Today many investment advisors and individual investors use ETFs or exchange-traded funds rather than, or in addition to, individual stocks and bonds or mutual funds. Today about 25% of all equity dollar volume is accounted for by trading in ETFs. Most of that volume is concentrated into relatively few ETFs. Given that ETFs are typically designed to track certain indexes, […]
Read more“I could lift you up. I could show you what you wanna see. And take you where you wanna be.” Capital Cities – Safe and Sound Investors might not be feeling quite as safe sound after the way the stock market started 2014 (down about 5% ytd as I am writing this) as they did back in the good old days of 2013. […]
Read more2013 was a great year for U.S. stock markets and most stock investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the year with a 26.5% gain closing 2013 at 16,576.66. The S&P 500 index was up over 29% for the biggest gain since 1997. There were some hugely under-performing sectors in 2013, metals and mining being one of the biggest losers. Gold […]
Read more“Risk is good – not properly managing your risk is a dangerous leap”—Evel Knievel For those of you that don’t remember or are that were born after 1980, Evel Knievel was a daredevil who jumped motorcycles ramp to ramp over things like buses, Mac trucks, rattlesnakes and failed at an attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. He […]
Read more“Toto, I’ve a feeling we are in Kansas anymore.” ~ Dorothy Gale, The Wizard of Oz The government shut down due to Congress being unable to come up with a budget deal, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending selected federal programs. On a recent trip to New Orleans, our shuttle driver said, “You are now leaving […]
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