Are Junk Bonds Signaling Pause in Equity Rally?
What does the bond market know that the stock market doesn’t? Even the U.S. stocks (NYSEARCA:IWV) have been scoring one record high after another, the…
What does the bond market know that the stock market doesn’t? Even the U.S. stocks (NYSEARCA:IWV) have been scoring one record high after another, the…
The disdain for cash is nearly universal. Cash instruments like money market funds are yielding around 0%. And nobody needs or wants cash because stocks…
We live in a Golden Era of misaligned investment portfolios. These are rogue, poorly designed portfolios (401k, IRA, Roth IRA, UGMA, 529 plans, etc.) that…
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…
Has 2014 stock market volatility really gone the way of dodo birds and dinosaurs as claimed? The news du jour is that falling VIX means…
“The best defense is a good offense.” That axiom has been applied in a broad array of fields including politics, sports, and the military. The…
My latest request for a Portfolio Report Card is from Andy in New Jersey. He was curious about whether his investment account was adequately diversified…
What’s the matter with you and why is it messing up your portfolio? The oft-cited greed and fear characteristics aren’t the only human emotions that…
Investors should have 100% of their money invested in stocks! That’s what Laurence Fink, the chief executive officer at BlackRock declared in 2012. Since then, the…
Performance divergences, especially in key industry sectors, are either supportive or non-supportive of the broader stock market’s move. Although the S&P 500 (SNP:^GSPC) and Dow…
Having a six or seven figure sized investment portfolio doesn’t automatically make it smart. Such is the case with a $725,000 investment portfolio that I…
Diversifying your investment portfolio: It’s a dull exercise that people repeatedly hear, yet a chore they execute with consistent imprecision. Are there times when diversification…
“The investor’s chief problem—and even his worst enemy—is likely to be himself,” once quipped the great Benjamin Graham. The truth of Graham’s observation is seen in the…
How frightened to invest are people? So frightened, they’d rather die! A poll taken by Harris Interactive for Nationwide Financial found that 62% of surveyed…
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…
How would you like an 11% cut to your paycheck? That’s exactly what’s happened to income investors who own long-term Treasuries (ChicagoOptions:^TYX). At the beginning of the…
What do you get when you add up Twitter, Yelp, and Weibo? Answer: Deflation. That’s the latest joke as former high-flying tech stocks fizzle, while…
Is stock market volatility rising or falling? For most of this year, stock market volatility has actually outperformed the stock market itself. But for whatever reason,…
The pace of U.S. merger and acquisition (M&A) activity has erupted. Bankers and lawyers love it because it gives them work. And investors of the…
“Stocks are cheap by historical standards” is the latest fiction being promoted by valuation geeks. Is it true? Meb Faber, proprietor of the Cambria Global Value…