Every year since 2011 the Gallup Poll canvasses Americans about their personal finances. The most recent survey was completed in April. The findings reveal how we collectively feel about the various types of investments we have access to, as well as some interesting demographic differences. What do we think is the best investment? Real estate,…
Read more

You probably hadn’t noticed it but the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) just shortened the trading settlement period for securities. As of May 28, 2024 all U.S. securities must settle within one day. What does this mean and how will it affect you? Whenever you buy or sell a stock, bond, mutual fund, or other…
Read more

That’s the title of an article that I wrote back in 2020 (https://www.cognizantwealth.com/2020/07/22/is-the-stock-market-overly-concentrated-today/) when the market capitalization of the top ten stocks in the overall U.S. stock market topped 20% (30% of the S&P 500 index). Today the contribution of the top ten stocks has climbed to 32% of the S&P 500’s market cap. The…
Read more

Now that the stock market has reached new highs again after a dismal 2022, you might be thinking that this would be a bad time to buy stocks since they’re more expensive than they previously were. My recommendation is to buy anyway. Over the past ten years there were almost 260 days in which the…
Read more

Artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage these days. Ever since ChatGPT was introduced by OpenAI and Microsoft, companies are falling over each other to find ways to apply AI to all kinds of activities. You may not recall it but IBM was actually one of the pioneers of AI. They designed a chess-playing computer…
Read more

Last year I wrote about the progress being made on the Bitcoin investment front (https://www.cognizantwealth.com/2023/07/07/is-bitcoin-almost-ready-for-prime-time/).  At the time there were only two ways to invest in Bitcoin: through a private exchange or via an ETF holding Bitcoin futures. Last week the SEC authorized eleven spot (current price) Bitcoin ETFs to begin trading. Is this the…
Read more