. The two are one and the same, So when they retire and separate, it is a loss from an emotional standpoint."

All three issues could be contributing to a record divorce rate among Baby Boomers. But the resulting stress can easily be avoided if people retire with a plan, retirement experts say. And foremost in that plan, set a schedule and make plans to do something ... anything. Just do not sit around with the TV remote.

"Most couples don't prepare well psychologically for retirement because they are so focused on financial and housing issues, which makes sense," Bornstein says.

Joe Heider, managing principal for the Ohio region for Rehmann Financial, says the issue reminds him of the Chevy Chase vacation movies. "It's kind of like being on a permanent family vacation. There is a lot of stress being with each other 24/7. All those things that were annoying suddenly became difficult — if they don't have hobbies."

"A big depression sets in with a lot of guys," Maselli says. "It's a major problem. You've worked for years. They give you a gold watch. Then what? What happens to that emotional intensity? It goes into me arranging my wife's spice drawer."

Heider says it can be a dangerous time. "I have seen clients who have developed serious drinking problems because they're bored," says Heider. "Happy hour used to start at 5:30; now it starts at noon. Retirement can be a wonderful thing. But depression, drinking, drug issues — they are all symptomatic of people bored and their lives have lost meaning for them."

Financial planner Brad Zucker, president of Safe Money Advisors in Las Vegas, says before people retire they need to find their passions. "Retirement could last 25 years," he says. "You want to be certain you have some kinds of interests and passions to make it through those years." Zucker says he has one client who turned his love of baseball into becoming an assistant coach for a high school baseball team — at 71.

Mase! lli teaches a program he calls "Never Retire," which deals with the psychological transition into retirement. "We actively tell people and teach people how to restructure their lives — not to retire," he says. "Start a business. Don't think about slowing down.

"You want to relax," he says. "That goes away in a week." He says retirees should think about mentoring, teaching, board memberships ... anything to keep busy. And make those necessary contacts before you retire.

Heider says retirees should also consider volunteering as an option. "Volunteer your expertise to whatever you were doing," he says. "Spend time mentoring a young entrepreneur. It gives them something meaningful to do with their time."

Retiree George Milonas, 84, of Las Vegas says he gets up every morning on schedule. "It's like going to a job," he says. His passions are sports, horse racing and playing the slots. And that works for him because he has the funds to do that, he says.

Janet Taylor, psychologist and a consultant with AARP's Life Reimagined program, says the success and well-being of couples in retirement depends on their pre-retirement planning. "Plan early; communicate expectations; and recognize what the existing demands are," she says.

"Initially, retirement might involve understanding and accepting changes in your personal privacy," Taylor says. "After a few months there is some normalcy and some understanding. But give yourself time to adjust to that."

But start planning early. "Rule No. 1 is to start thinking about this now," says Maselli. "What are you going to do? What kinds of things will you be doing together? How much time can you stand each other together? How will you structure your day so that you are out of the house?"

And how did it end for the husband who got kicked out of the house?

"He learned to stay active, and his wife learned to be patient with him," Maselli said. "The charity work led to more community involvement. But the gym thing never caught on."!

Rem Rieder: Time to rein in NSA surveillance

It takes a true optimist to think that Congress in its current state could accomplish anything worthwhile.

The recurring government shutdown threats when it's time to pass a budget or raise the debt ceiling hardly inspire confidence. Nor do the lawmakers' inability to pass even relatively modest gun control legislation in the wake of an appalling series of mass murders, or to enact desperately needed immigration reform.

But that's no excuse to give up. As the great Pink taught us, you've got to get up and try.

And so four senators, led by Ron Wyden, D-Ore., last week introduced legislation that would rein in the National Security Agency's rampant surveillance campaign revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Good for them.

The bill would:

• End the bulk collection of telephone records of American citizens, the overwhelming majority of whom have no ties to terrorism or other nefarious deeds.

• Scale back the PRISM program, under which the government can obtain people's digital records from major Internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

• Make the supersecret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court somewhat less secret, declassifying its major opinions and for the first time creating an independent advocate who could serve as a counterweight to government demands.

• Allow private companies to be more open about instances when they are asked to share information about the communications of American citizens.

Of course, I wouldn't advise you to bet the rent money that the bill will become law anytime soon. But the sheer fact that it is on the table shows how much the climate has changed in the wake of the Snowden tsunami.

Even die-hard supporters of the surveillance, like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, are jumping on the reform bandwagon. Feinstein and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., are also drafting legislation, although their proposal is likely ! to nibble around the edges rather than be as far-reaching as Wyden's.

RIEDER: Snowden affects House vote on phone records

We've come a long way since June, when Feinstein said Snowden was guilty of treason and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, labeled him a "traitor," while commentators who should know better were dismissing him as a slacker and a loser. Public opinion surveys have shown real concern on the part of the American people about the extent of the government snooping.

There's no doubt Snowden broke the law by releasing classified information. And if he ever tires of his Russian redoubt and returns to the U.S. — don't wager heavily on that, either — he would and should face prosecution.

But I give him credit for the way he released information, not via a massive, indiscriminate document drop but by working with respected news organizations, including Britain's Guardian newspaper, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

On Sunday the Times had another Snowden special, on the NSA's efforts to track the social connections of U.S. citizens.

We live in a dangerous world, and it's obviously important that intelligence agencies do their utmost to protect us. But it's also vital that they do it, well, intelligently — and ethically.

The wholesale collection of the communications records of ordinary citizens, authorized without their knowledge, is just not the way to go in a free society. Spy away on the bad guys, sure, but with appropriate safeguards.

And it's not clear what, if anything, we have gotten in return for the erosion of our privacy. As The New York Times reported last week, "Officials have struggled to identify terrorist attacks that would have been prevented by the call log program, which has existed in its current form since 2006."

Sadly, there are some who remain in denial about this troubling episode. At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last week, defenders of the surveillance fell back on that time-dishonored stra! tegy of b! laming the messenger. NSA Director Keith Alexander and Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said the furor was due to shoddy reporting by the news media.

But most people know better. And let's hope, ultimately, pressure will build for meaningful reform.

As Wyden said in a speech in July, "If we do not seize this unique moment in our constitutional history to reform our surveillance laws and practices, we will all live to regret it."

Great Credit Crunch Issues Remain Five Years After Start

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This week marks the fifth anniversary of when the banking regulators finally realized that the Great Credit Crunch was a real and current danger to the banking system and hence the U.S. economy.

Today, the National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, reports its Housing Market Index for September. The reading for August was a multi-year high of 59, well above the neutral 50 reading. This reading was just 17 and on the way to a record low of 8, in January 2008.

Five years ago, the federal funds rate was at 2%, lowered to that level on April 30, 2008. On Oct. 8, the rate was cut to 1.5% then to 1% on Oct. 29, and then to 0% on December 16, where it remains today. In my opinion, this rate should never have been taken below 3%, as savers have been pinched for five years now.

In mid-September 2008, initial jobless claims were 488,000 and this statistic did not peak until March 2009, at 651,000. Last week, this reading was below 300,000. The four-week moving average was 321,250, below the recessionary threshold of 350,000. The "too big to fail" money-center banks began to get bigger in January 2008, when Bank of America (BAC) bought Countrywide Financial. Then in mid-September, it took over Merrill Lynch. Next week, the company gets booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, despite being up 56.2% over the last 12 months. [Read: Our 401(k)s Show We're Not Taking Investor Confidence Seriously ] JPMorgan Chase (JPM) took over Bear Stearns in March 2008, after the Federal Reserve stripped out the toxic assets. Then in late-September, it added Washington Mutual. JPMorgan is the only money center and major regional bank with a buy rating, according to ValuEngine, but it appears to be on the cusp of a downgrade to hold. Today the banking giant faces a fine of up to $800 million in settlement of the legal issues associated with the $6 billion loss from the "London Whale" trade. Citigroup (C) appeared to have added Wachovia in an FDIC-led merger on Sep. 29, 2008, but was left at the merger altar when Wells Fargo (WFC) bought Wachovia with a much better bid on Oct. 3, 2008.

Last week, on Sept. 9, I wrote JPMorgan Upgraded as Banking System Heals, where I showed that the "too big to fail" banks continue to get bigger. As a foursome, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America control about 44% of the $14.41 trillion total assets in the banking system.

Also on Sept. 9, I wrote, Housing Bubble Is Re-inflating and on Wednesday morning, we will get the latest reading on single-family housing starts, which is the key statistic for the homebuilders. Higher home prices, higher mortgage rates and continued tight lending standards for C&D loans for builders and mortgage loans for home buyers could result in a slowdown in the housing market.

On Sept. 10, I wrote, Bank Earnings Rise, but Not Real Estate Lending and on the same day we learned that the "too big to fail" banks were experiencing a significant drop-off in mortgage originations, and the foursome announced significant job cuts in this business line.

[Read: Wall Street's Concerns on Apple Are Misplaced] A key statistic that has been ignored on Wall Street and in the media is the fact that the FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile for second-quarter 2013 showed a mark-to-market loss of $51.1 billion in fixed-income securities in the "available for sale" category. So far in the third quarter, U.S. Treasury yields have moved even higher, so this mark-to-market is likely growing. On Sep 11, I wrote, Community Banks With CRE Loan Exposures, where I showed 90 publicly traded banks that were still overexposed to CRE loans. I followed up this story on Sep. 13 in, Umpqua Holdings Buys Sterling Financial; Sterling Financial (STSA) was on my list of 90 that I profiled in this post. Sterling had a buy rating, according to ValuEngine. Last Friday, the FDIC closed First National Bank, Edinburg, Texas, using their bank failure procedures. This bank was not publicly traded, but it illustrates the problems that remain in the banking system. First National had $3.28 billion in assets at the end of the second quarter, with $341 million in C&D loans on its books. Its C&D to risk-based capital ratio was 314.4%, well above the 100% regulatory guideline. Its CRE to risk-based capital was 1,214.1%, well above the 300% regulatory guideline. The CRE loan commitments were 94.3% funded. This failure cost the FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund $637.5 million.

[Read: Behind the Ethanol Scandal ] At the end of fourth-quarter 2010, First National Bank had $3.83 billion in assets with $622 million in C&D loans on its books. Its risk ratios at the end of 2010 were 181.0% and 492.7%, respectively, with a pipeline 90.7% funded. Clearly an overexposure to CRE loans caused its demise.

The FDIC has slowed down the bank failure process. Only 25 in 2008, 140 in 2009, 157 in 2010, 92 in 2011, 51 in 2012 and only 22 so far in 2013. That's a total of 487 bank failures, with more to come. My ongoing prediction has been that at least 500 failures would occur before the Great Credit Crunch comes to an end.

An ignored victim of the Great Credit Crunch has been Main Street USA. We see a higher cost of living as the costs of home and health insurance rise, while family incomes slip. Even with a five-year U.S. Treasury yield up to 1.6%, most big banks offer savers only 0.8%. The big banks have also raised rates on loans to small businesses. The best rate you can get on a credit card is about 12%. Explain that, given a 0% federal funds rate. At the time of publication the author held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned.

Follow @Suttmeier This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

Richard Suttmeier has an engineering degree from Georgia Tech and a master of science from Brooklyn Poly. He began his career in the financial services industry in 1972 trading U.S. Treasury securities in the primary dealer community. In 1981 he formed the Government Bond Department at LF Rothschild and helped establish that firm as a primary dealer in 1986. Richard began writing market research in 1984 and held positions as market strategist at firms such as Smith Barney, William R Hough, Joseph Stevens, and Rightside Advisors. He joined www.ValuEngine.com in 2008 producing newsletters covering the U.S. capital markets, and a universe of more than 7,000 stocks. Richard employs a "buy and trade" investment strategy and can be reached at RSuttmeier@Gmail.com.

Workers Think They’re Maxing Out 401(k)s at $8,000

The IRS announced Thursday that the annual contribution limit for 401(k)s will remain unchanged at $17,500 for 2014, but it’s not likely to affect participants’ contributing behavior. The son-to-be-released Mercer Workplace Survey found that the average participant believes the deferral limit is $8,532, almost half the actual limit. That gives them the dangerous perception that they’re close to the maximum contribution when they’re actually far from it.

Mercer found that respondents expect to contribute just under $7,500 to their 401(k) plan in 2014.

“Plan sponsors need to do a better job of communicating the total opportunity employees have when contributing to their 401(k) plan,” Dave Tolve, U.S. leader of Mercer’s defined contribution administration business, told ThinkAdvisor on Monday. “When you start to dig into it further and start to think about the different demographics, it’s important for plan sponsors to communicate specific to their different employee demographics.”

Tolve blamed automatic features for at least some of the problem. “Automatic enrollment is pretty pervasive in 401(k) plans today. It’s great for getting employees to start contributing, but it often leads to inertia where many employees say, ‘This is great. I’m enrolled in my 401(k) and I don’t need to do any more.’”

Tolve referred to past Mercer research that shows people who contribute at the default level tend to contribute less than people who actively make a decision to contribute.

“Automatic enrollment has its place,” he said, “but it’s important to communicate to employees that there’s a lot more room to contribute beyond the default.”

Automatic escalation isn’t a perfect solution, either. “It’s a great feature, but it alone is not enough," he said. "A lot of plans will start someone at 3% and increase by 1% per year. That’s better than that employee not enrolling at all, but there’s an additional step that a lot of plan sponsors ignore, and that’s letting them know that there’s a much greater opportunity in 401(k) plans and they should be saving more.”

Another contributing factor is sponsors overemphasizing the company match as a target deferral rate rather than encouraging them to contribute as much as they can, regardless of the level their employer will match, Tolve said.

Tolve acknowledged that for some participants, saving the maximum allowable contribution just isn’t realistic. “Someone who makes $30,000 a year, it might not be feasible to contribute $17,500, but it would benefit higher-paid employees for plan sponsors to communicate to them the much greater opportunity to contribute to their plans.” There was little difference in expected contributions by age group. The 18 to 34 age group anticipate contributing $7,535; 35- to 49-year-olds said they would contribute $7,667, and 50- to 64-year-olds expect to contribute just $6,673.

“It’s surprising to see among older employees, especially among those over 50 who can add in the catch-up contributions as well,” Tolve said.

Another drawback to small contributions, Mercer noted, was that participants aren’t taking advantage of the tax efficiency 401(k) plans provide. More than a third of respondents said they would increase the contributions they made in the last year if they could, even though most respondents are saving in other plans as well as their 401(k).

“Our historical survey shows us that people who work with financial advisors have much higher levels of confidence in their ability to retire when they want to, their ability to maintain their lifestyle in retirement and their ability to leave money for their heirs,” Mercer said.

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Check out 4 Things for Fiduciaries to Consider With IRA Rollovers on ThinkAdvisor.