Competition in retail trading has led to incredible cuts in the price of trading index exchange-traded funds. Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard now offer commission free trading on a myriad of indexed exchange-traded funds, opening the door for investors to create highly balanced portfolios at zero cost. Read more…
The SEC has proposed a new circuit breaker system that would first go into effect on a “trial” basis with S&P 500 stocks. The circuit breaker system would come into place after a 10% drop in any S&P500 stock within any 5 minute trading period. Immediately after the stock would cease trading for five minutes before starting again. Sounds great…until you really start thinking about it. Read more…
Dividend investors had a rough and tumble 2009, but as 2010 grabs momentum dividend investors may be back in business. Yields on CDs, bonds and other fixed income investments have created a new desire to hold dividend yielding stocks, many of which produce as much, if not more, income than bonds and CDs. Read more…
In an effort to curb a growing deficit, members of the House of representatives are lining up to create a new tax on stocks and exchange-traded funds. Politicians contest the new taxes will price out high frequency trading and remove speculative investments. Myself…I think this is all wrong at all the wrong times. Read more…
It has long been accepted that January is a bellwether for the performance of the stock markets for the rest of the year. That is, if stocks rise in January, the market will rise for the rest of the year. If stocks fall, stocks will drop for the rest of the year. The bad news is that stocks have shed some 3% already in January 2010. Read more…
Stock lending fees are a crucial part of the business models for both exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds, which derive extra returns on their equity positions by “lending” shares to short sellers for a fee. Some companies, however, are more fair than others in how they distribute these earnings. Read more…
This new fund from Wall Street is sure to shake up the regulators and traders alike. Ahead of its launch, one palladium producer rose nearly 16% due to the belief that these new funds will create huge amounts of artificial demand. Read more…
Exchange-traded funds are loved by investors for their tax advantages, especially when it comes to capital gains. Because most funds are indexes that track the returns of a subset of stocks/bonds/commodities and rarely buy or sell holdings, capital gains are almost never incurred on the operating end. Usually, a trader will only have to pay taxes when a capital gain is generated on his/her side after the position is sold. Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly true for bond funds, which had to move funds around in a very volatile 2009. Read more…
After November’s employment report, gold dove nearly 5% on better than expected employment numbers. With only 11,000 jobs lost and the unemployment rate dipping from 10.2% to 10%, investors figured that an improving economy would force the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates, fighting off inflation. Read more…
Just when you had thought you had seen it all with exchange-traded funds, Barclay’s ups the standard by announcing the release of a “Genocide-Free” ETF. The new fund will avoid companies that are directly or indirectly involved in profiting from regions and businesses that are so called benefactors of genocide. Read more…
Commodities have long been a difficult underlying index to track, but the proof is in the pudding. The spot price for oil has surged in value by more than 54% this year, so why are two exchange-traded funds lagging so far behind? Read more…
The CTFC has begun its crusade to regulate commodity ETFs. Hearings are being held throughout the week to determine “appropriate” sizes for exchange-traded funds which are now catching the blame for a global run up in commodity prices. The first victim was United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) which is rumored to control up to 80% of all front month contracts on the exchange. Read more…
Commodity ETFs exploded during the 2007-2008 boom year for virtually every commodity. However, as the Federal government continues to poke its nose around the financial markets, its taking a hard look at exchange-traded funds. The CFTC contends that it is exchange-traded funds that are causing manipulation on the commodities markets. Read more…
At first I thought currency ETFs were rather interesting. They were the only way to get into currencies without a forex account or a brokerage account, which very few stock traders actually possess. If anything I would have expected these funds to gain a lot of traction, especially with how volatile the currency markets are right now. A look into why they’re disappearing and what may be next for currency ETFs. Read more…
Treasury bubble began to burst in early May. With the next two treasury auctions of long dated maturities on June 10-11 and early July, the 10 and 30 year could take a real beating. Proshares TBT ETF has been popular lately. Direxion just came out with a similar product, TMV. This could benefit someone if they feel like rolling the dice.
Outside of my own retirement accounts and long term investments I like to goof around with 5-6 stocks that I switch up, re-allocate and reinvest every few months. I changed up quite a bit of my portfolio on January 26 after I started to get a little more confidence in the markets, and that I could manage to at least make some money on the reflation trade. Now, nearly 4 months later, I’m up 18% and though I’m reasonably happy, I could have done better. Read more…
Emerging markets got smacked in the latest global slowdown. China, which had and is booming at record rates of 10% per year saw its stock markets lose a whole lot of value. I think the best place to be right now is in the emerging markets scene as turnarounds in developed areas will create even bigger booms in the growing economies of the world. Read more…
With recession and a global slowdown comes the need for investors to get smarter about the way they invest. The current market climate is unlike any we’ve seen in decades. Fortunately for the modern investor, this downturn brings many investing opportunities. In the past few days I’ve been all over DXO and SLX as excellent 2009 trading opportunities, but I believe the best investment and ultimate hedge is in this trade right here. Read more…
With a new year rolling around its a great time to start lining up positions. My consensus is that the automotive bailouts will continue, Obama’s stimulus will make it through Congress and into law and the effects of the stimulus will create a short term boom in the economy made available by inflated cash reaching the hands of Americans. Read more…
The effects of the credit crunch and US recession has spread across the world to affect virtually every country and surely every stock market. But there is still some good news, foreign stocks are cheap and their P/Es all at multiyear lows with economies that are far stronger than in the United States. This kind of situation makes foreign stocks a no brainer, they’re financially stronger, cheaper and have solvent governments to back up their products.
Sure US names are cheap but they aren’t as cheap as China. There is also a very big difference between a cheap US name and a cheap Chinese name. The US government is facing default while the Chinese government counts surpluses and fights its only inflation problem: that too much money is flowing in to buy Chinas goods. Read more…
Exchange traded funds are becoming a favorite of mine for harnessing the returns of a whole sector while only monitoring the performance of one instrument. The exchange traded fund KOL is the best on the market for simulating the returns of the entire coal industry, from refiners to coal burning power generation units, KOL is an excellent opportunity to be invested in the coal industry from top to bottom. Read more…
The Chinese markets have been beaten severely this year, its key index is still 50% off its highs set late last year. With this kind of large scale correction the Chinese investing scene looks to be primed for a well paying investment.
The Chinese economy is growing like no other around the world, its June trade surplus clocked in at $25 Billion beating expectations of analysts who expected a slowdown due to Chinese energy imports. The Chinese economy is facing a struggle to power itself and its manufacturing industry after the costly repairs from earthquake damage have sucked electricity from underneath the country. Read more…
It was interesting to look over the newswire today and see that Barack Obama is speaking out against oil speculation and threatening to tighten “loopholes” in the oil trading industry that keep the government from investigating the effects of speculation. The market to Senator Obama: speculation is just a natural part of the business cycle. Read more…
Poor timing, too low price points? No, it appears that Yahoo might be avoiding a Microsoft buyout solely for sentimental reasons. Now that Jerry Yang is the CEO, it appears he’s wanting to hold onto the company he worked so hard to start back in his own college years at Stanford.
Yang owns about 4% of the company that is currently worth $1.5 Billion, his stakes are huge and he’s still drawing the infamous $1 salary that is common with many tech giants. His wealth has been derived in its entirety from the growth and capital gains he’s received as a huge shareholder in Yahoo. As CEO and a founder, it seems that his own unwillingness to sell might lay in a dislike for Microsoft and sentimental views of Microsoft rather than what shareholders want. Read more…
Bonds, ETF, Forex, Futures and Commodities, Investing, Real Estate, Round Up, Stocks
The Federal Government certainly threw Northrop Group a bone today in the form of a $40 Billion contract to produce refueling tankers. The stock was up 6% in after-hours trading but the company still looks like a great buy. Read more…
