Business cycles are funny things. No one realizes that the top of the market has been reached until months after the decline has already started. And no one realizes the bottom has been reached until months into the recovery. That’s why so many financial advisers recommend against trying to time markets. You just can’t ever tell for sure whether...
During times of political and economic uncertainty, investors flock to the safe haven of gold. Gold, unlike any other asset, has stood the test of time. It maintains its value day in and day out, oblivious to the goings-on of the world around it. Many investors trust gold as a hedge against difficult economic times and seek to hold a...
By now even the most fervent market bulls realize that the economy is on the cusp of a recession and that stock markets are on the cusp of a crash. That’s why so many of them are hoping for further cuts to interest rates on the part of the Fed. Right now the consensus is that the Fed should...
One thing that every investor wants to avoid is paying taxes. Having to pay taxes takes a tremendous cut out of the value of your investments, eating significantly into your investment returns. That’s why so many investors turn to tax-advantaged retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs, since they allow investors to defer taxation on their investment gains until...
While the Federal Reserve’s rate cut last week was fully expected, the reasons behind it are increasingly unclear. At the post-FOMC press conference, Fed Chairman Jay Powell seemed to flip flop on whether this was a one-time deal, “So we do think it will serve all of those goals, but again, we’re thinking of it as essentially in the nature...
One aspect of the post-financial crisis recovery that is of particular concern is that people’s attitudes towards their financial well-being seems not to have recovered. Many of the benefits of the recovery accrued to those most connected to the financial sector, those who received the benefit of government bailouts and Federal Reserve liquidity facilities. But for the average family...
One of the key concerns most people have when planning for retirement is making sure that their money is safe. Between stock market crashes, Bernie Madoff-style Ponzi schemes, and hackers targeting financial accounts through phishing, there are numerous threats out there that need to be defended against. But while you can protect yourself against most threats when you invest...
If the Federal Reserve ends up cutting its target federal funds rate this week, it would be an admission that the economy is in a pretty precarious state. Many analysts are trying to spin a rate cut as an attempt to keep the economic “expansion” of the past ten years going, but that’s merely wishful thinking. A decade out...
The current stock market bull market has been fueled by the massive amounts of money pumped into world economies by central banks around the world. All that money had to go somewhere, and it has finally ended up in stock markets. To a large extent the continuing bull run is the result of stock buybacks on the part of...
One of the frustrating things to those who know that a stock market crash is coming has been the recent behavior of stock markets. All signs are pointing to an economic slowdown just around the corner, yet stock markets just recently set new all-time highs. What gives? If there’s one things that markets can be characterized as right now, it’s...