Do Stop-Losses Reduce Investment Risk?

Do Stop-Losses Reduce Investment Risk?

Stocks are among the most volatile of the many types of publicly-traded investments available to the public.  Whether you invest in stocks directly or through mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), you might feel more comfortable with your investments if you knew you could limit your losses in case the market or the particular company…
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Where To Get Cash After A Layoff?

If you lose your job due to a layoff, the first thing you generally do is to start cutting expenses while searching for the next one.  But if you’re in your late 50s or early 60s, your prospects may be considerably more limited.  Although it’s illegal for employers to discriminate because of age, the fact…
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Best Place to Retire: You Choose!

Earlier this year I wrote about a Bankrate.com article recommending South Dakota as the best place to retire (https://www.cognizantwealth.com/2014/05/15/should-you-retire-to-south-dakota/).   I remarked that since we are all different, it would be more helpful to create a database of factors and leave it to us to decide for ourselves.  The people at Reuters must have read my…
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Is Active Investing Better Than Passive?

Philosophically most investors fall into one of two camps when it comes to selecting mutual funds.  Some prefer actively managed funds while others have a preference for those that are passively managed.  What’s the difference?  According to Investopedia, active managers rely on analytical research, forecasts, and their own judgment and experience in making investment decisions…
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Are Stock Prices Poised For A Fall?

Among the numerous economic and financial indicators that investment advisors utilize in an attempt to predict future stock market performance there is a pretty broad consensus that company profit margins (or earnings per share) are one of the better predictors.  The challenge, of course, is the difficulty of predicting future profit margins.  Currently for the…
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Are Women Better At Investing Than Men?

The New York Times recently reported on research at USC suggesting that when under stress, men take more risks than women by focusing on bigger wins, even when they are costly and less likely. One experiment involved giving points for inflating digital balloons on a computer.  The trick was to pump them enough to maximum…
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