As expected, the Fed cut the fed funds rate and the discount rate by 0.25% each. The accompanying statement regarding inflation concerns was largely unchanged from last month. The Fed further elaborated that readings on core inflation have improved somewhat and that trend should moderate in the coming quarters. Apparently, that was not good enough for the Wall Street crowd, …
All Eyes On The Fed
Market activity has been sloppy over the past couple of days with anxiety rising as to whether the Fed will cut rates again tomorrow. The decision will be announced around 2:15 PM EST. Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) pulled back and are situated as follows: Domestic TTI: +1.11%International TTI: -2.72% We are holding on to some our small positions in …
The Annuity Game
While I don’t always agree with Paul Farrell’s viewpoints, he did write a nice piece about annuities called “Clip Job.” If you own an annuity, or are consider investing in one, you owe it to yourself to read the entire article. Here are some highlights: Although I rarely write about annuities anymore, over the years I’ve built a huge file …
Buy And Hope To Hold
Random Roger had an interesting take on the China market and whether it might make sense to ease back in with a conservative allocation. He concluded that “this all might flow into an idea I have expressed before that maybe “buy and hold” should be replaced with “buy and hope to hold.” Buy and hope to hold? I must admit …
Sunday Musings: Get Smarter Using Simple Heuristics
I’ve been reading “Simple Heuristics that make us Smart” by G. Gigerenzer and P. Todd, since I found it referenced in an investment book. The authors define the term “heuristic” as “serving to find out or to discover.” In the early 1900s, Einstein used the term as “an approach to a problem that is necessarily incomplete given the knowledge available, …
Never Too Big To Admit Mistakes
I have repeatedly talked about the importance of not only tracking a sell stop but actually executing it when the price point is triggered. Many readers have told me that this is one of the most difficult things to do. Why? Very simply, because it is an admission of having been wrong especially if that sell stop triggers a loss …