The Economist tracks 42 distinct markets that represent 41 unique countries. Hong Kong is the stand-alone with its Hang Seng Index, separate and distinct from China’s Shanghai exchanges. So how are world stock assets peforming on the year? Through the mid-way point of July (7/15), only 13 of the 42 markets were positive in their local currencies. Put another [...] [...more]
I genuinely avoid outright bearishness and bullishness. Instead, I use information to make an asset purchase, Then, I control the investment outcome with stop-limit loss orders and hedging techniques. That said, I often serve up titillating details about which ETFs I like at a particular time. Similarly, I discuss why I may be leaning towards less risk or more [...] [...more]
Oil has been stealing the mainstream media headlines. And quite frankly, the Libya-inspired surge in crude should be the lead story. However, there’s a far more intriguing “back-pager” that investors need to know about. The Swiss franc hit an all-time high against the U.S. dollar on Thursday. Note: You may want to look at the trend for Currency Shares Swiss [...] [...more]
There was a time that a strong U.S. dollar meant that American companies could buy a lot of cheap stuff from the world. And Americans themselves could do what they did best… consume. Today, the more the U.S. dollar falls, the better many “so-called” American companies will do. Since a large percentage of them earn more than 50% [...] [...more]
