Throughout 2010, some of the most desired investments included energy pipeline partnerships, convertible bonds, preferred stocks, REITs, junk bonds and dividend stocks. Pick any area in the first 10 months… you were shaking your money maker. Best of all, the lower risk Total Return ETFs had been keeping pace with riskier Common Stock ETFs. Then came the Republican election victories, Federal [...] Continue Reading...
Ssssshhhhh… don’t tell Meredith Whitney. In spite of an exceptionally dismal 11 months, Financial ETFs have been raking in the unrealized gains in December. Is the sudden interest in financial stocks due to recent government stimulus? Is the sector benefiting from bargain hunting in Santa’s sack? Or has lending activity started to pick up across financial institutions? Jonathan Spence at Marketwatch seems to think that Financial ETFs [...] Continue Reading...
Tax Cut ETFs, Stimulus ETFs, Sector ETFs, Energy ETFs, Semi-Conductor ETFs, Oil Services ETFs, Equal Weight ETFs Click here to listen to the show: 12-12-2010 Continue Reading...
Exchange Traded Funds put the world at the fingertips of investors. Unique indexing possibilities abound, ranging from diversfied high yield bond baskets to country-specific stock funds to currency hedges to master limited partnership indexes to… just about any market-based security you can imagine. Ron Rowland notes that one particular area may be sitting in the proverbial driver’s seat; that is, Small Cap Growth [...] Continue Reading...
Is it difficult to grasp the appeal of precious metals? Not really… no. World powers are fighting to weaken their respective currencies to enhance or maintain their ability to export goods. Gold, in particular, has been acting as a proxy for “paper” uncertainty. Is it hard to understand why single-country emerging market funds dominated the performance [...] Continue Reading...
Index Universe penned a piece recognizing that even with: 1. European Union debt concerns 2. China monetary policy geared towards fighting inflation, and 3. The threat of war on the Korean peninsula …the S&P 500 only produced a modest correction. And the market’s resilience didn’t end there either. The S&P 500 finally busted free of the tiresome 1175 – 1200 trading range. It follows that [...] Continue Reading...
Goldman Sachs, Forbes and other Wall Street “insiders” believe that U.S. stocks will appreciate significantly in 2011, in large part due to the proposed 2-year tax policy extension. Theoretically, I am inclined to agree. Let’s first examine this from a “supply-side” vantage point. With more money in the pockets of small businesses, the much-maligned “wealthy” are more capable of creating jobs by investing and [...] Continue Reading...
Historically, interest rates remain reasonably low, in spite of the recent climb in yields. Residential real estate inventory ramins high enough that there are plenty of choices. And some argue that the trend in reduced jobless claims is a sign that more people will garner employment and qualify for home ownership. So could real estate-related ETFs be poised [...] Continue Reading...
The early 80s may accurately capture my transition to adulthood. Yet the 70s have a grip on a treasure trove of childhood memories — from iZod shirts to Schoolhouse Rock to the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. The 70s also bring back a less nostalgic activity… waiting on gasoline lines that stretched about a 1/2 mile down Route 22. Well, to be fair, [...] Continue Reading...
What happens in China affects the entire investment world. Indeed, its government and its people may be carrying the weight of the world’s economic growth. Not surprisingly, then, many argue that retail ETF access to Chinese citizens will provide additional support for gold to surge even higher. With European Union debt concerns as well as U.S. muni debt uncertainty, investors may indeed view [...] Continue Reading...
