New reader Lloyd had this experience to share: I invest in mutual funds and ETFs. I was using Fidelity funds and using the 1 mo, 3 months, and 1-year returns to pick the best performing funds. This seemed to work okay, but recently it had me in all oil and oil related funds and when oil dropped I lost all …
Sunday Musings: The Credit Crunch’s Horrific Effect
The fallout from the credit crunch has been well documented, because the top names in investment banking had to cumulatively write down so far in excess of some $500 billion dollars with no end in sight. In case you missed it, Merrill Lynch has held the dubious #1 ranking when comparing losses to historical profits. News reports had this to …
The Deflation Scenario
MarketWatch featured an interesting story titled “Is that deflation we smell?” Let’s listen in: What do you call it when both stocks and commodities are plunging? Can you say “deflation”? To be sure, the monetary authorities, led by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, are doing everything in their power to keep this word out of our lexicon. But trading sessions like …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 9/4/2008
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpThe bears feasted on a bullish carcass, and the major indexes lost heavily. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs remains below its trend line (red) by -2.66% thereby confirming the current bear market trend. The international index now remains -9.96% below its own trend line, keeping us on the …
Trend Line Observations
Reader Joao has been watching our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) for some time now and had this to say: I am observing your TTIs very carefully, and plan to take action when you recommend. I have a question however on the slope of the TTI: how relevant is this slope (as compared, for instance, to a 200 day moving average)? …
Running Out Of Gas
Yesterday, the bulls came charging out of the gate pushing the Dow up almost 250 points in the early going. But, to the shock of traders and the bullish crowd, the rally faded and the major indexes ended up in negative territory. It’s too early to tell whether this total turn-around was a one day event or the resumption of …