The market has had a very good year – in my opinion it is partly due to the expectation that we will see tax cuts this year. But what happens to those expectations if tax cuts are not passed? This, from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin… “There is no question that the rally in the stock […]
Category: General Investment
Location, Location, Location
This has to be the perfect example of the adage that three things are important in real estate: location, location, location. Posting from www.361capital.com
Opinions & Reality
Everyone has heard the term “Put your money where your mouth is”, often times in bar room banter when coaxing someone to back up their statements or opinions by putting some cash on the line. Schwab Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders released a note this week with research showing that consumers are “saying” they […]
Conditions Become More Favorable For Active Management
A subtle change in the internals of the stock market bodes well for active portfolio strategies such as momentum, relative strength, trend-following and even individual stock picking. The change is a significant drop in correlations among stocks, away from the herd-like “risk on – risk off” moves in which all stocks go the same direction at […]
2017 Forecasts
The abundance of market forecasts for the new year are before us once again. The following quotes might be useful to inoculate ourselves from those who seem to know how the market will play out this year. “We’ve long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good.” Warren […]
Interest Rates & Critical Levels
Treasury yields have soared following the surprising election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Theories abound regarding the causes and consequences of the move, but as always it is good practice to step back and take a look at the big picture. Veteran technical analyst Louise Yamada, in a CNBC interview, looked […]
Sleep On It
One interesting aspect of stock market trading is the “Wild West” — the so-called “after-hours” or overnight market. After-hours sessions almost always have less liquidity and far fewer participants than the day session, which means prices spike up and down much more violently, orders receive poor executions (“fills”), and overall trading can be more costly. […]
The September Fed Decision Summed Up In One Sentence
“We judged that the case for an increase has strengthened but decided for the time being to wait for further evidence of continued progress toward our objectives.” Fed Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-yellen-highlights-idUSKCN11R2JP
Home Ownership
This speaks to the difficult situation face by renters who would like to buy a home. Home ownership rates have been on a steady decline and are now near a 48-year low (see the chart below). Adding to the difficult situation is that real household incomes have dropped 9% while rents have increased 7% over […]
Yield on 30-Year Treasury Bonds
The chart below shows the yield on 30-year Treasury Bonds from 1982 to July, 2016 – a decline of almost 86%. In 1982, a 30-year Treasury Bond would yield over 15%. Today, the 30-year Treasury yield is 2.1%. In 1982, one could plan their retirement using what is considered to be the most secure source of […]