State of the Markets
What Do The Cycles Say About 2017?
Call it the "Trump Trade," the "Trump Bump," the "reflation allocation," or whatever you'd like, but since November 9th, it is safe to say that traders have been looking ahead to better days. And by now, everyone knows the bullet points of the bull argument which include lower taxes, less…
Alts Are Really Alternatives To...
With the market continuing to trade sideways in a very tight range, this looks to be as good a time as any to finish up our review of alternative investing strategies and how they should be employed in one's portfolios.
So far, we've established that there are two categories of "a…
Some Weakness Creeping Into The Indicators
Good Monday morning and welcome back to the land of blinking screens. After a whirlwind weekend of planes, trains, and automobiles in the Midwest - where we spent the majority of the time successfully dodging ice storms (still can't believe the plan actually worked!) - I have returned to …
Alternatives As a Bear Market Protection Plan
While the NASDAQ index has continued to march higher in recent days and closed at another new all-time high yesterday, the rest of the major indices appear to remain stuck in a sideways trading range. And with the earnings parade about to begin and another troubled Italian bank trying to …
Understanding Alternatives - The Numbers
Stocks appear to be waffling a bit lower in the early going this morning with most of the focus on the happenings in Washington. And with traders waiting for the earnings parade to begin, this appears to be a good time to continue our exploration into the "alts" - I.E. alternative investi…
Alternatives: Exploration of Investing's Final Frontier
With stocks appearing to be entrenched in yet another consolidation phase, I thought it might be good to spend our time together this morning exploring one of the great debates in the financial services business at this time - alternative investments.
To be sure, the use of altern…
Time To Sit Up And Take Notice?
Good Monday morning and welcome back! Stocks have begun the new calendar year following the traditional script with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ finishing the week at fresh all-time highs. However, the DJIA can't seem to muster the energy to push through the purportedly important 20,000 bar…
Holiday Break?
With the holiday season upon us, things will likely start to slow down considerably for the next two weeks. So, be advised that volatility can pick up when nobody's home.
But with that said, let's start the week with a review of our major stock market indicators. To review, the go…
Buy The Rumor, Sell The News, And...
As expected, the Fed announced that the Fed Funds Rate, the Discount Rate, and the rate paid on funds on deposit at the Federal Reserve bank all increased yesterday. As expected, each was bumped up by 25 basis points (aka 0.25%), putting the median target for Fed Funds at 0.625%. As expec…