Beware of Political Math

Beware of Political Math

Last week the U.S. Commerce Department reported that its estimate of the third quarter’s real gross domestic product (GDP) increase over Q2 was an annualized 33%. One immediate and unsurprising outcome was a slew of pre-election ads by Donald Trump touting his economic prowess. Putting aside the fact that it’s just an estimate that will…
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Is Trying To Time The Market Worth It?

Imagine you are the unluckiest investor on the planet. You tried to do all the right things. You used a highly-diversified stock market index fund for your investments rather than trying to pick individual stocks. You received a $10,000 bonus at work thirteen times over the last eighty years (you are a long-lived workaholic) and…
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Your Retirement Account May Not Be As Safe As You Think

Many people don’t even think about experiencing a lawsuit or a bankruptcy. That’s understandable since for most of us these are highly unlikely events. Unfortunately in the time of COVID the prospect of bankruptcy has become unexpectedly real for many small business owners. And the risk of being sued is no farther away than fumbling…
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How Much Impact Do Presidents Have On The Stock Market?

As part of his bid for a second presidential term, one of Donald Trump’s assertions is that he is responsible for the greatest stock market gain of any president. Putting aside his usual hyperbole, has the stock market in fact done better under him than under past presidents? And more interestingly, can we use historical…
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SEC Loosens Restrictions On Non-Public Investing

A key role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to protect the public not only from fraudulent investments but also from misunderstanding the risk associated with otherwise legal ones. The Securities Act of 1933 promulgated the initial rules that publicly traded securities were required to follow in order to help ensure their investment…
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Is Holding An Investment At A Loss The Right Thing To Do?

After a big market downturn, when things have settled down and volatility has moderated to something resembling normal, you may find yourself holding numerous investments whose current values are well below the amounts you had originally paid for them. Your inclination might be to hold on to them until their values come back to at…
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