Here’s a tip for you S-P-E-C-T-A-T-O-R-S

Stock	3-Digit Price	CAPS Rating	Return on Capital, TTM
PetroChina (NYSE: PTR)	$101.25	****	13.4%^
CNOOC (NYSE: CEO)	$105.93	****	21.9%
Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE: MLM)	$102.00	**	9.5%

These are tough times. There’s no sugarcoating it. The economy is suffering a serious recession — one I believe was overdue, given the massive bubble that preceded it. There’s been way too much greed, incompetence, and lack of personal responsibility from folks who were supposed to be intelligent “leaders.” Our government policymakers are bungling “fixes,” as far as I’m concerned. Dare I go on? Yeah, it’s ugly.

Yet, as disappointed as I am in much of what’s transpired, and as concerned as I am about the current state of the economy and what might happen going forward, I believe in long-term, buy-and-hold investing.

Could our current times prove to be even more of a “black swan event” than they’ve already been, and prove wrong the conventional wisdom that the best time to buy stocks is during savage bear markets? Sure, this could happen. But if it doesn’t, I guarantee many would-be investors will kick themselves for not picking up dirt cheap stocks at the current levels.
We’ve all heard the quotable quotes in the investing world. “Buy when there’s blood in the streets,” for example, Warren Buffett talking about being fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful? Investors tend to get cocky when times are good, quite certain that we’re willing to invest like Buffett and other sage masters, but when things really are scary — which is the best time to find overly punished stocks — many simply rush for the exits.