Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relaxed the requirement for Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) providers to disclose on a daily basis the underlying holdings in their funds. This change was requested primarily by fund companies T. Rowe Price, Natixis, Fidelity, and Blue Tractor, who would like to develop ETFs that follow what are…
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Earlier this week Charles Schwab & Co. announced that they would eliminate online transaction fees for ETFs, stocks, and options. Two days later TD Ameritrade followed suit, causing brokerage stocks to suffer their worst weekly drop in well over a decade as investors digested the earnings losses brokerage firms are likely to experience. Is this…
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You’ve probably heard through the financial media that bonds are on a tear this year. The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond, one of the safest investments on the planet, has gained over 10% so far. That is its best performance in over a decade. Is this the right time to start selling those risky stocks and…
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In 2006 James Montier, a researcher at the investment banking arm of Dresdner Bank, decided to test the behavioral biases of some 300 investment fund managers. One of the questions he asked was “Are you above average at your job?” Over 70% of the respondents answered yes. A number even included comments along the lines…
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) experienced another jarring 800-point drop yesterday, roughly a 3% loss. The media attributes it to (1) the inversion of the yield curve and (2) the 0.1% decline in Germany’s GDP. Talk of an impending recession has ramped up. Most likely the questions on investors’ minds are “Is a recession…
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Do you wish you had invested in Cisco when it went public in 1990? Or Microsoft in 1986? What about Qualcomm, which is up almost 10,000% since its inception in 1991 (just a bit higher than the S&P 500’s paltry 600% equivalent gain). I can’t tell you how many times I hear that regretful refrain…
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