With Standard & Poor’s recent downgrading of some of the subprime loans, this question comes to mind: Will continued problems in that area, like more downgrades or defaults, have a negative effect on stocks and subsequently mutual funds and ETFs? MarketWatch had a story on that subject, which made the case for a potential spillover into stocks. I have to …
Sunday Musings: Most Annoying Business Expressions
Even the WSJ recently touched on one of my pet peeves I wrote about recently as I was reviewing the book “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots.” Their article was named “Most Annoying Business Expressions” and covered some of the blown up phrases that could be translated into a simple word for everyone to understand. Here are some of the …
ETF Investing: A New REIT On The Block
In a previous post I mentioned the obvious disconnect that occurred earlier this year between domestic REITs and those that invest in the global arena.The WSJ just featured an article called “Foreign Real Estate Funds Boom,” which analyses several REITs covering a variety of countries. Most of them are well known, however, foreign funds are not the cheapest when it …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 7/12/2007
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpThe bulls had it their way as the Dow and S&P; 500 closed in record territory. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs is now positioned +5.23% above its long-term trend line (red) as the chart below shows: The international index has now moved to +8.90% above its own trend …
In The Spotlight: More SubPrime Fallout
Last Tuesday, the market could not find its bearings and the result was a sharp sell off. Seems like it was one of those days were all news were interpreted as bad news. Even Fed chairman Bernanke’s words on inflation couldn’t calm the Wall Street crowd. One of the big news items of the day was Standard & Poor’s announcement …
No Load Fund/ETF Investing: Increasing Your Knowledge
From time to time, you may come across some investing terminology and see terms like “R-Squared” used in an article. The formula is represented in the picture on the left and, if you’re a math wiz, you devour things like this for breakfast. For the rest of us mortal human beings, here’s the definition by Vanguard: “R-squared measures how much …