If you haven’t constructed your bond portfolio yet, then what are you waiting for? Once you’re in your 50s, the time has come to own some bonds. Consider bonds your anchor to windward. Determining how much you, not your neighbor, needs in bonds is a most personal equation. Only you and your spouse and hopefully your advisor know the right mix for you. Period. Unfortunately, those well into their golden years who put off bonds paid a devastating price in the two stock market crashes so far this century. So what are you waiting for? Imagine how you’ll feel in the third stock … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2018
RAGE Gauge August : Summer Slumber?
My overall trend reading was down from July. Investors are feeling a little too comfortable in this stock market. Yes, the economy looks good, but this bull market is long in the tooth. Now would be an excellent time to look for defensive stocks for your portfolio. “Valuation concerns have already crept into the market, some investors said, as defensive stocks that tend to post lower growth than companies like Amazon and Facebook have outperformed,” reports the WSJ. “The top five performing S&P 500 sectors the past three months are all defensive, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a … [Read more...]
China’s Future Factories
The Chinese government wants to upgrade its many factories, focusing on greater use of machinery to make its workers more productive. Natasha Khan reports for The Wall Street Journal: CHANGSHA, China—The blueprint for China’s industrial future lies on a dustless factory floor known as Workshop 18, where workers in dark blue uniforms work alongside robots to build pump trucks that can blast cement up the world’s tallest skyscrapers. Engineers at the plant run by Sany Group Co. figure out how to make better products by analyzing information fed in real-time from machines operating around … [Read more...]
Why Are Investors Buying a Hedge Fund Strategy that Isn’t Working?
Despite evidence that the strategy isn't working today, investors have plowed $300 billion into hedge funds using "trend-following." Laurence Fletcher writes about the phenomenon at The Wall Street Journal: Performance among the roughly $300 billion in hedge funds that largely use so-called trend-following strategies has been abysmal. An investor buying into these funds at the start of 2011, for instance, and holding through July this year would have lost 3.4% on average, according to HFR. Over the same period the S&P 500 is up 124%. “It’s like a lot of industries,” said Matthew … [Read more...]
Being Right isn’t Enough
Investing in the stock market can be a maddening task for the amateur investor. As a friend in the real estate investing business once remarked, the stock market is the only place one can be right and still lose money. That’s not totally accurate. The bond market can be just as unforgiving. But he was correct, being right isn’t enough. Take Microsoft for example. Microsoft hit a high of $53.61 in December of 1999 on expectations that the company would dominate the market for operating systems for the foreseeable future and its earnings would continue to increase at a rapid … [Read more...]
Is Today the Day for a NAFTA Breakthrough?
Josh Zumbrun and Robbie Whelan report for The Wall Street Journal that an agreement on NAFTA between the United States and Mexico could be reached as early as today. They write: The U.S. and Mexico could reach a bilateral agreement as early as Monday on the key issues holding back a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to Mexico’s chief trade negotiator Ildefonso Guajardo. Mr. Guajardo and the rest of Mexico’s trade delegation arrived at the office of the U.S. Trade Representative around midday Sunday—after negotiating in Washington, D.C. for weeks—and said … [Read more...]
My 3 Step Portfolio Check Up Plan
Back in August of 1993 I laid out a three step portfolio check up plan for investors. If you answer these three questions, it should give you a decent idea of how your portfolio should be positioned at the moment. I wrote: Few investors realize that you can keep your portfolio in shape simply by asking (1) Are short-term interest rates moving up or down on a trend basis? (2) Is inflation advancing or declining on a trend basis? (3) Is the economy expanding or contracting? You don’t need to go beyond these questions for help in balancing your investments portfolio in any cycle. The answers to … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: Fishing Block Island
It’s hard to beat the striped bass fishing off Block Island. In this video you see the voyage from Newport, RI to the Block for some late Summer striped bass fishing. Don Smith explains more about fishing around Block Island at On The Water: Block Island earned its reputation as a legendary striper-fishing destination many years ago. These days, her waters draw numerous charter boats and recreational fishermen, who troll, jig and drift for stripers. At the height of the season, it’s not unusual to see a hundred boats working the waters near Southwest Ledge at one time. Once the sun … [Read more...]
Coca-Cola Dials Up Innovation Overseas
In an effort to expand its sales beyond its core American brands, Coca-Cola has been encouraging its overseas operations to increase their innovation and find winning products in new markets. Eric Bellman and Jennifer Maloney report: When Coca-Cola Co. directed its global subsidiaries to launch more local flavors last year, the company’s Indian arm came up with a unique drink: chunky mango juice. Indians commonly squeeze mangoes to soften them and then bite a hole in the tropical fruit’s tough skin to suck out the pulp, Coke’s Indian drink developers knew. So they concocted a beverage to … [Read more...]
Is Apple’s Services Business all that it’s Cracked up to Be?
Many Apple bulls contend that Apple’s best business is the company’s highly profitable services business. What comprises Apple’s services business? Music, cloud storage, iTunes, and the app store among others. But as Bloomberg reports here, Apple’s services business may not be all that it is cracked up to be. App developers are starting to rebel against Apple’s onerous 30% cut of app sales and in-app purchases. A thirty percent cut for providing what basically amounts to a website that keeps out malicious software and centralizes billing is criminal. Visa and Mastercard only charge … [Read more...]
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