While the month of February ended on an up note, the month March started on a downer, as various events combined to knock the major indexes off their lofty levels with almost non-existent rally attempts. Red was the dominant color on most computer screens. Bucking the trend were precious metals, commodities and oil, which topped the $100/barrel mark causing fears …
Closing February On A Positive
What a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday, the markets retreated sharply and now, 5 trading days later, decent economic news, sliding oil prices and hopes of a quick Libyan resolution pushed the major indexes higher. Providing the necessary ammunition to reverse yesterday’s mid-day sell off were decent reports on consumer spending and manufacturing. Adding to the bullish mood were …
Word Of The Day: Contango
One of the terms you hear frequently when reading about commodity ETFs, is the word “contango.” To enhance your understanding of what it means and how it affects ETFs, here are some highlights from “Contango and ETFs: What It Is, What You Can Do About It:” Investors love commodity exchange traded funds (ETFs), and with good reason. Aside from the …
Sunday Musings: Looking Ahead To The Next Crash
While I don’t agree very often with Paul Farrell, he did have some interesting thoughts in “Market Crash 2011: It will hit by Christmas.” Here are a few highlights: Our brains never learned 2008’s lessons, will fail again in 2011 Remember, we can’t help it. Our brains are defective, biased, manipulated by unseen forces 93% of the time. So blame …
Reader Q+A: Bond Talk
Several readers have emailed wanting me to talk about bond funds/ETFs in this current market environment. Here’s one request: Would you please share your thoughts on investing in bond funds/ETFs? Several articles talk about the possibility of raising interest rates resulting in a drop in bond prices. Would you recommend keeping the bond portion of the portfolio in money market …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 2/24/2011
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at: http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.php The unrest in Libya took a toll on the markets with major indexes declining 2% for the week. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs has moved above its trend line (red) by +5.58% (last week +6.01%) and remains in bullish mode.