The Senate recently voted in favor of a health reform bill. Is this good or bad for medical insurers? November new home sales were no better than they were in April. Does that spell doom for homebuilders or serve up new opportunity? Congress raised the deficit debt ceiling to $12.4 trillion. Can the U.S. dollar really handle [...] Continue Reading...
Recently, I received an inquiry about the state of actively managed ETFs. Had my position on their viability changed since the beginning of the year? Answer? Nope. The so-called actively managed vehicles are… for the most part… poorly conceived, low-volume losers. I’m not alone in my beliefs either. None of the existing actively-managed ETFs have sufficient assets under management. Some have [...] Continue Reading...
The mainstream media continue to foster a notion that improving economic fundamentals are driving the cyclical bull. If that were the case, treasury bond yields wouldn’t be falling and gold wouldn’t be maintaining at the $1000 per ounce level. If economic fundamentals were as sound as the media would have you believe, insiders at Toll Brothers wouldn’t be selling shares of [...] Continue Reading...
I began covering Chile in May of 2007, even in the absence of a corresponding exchange-traded fund. The Latin American country was/is a dominant player in the export of copper. What's more, it's GDP growth... Continue Reading...
Back in late March, Index IQ offered the first ETF designed to replicate the performance of hedge fund investing. However, the so-called IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF (QAI) tracks an index that the company itself... Continue Reading...
The worldwide financial crisis began with the highly speculative real estate bubble in the U.S. And ever since prices began to decline, nearly all assets have dropped like eggs off a 10th story building. The... Continue Reading...
You may have been reading about the latest "rage." More specifically, several prospective fund providers are gearing up to offer actively managed exchange-traded funds. In previous posts, I have argued AGAINST using newfangled, actively managed... Continue Reading...
When 3 or 4 members of the media start calling me for comments in a single day, I know that there's an effort to get a "scoop." More specifically, different news providers are looking to... Continue Reading...
