Last week, I wrote a piece on ETFs with remarkably positive trends in relative strength. Specifically, I highlighted 3 successful investments that rarely garner media coverage, yet deserved a bit more of the limelight. (See “Three ETFs With Momentum That You Probably Don’t Know Exist.”) I received a great deal of direct feedback on this particular article. [...] Continue Reading...
Last year, world equity markets obsessed over the movement of sovereign debt yields in Portugal and Greece. Here in 2012, Spanish and Italian bond yields have risen enough to scare investors back into the perceived safety of U.S. treasuries. In fact, iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Fund (IEF) is near 52-week highs. Unfortunately, concerns about the 3rd and 4th [...] Continue Reading...
There are roughly 1400 exchange-traded vehicles on the U.S. exchanges. And yet, only a small fraction of them (about 5%) can lay claim to $1 billion in assets under management. These 70-75 influencers often explain the direction of stock, bond, currency and commodity markets. In fact, there have been times when a single asset defines the entire investing landscape. For example, PowerShares DB [...] Continue Reading...
How does the state of California intend to combat its exorbitant debts? Left-leaning leaders have proposed higher income taxes on the “rich” as well as increasing sales tax rates. Unfortunately, California already sits near the top of the country’s taxation ladder. At present, top marginal bracket payers are shelling out nearly 10%… close to 3x the [...] Continue Reading...
The Dow and the S&P 500 may have experienced the worst 2-week losses since November. Still, is it really time to panic? When one considers the reality that the major averages are less than -4% from multi-year highs, abandoning stock assets seems a bit premature. That said, you may want to avoid certain investments. For example, [...] Continue Reading...
Less than two weeks ago, a large number of media writers and analysts were expressing their exuberance for higher stock market highs. Most seemed to ignore the possibility that fewer and fewer corporations were participating in the S&P 500’s accomplishments. Sell in May and go away? The smart money may have already rebalanced in March… and it’s not like [...] Continue Reading...
Wasn’t it just a week ago when the 10-year treasury yield pushed 2.3%? Wasn’t it just a few days back when bond vigilantes piled into ETFs like ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (TBT)? Apparently, fearful investors needed little more than a single unimpressive jobs report to justify returning to a favorite safe haven. In fact, iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury (TLT) recovered a key short-term (50) [...] Continue Reading...
Virtually everyone acknowledges that Federal Reserve monetary policy (e.g., 0%-0.25% rate, QE 1, QE II, “Operation Twist,” etc.) has been extremely kind to stocks since early 2009. Yet, bulls and bears debate the impact of Fed policy going forward. For example, many bulls believe that stocks will continue to excel due to the Fed’s promise to keep rates at exceptionally low levels [...] Continue Reading...
We can all agree that the first 3 months were wonderful for risk takers. What’s more, we can all feel good that U.S. stocks ran at their fastest percentage clip since 1998. Of course, what happened in the summer of 1998 is pretty intriguing as well. The infamous hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management helped exacerbate the spread of an Asian currency [...] Continue Reading...
In early October of 2011, U.S. economic data appeared bleak. The sovereign debt crisis in Europe seemed perilously similar to the sub-prime mortgage catastrophe. And U.S. stocks via the S&P 500 struggled to maintain a grip on the 1100 level. Six months later, analysts are tripping over themselves to describe the U.S. economy in extremely positive terms. European recession fears [...] Continue Reading...
