The Benjamin Graham number that I have mentioned In a few articles and use in my Dividend Stock Analysis is not a very popular formula. It has even been said that it doesn't paint a good picture of a value stock.. In fact, at any given time, there are not many stocks on the TSX that will actually be under the Graham number. Of course, with the current market situation, just about every stock should be close if not below the Graham number, due to the dramatic fall of stock prices. For anyone who does not know, Benjamin Graham is considered the Grandfather of Value investing. His methods and ideas have been used as a cornerstone or building block of just about every value based investor since he published his book, "The Intelligent Investor". Another thing to note, is that Benjamin Graham is said to have been the mentor of investing great, Warren Buffett.

As everyone keeps trying to call the bottom of the market, it may be helpful to go over some of the more useful, yet likely least understood, leading indicators for the markets. These so called “leading indicators” may not have been traditionally considered good predictors for equity market performance, but each has been very good at telegraphing recent market performance, and will likely be important indicators to watch for any indication that the market is turning the corner.

The Yen-Euro Currency Cross Rate

I received an email from one of our readers the other day regarding Aecon Group Ltd. (TSE: ARE). This reader had some insightful thoughts, which I got permission to share with you, along with this, I thought that I would do some more research on this company and provide you with a Stock Analysis on it. Here is what our reader Mike M. had to say about Aecon.

Well shut my mouth. The market did tank right after the FOMC announcement, (took them long enough to get it out today) but from positive territory, and bounced back out of negative where it remained at a modest gain until the coolest double top ever formed and in the last ten minutes the markets became negative. What a ride!

Aside from new buyers coming to the market looking to call the bottom and short-sellers covering their positions, there may be another reason why equity markets will be rallying into this month’s end – balanced mutual funds.

A typical balanced mutual fund invests 60% of its assets in bonds and money market instruments, and 40% of its assets in equities. The intention of these funds is to keep the 60/40 split as steady as possible in order to maintain this balanced approach to investing. So as markets move, weightings may become out of whack, requiring the fund to rebalance in order to get back to the original 40/60 weighting. And nearly all do this on a monthly basis… at the end of the month.

For those of you that don't know, a mugpunters would be referring to any little-guy market participants, who get fooled en mass to the benefit of someone bigger and smarter. Ever seen the market drop right before it took off? Attracting sellers, baby.

Last week we took a glance at the big 5 Canadian banks and their current divined yields, so I figured that I would continue on this and take a look at our top 4 financial services / insurance companies. Yesterday we had a little bit of a rally in the Canadian markets, due to some strength in resource stocks, but unfortunately the bear decided to prove its strength and took hold of todays momentum once again. Just like last week I thought I'd take two metrics into consideration for todays chart. The first and most important one, is the Dividend Yield and the second is the Payout Ratio which I feel is a good indication if future dividend increases are feasible.