In case you missed it, Reader Paul posted a comment last week that he was a little discouraged with his investment results. He had this to say: Your post “Absolute Returns” really helped me emotionally. Yesterday, I was a little disappointed when I compared my 2009 returns to my benchmark returns. After reading your post today, I decided to combine …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 1/7/2010
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpAfter a strong start, which set tone for the week, the major indexes maintained their upward momentum and closed higher. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs has now crossed its trend line (red) to the upside by +6.45% keeping the current buy signal intact. The effective date was June …
Resetting The M-Index
As is the case at the beginning of each year, the Momentum Index shown in my weekly StatSheet is being reset. Since it consists of an average of the 4wk, 8wk, 12wk and YTD momentum numbers, the YTD figure is obviously lower at the beginning of each year contributing to a reduced overall M-Index number. Keep in mind that the …
Tug Of War
After Monday’s sharp rally, a pullback would have been in order yesterday but, as we’ve seen so many times in the past 6 months, a mid-day sell-off was rebuffed by last hour buying. It was a tug-of-war between 2 news items, as the indexes initially were dragged down by a report that pending home sales fell 16% in November, far …
A Happy New Year
The bulls took charge during the first trading day of the year, and all major indexes gained nicely finishing at their highest levels in 15 months. Supporting the rally were comments from Fed officials this weekend that the easy-money policy will be with us for a while longer. Another positive came from the first economic report of the year when …
Absolute Returns
TheStreet.com featured an interesting piece titled “ETFs in Two Flavors: Complex Or Simple.” Here are some highlights followed by my commentary: During the worst of the financial crisis, companies rolled out absolute return funds, which target a specific gain, usually about 6% to 8% a year, regardless of stock- and bond-market conditions. The funds, in the form of mutual funds …