In a week of news largely dominated by Supreme Court decisions, the real news was taking place on the other side of the world. First, uncertainty over a deal between Greece and its creditors caused traders to take some bets off the table. With the deadline for a Greek deal looming (June 30), it’s no […]

The ‘Big 3’ ETF Segment Divergence We are just days away from 2015’s halftime, and that’s a good excuse for us to take a look at how what I call the “Big 3” exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have performed this year. The Big 3 are the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), the iShares MSCI EAFE

“When the Supreme Court moved to Washington in 1800, it was provided with no books, which probably accounts for the high quality of early opinions.” — Robert Jackson The great U.S. statesmen knew the power of common-sense decisions by the Supreme Court. It certainly seems that these days, the “Supremes” could use a little more

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have come a long way during the past several years. Yet despite how far they’ve come, I still encounter many investors that aren’t familiar with some of the basic terms and lingo associated with ETFs. The lack of solid foundational knowledge when it comes to ETFs is something we’ve moved to correct

In my experience, when a market is rife with relatively low volatility, investors tend to get complacent. All too often, complacence leads to not really being prepared for a shift in market character. It also leads to not being ready for big price movements in stocks. Not being prepared leads to fear, and fear leads

Conventional wisdom explains that it is vitally important for any investor to diversify his or her holdings. This is intended to minimize risk from movements or events that disproportionately hurt one type of investment. A fund that offers a way to gain the benefits of diversification is Arrow Dow Jones Global Yield ETF (GYLD). This

We are just days away from 2015’s halftime, and that’s a good excuse for us to take a look at how what I call the “Big 3” exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have performed this year. The Big 3 are the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA) and the iShares MSCI

This week’s market action was dominated by the Fed and the FOMC meeting on Wednesday. As expected, the central bank left interest rates unchanged. The real action, however, was in the Fed’s statement and subsequent Fed Chair Yellen presser. Here the market read the tea leaves as a “dovish,” meaning the Fed will likely raise […]

Why Currency-Hedged ETFs are All the Rage If you’re an exchange-traded fund (ETF) investor like me, then you are always looking for trends that can make you money. One component of that search for the hottest ETF trends is to “follow the money.” Lately, when we do a check of money flows out of, and