Introduction Jeff’s audience is large but still pretty exclusive. He writes for an intelligent group of individual investors and also for colleagues in the advisory business. In their regular lives, a bit of reading and study takes them a long way toward solving life’s problems. Something quite different happens in the investment world. The individual…
Whenever I teach an investments course, I ask the students if their vision for retirement involves penny pinching or taking luxury cruises. Once the silly ideas are tossed away (“I want to be a millionaire by twenty-five but don’t plan to save”), the seriousness of what could happen (absent focus and discipline) starts to set…
by Jim Welsh with David Martin and Jim O’Donnell , Forward Markets Whenever a commodity as important as oil moves by more than 40% in a short period of time, there are likely to be repercussions no one can foretell with any certainty. What we can say with certainty is there will be surprises in 2015 and…
With each new year, superstitious investors look to omens in the hope of getting advance knowledge concerning how the stock market will perform. Many investors believe in the so-called, “Santa Claus rally”, which is based on trading activity during the last five sessions of December and the first two trading days in January. If the stock market…
In 2014, all the major benchmarks posted solid gains banking on an overall positive economic scenario in the U.S. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained 7.5%, 11.4% and 13.4%, respectively in 2014. The S&P 500 has gained 64% in the last three years. The gains in 2014 came despite international concerns, which were weathered…
In Harrison County, Ohio, drilling company worker Rick Lucente sums up all that is wrong with the mainstream media’s narrative(puppeting even The Fed’s great thinkers) about what great news low oil prices are… while his monthly gas bill for his Chevy pickup truck has dropped, he admonishes, “That’s not going to replace a paycheck… and I don’t…
What is a bane for energy stocks might just be a boon for the travel sector. Drop in Gasoline Prices According to the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration), average gasoline prices per gallon declined to around $2.78 in the beginning of Dec 2014. This reflects the lowest level for gasoline prices since Feb 2010. A…
Spanish bank Banco Santander was halted on Thursday, followed by an announcement it would raise capital. When the bank reopened its shares plummeted as much as 14%, with the Spanish stock market down about 4%. Banco Santander (SAN) passed the last “stress test” so allegedly it had no need to raise capital. With that thought…
<< Read Part 1: A Year Of Speedy Recovery For U.S. Insurers? Life insurers managed to increase net income in the last few quarters by trimming underwriting expenses and with the help of a modest increase in premiums. While variable annuity portfolios and other fee-driven businesses will act in favor with equity markets improving, downward…
The US Daily Deficit for Thursday 1/8/2015 was $4.5B bringing the January 2015 deficit through 8 days to $27B. As is standard practice, I have attempted to sync up the current year with the prior year based on day of the week, which drives many, but not all of the revenue and payment cycles. So…
