The common wisdom (an oxymoron) is that we had another ugly month. Major downswings, panicked phone calls to your favorite investment advisor. The reality, however, is that the market was up for the month. You all made money. I have … Continue reading
The market was decent this month and your portfolios have been recovering well from the first quarter’s mini slump. The Dow has recovered less well than you have. You are not invested in the Dow. Today I want to discuss … Continue reading
The market was slightly down this month and somewhat up for the quarter. Nothing exciting either way. My wife suggested that I discuss social security. I then realized that I have ignored this topic in my newsletters. I answer a … Continue reading
The Dow was down this month by 166 points in total. Lots of back and forth excitement. Lots of the “world is ending” election news. In the end, the market was essentially breakeven. And the TV pundits are still exaggerating … Continue reading
Last month, I wrote about how the Dow was down and almost every portfolio was up. I made the point that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is not the market. It is quick and easy sample to look at and … Continue reading
In Short In addition to objective measures of risks as I mentioned earlier, there is also an emotional side to risk, which is how much fluctuation a person can mentally handle within their portfolio. My Sensitivity Analysis Whenever I meet … Continue reading
In Short The stock market is a place where people can buy ownership in various companies around the world. It’s a marketplace. The same way someone would go to the supermarket to buy an apple, a person goes to the … Continue reading
Risk Vs. Return Before that question can be answered, it is important to understand the relationship between risk and return. In the financial/investing world there is a direct relationship between the two. For example: a treasury bond is very low … Continue reading
In Short An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a basket of securities that attempts to duplicate the performance of a multiple of an index. See here for the definition of a stock index. There are also commodity indexes. Their Benefit … Continue reading
Defining Standard Deviation Standard deviation refers to the fluctuation in the value of your portfolio. The ups and downs of a portfolio can be thought of as a roller coaster. How scary is the roller coaster? A roller coaster that is … Continue reading