ETF Battles: LQD vs. JNK, Who Wins?
This is an excerpt from ETF Battles on ETFguide TV between LQD vs. JNK – two bond ETFs at opposite spectrums of credit risk. Who…
Category: Central Banks
Beefing up Your Investment Portfolio’s Tactical Side in the Coronavirus Era
The Coronavirus outbreak has turned out to be more than just a Black Swan – it’s a totally random Black Piano from the sky that…
Factors that Should Influence Your Investments
If you asked a thousand different people about the key factors that should drive their investment choices, you’re bound to get a thousand different answers.…
Why the Debt Ceiling Deadline Isn’t That Scary
On Oct. 15, the sitting U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent his warning letter to Congress to increase the U.S. debt ceiling “or else.” Should bond…
Gift-Wrapped Trades Courtesy of the Fed
The almost +2% jump in the S&P 500 (SNP:^GSPC) just three-days before the release of the Federal Reserve’s no rate hike decision looks suspicious and…
Euro Bears Get Whipsawed
Selling pressure in the euro has been relentless over the past year and the currency has fallen just over 19% in value. Without surprise, pessimism toward…
Treasury Doomsayers Get Grilled by Hated Rally in Bond Prices
In late 2013 just before the Federal Reserve began its scaling back on monthly Treasury bond purchases, the conventional wisdom was that interest rates would…
How to Print Money in the Psychotic Gold Market
The gold market is the epitome of human psychosis.* On one hand, there’s the anti-gold camp that have utter disdain for precious metals 24 hours…
Don’t Let the ‘Great Yield Slide’ Punch You in the Nose
At the beginning of the year, the yield on 10-Year U.S. Treasuries was just shy of 3% and appeared ready for takeoff into the stratosphere.…
Do Regulators Encourage Market Manipulation?
The latest episode of stock market cheating by high-frequency traders (HFT) has set in, yet unanswered questions remain. Do regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission…
Have Precious Metals Seen Their 2014 Peak?
After posting its first monthly decline of 2014, gold now trades near 7-week lows and the charts are looking ugly. As readers familiar with our…
Are Chinese Stocks Really a Bargain?
Chinese stocks are the bargain of a lifetime. That’s what pundits from Goldman Sachs to analysts at major media outlets have been reporting. Are they…
Bitcoin and the Road to Obsolescence
Napoleon Bonaparte once quipped that fame and glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever. As it turns out, that’s a fitting description of bitcoin’s illustrious…
Beating the Dividend Income Drought
Will dividend yields test 1999 lows? That was the title of my post from a few weeks ago in which I explained to readers how…
Chinese Stocks are a Wonderful Value Trap
When it comes to properly assessing China’s stock market, are financial experts bad or just blind? Here’s what they’ve been saying: Buck the Trend, Buy…
Government Overspending is Fueling Debt Boom
Each month, our Mega Investment Theme Report organizes the order of major events by their impact and importance. And swelling sovereign debt (NYSEARCA:BWX) continues to…
The First Inning of China’s Bear Market
Never mind China’s reputation for cooking the books; its raw uncooked economic data is sagging. China’s unexpected drop of 18.1% for February exports was the…
$17.41 Trillion in U.S. Debt, like Stocks, at Record Levels
The Russell 2000 small cap index (NYSEARCA:IWM) just made a new all-time high, but stocks aren’t the only thing topping. U.S. public debt is at…
Emerging Market Stocks: Bargain or Value Trap?
I was recently lectured on Twitter by a Wall Street strategist about why emerging market stocks (NYSEARCA:EEM) are a raging buy. Among his top arguments…
Will Gold’s Latest Rally Stick?
Sentiment extremes should be on the radar screen of all investors. That’s because they can point to buying opportunities and sharp reversals ahead. The latest…