After a 2013 that saw one of the best years for stocks in more than a decade, the markets got hit with a very bad moon rising in January. The final week of the dismal month saw the Dow fall 1.14% while the S&P 500 trimmed 0.43%. The NASDAQ Composite declined 0.59% on the week. […]

Remember last month when the chatter on Wall Street was dominated by the perma-bulls telling everyone what a great year 2014 was going to be? I certainly remember this talk, but so far in 2014 the bulls have been anything but present. Last week, stocks in the S&P 500 Index suffering their worst weekly performance

“Songs won’t save the planet, but neither will books or speeches.” –Pete Seeger The folk singer/songwriter and activist passed away this week, but I suspect the simplicity and messaging in his songs will live on for centuries. And though I wouldn’t consider myself aligned politically with Seeger, I do agree that if you want to

For the past several weeks, we’ve outlined the steps toward becoming fiscally fit for 2014. This week, we have Part IV of our series, which is all about getting a grasp of your expenses. When it comes to expenses, many of us act like an ostrich and put our heads in the sand. That’s because

Past ETF Talks have discussed various individual exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but we have never taken in in-depth look at the specific companies that establish and manage them. What company pioneered the concept of trading a bundle of stocks in the form of a fund, as easily as buying a single stock? Well, the first institution

The Fed did what most of us expected it would, and that was to continue to taper its bond-buying program. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to pare down its current $75-billion-per-month bond buying program to $65 billion per month, with the taper split evenly between Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. While the Fed’s decision

Remember last month when the chatter on Wall Street was dominated by the perma-bulls telling everyone what a great year 2014 was going to be? I certainly remember this talk, but so far in 2014 the bulls have been anything but present. Last week, stocks in the S&P 500 Index suffering their worst weekly performance

It didn’t seem like very long ago when the perma-bulls were saying this market is going to skyrocket for another year, and that the only game in town was U.S. equities. Well, this week there was a little crack in that thesis, with the S&P 500 suffering through its worst week since June 2012. The […]

Maybe it’s my contrarian nature, or maybe it’s my suspicious nature, but whatever the reason, when it comes to a widespread consensus in the markets, I tend to get very nervous. Indeed, I’ve been struck by how much conviction there seems to be out there in the general consensus among many on Wall Street. These

“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.” –G. K. Chesterton The English writer has uttered many a great quote, but this one is perhaps my favorite. Here he reminds us that facing up to the possibility of a loss is a great way to remind oneself of the need