Sometimes, you just have to give the devil his due. In this case, it means we have to acknowledge that even in the face of some very weak fundamentals in the U.S. economy, and the scary prospect of more debt woes in Europe, and the very real slowing and potential “hard landing” in the Chinese […]

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“What gets measured gets managed.”   –Peter Drucker   The man who has been called the father of modern management knew that in order to properly conduct your affairs, you have to be able to measure them. When it comes to your money, you have gains and losses to measure, but you also have costs

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When markets turn upward as they have lately, small-cap stocks typically can be counted on to produce bigger gains than their large-cap counterparts. The trend is reflected once again during the past few months as iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index ETF (IJR) has climbed above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.   The iShares S&P

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In last week’s Alert, I pointed out how China’s economic slowdown is indeed real, and that one key measure of that country’s economic health was the deceleration in auto sales. Since then, there’s been another key measure of economic health that’s come in lower, and that is the poor manufacturing reading from HSBC.   The […]

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If you read the financial media as much as I do, you’ve likely read about how little fear there is in this market right now. One such measure of the lack of fear is the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) Volatility Index, more commonly known as the VIX.   The VIX is quoted in percentage

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On Monday morning, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke surprised traders with some rather bearish comments on the health of the U.S. economy, and particularly the state of the nation’s employment. Here’s the money quote from Bernanke’s comments at the National Association for Business Economics Annual Conference:   “Further significant improvements in the unemployment rate will

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Stocks were mostly lower this week, with the Dow finishing down 1.15% over the past five trading sessions while the S&P 500 lost 0.50%. The NASDAQ Composite managed to close the week in positive territory, but only by 0.40%. Now, the weakness we witnessed in U.S. markets this week pales in comparison to the sell-off […]

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“A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.”   –Carl Sandburg   Helping investors create a life free from financial worry is what my family and I have been dedicated to for the past 35 years. And with every new generation, it’s what we will remain committed to. Here’s to the newborns, the

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It’s March Madness time, and for many of us, it’s the season to watch the best college basketball players in the country run up and down the hardwood. But when it comes to investing, I’ve been observing a big rebound taking place off hardwood of a different sort. During the last three months, one exchange-traded

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One headwind of more immediate concern to this market than even oil prices is the economic slowdown in China. In recent days, investors have turned sour on Chinese stocks. The chief reason why is the slowdown in the growth rate of the world’s second-largest economy.   Recently, the Chinese government lowered its full-year 2012 gross

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