Does Yesterday’s Market Drop Portend a Recession?

Does Yesterday’s Market Drop Portend a Recession?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) experienced another jarring 800-point drop yesterday, roughly a 3% loss. The media attributes it to (1) the inversion of the yield curve and (2) the 0.1% decline in Germany’s GDP. Talk of an impending recession has ramped up. Most likely the questions on investors’ minds are “Is a recession…
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The Power of Hindsight

Do you wish you had invested in Cisco when it went public in 1990? Or Microsoft in 1986? What about Qualcomm, which is up almost 10,000% since its inception in 1991 (just a bit higher than the S&P 500’s paltry 600% equivalent gain). I can’t tell you how many times I hear that regretful refrain…
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The Ugly Way To Become Rich

There is no shortage of promoters of wealth-building schemes. Many start by writing books extolling secrets that they learned along the way to their own alleged success. If their fame from their books grows they often develop seminars and training classes designed to provide more secrets, tools, and motivation to help you become rich like…
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How Many Pages Of Regulations Does It Take To Create A Loophole?

I’ll start with the answer: 771 pages. That’s the size of the new “Regulation Best Interest: The Broker-Dealer Standard of Conduct” rule just approved by the SEC. Why did the SEC feel we needed this legislation? It’s a long story. After the 1929 collapse of the U.S. stock market and the subsequent Great Depression of…
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How Not To Compare An Annuity To A Bond

My elderly uncle is convinced that annuities are better than bonds because the annuity will not only pay more on a monthly basis than a similar bond investment but would also keep paying over the remainder of his lifetime. While that’s true, it doesn’t tell the whole story. I’m writing this article to share a…
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Why Would You Want to Beat the Market?

I attended a large foundation’s investment committee meeting the other day to learn about their investment strategy. One of the managers they utilize for large cap U.S. stock investments was there to talk about their methodology for achieving better returns over time than standard market benchmarks such as the S&P 500. In brief, they explained…
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