Hacking and cybercrime have been on the rise. I’m sure I’m not telling you something you don’t already know, but what you might not know, is that a growing trend among cyber criminals is specific targeting of high-net-worth individuals. In these attacks, hackers will identify a target and develop a victim profile based on public and private information with the goal of stealing assets from financial accounts. How do you secure your financial accounts from cyber criminals? While there is no silver bullet solution to prevent every type of cyber-attack, there are many steps that can be taken … [Read more...]
What Janet Yellen Should have said during her Q&A
If you have been a long-time reader of this site you know what the Fed did at its policy meeting yesterday even before you read it here. They did what they always do. They delayed a hike yet again and for the umpteenth time during this recovery they moved the goal posts on when the next hike would come. For the financial economists who follow these things closely, the Bernanke/Yellen Fed has become a joke. So rather than offering any serious commentary on the Fed’s decision, let’s have some fun. Below are some of the questions Yellen was asked yesterday and how I imagine a more candid … [Read more...]
How to Prepare for the Next Real Estate Bust
You make your money in real estate when you buy, not when you sell. In recent years, commercial real estate prices have boomed. Bubbled might be a better word. Commercial real estate certainly isn’t the only asset class that looks expensive today, but it is the only one that the Fed has put in its cross hairs. Commercial real estate is a reliably cyclical business. In all likelihood, we are much closer to a cyclical top than we are from a cyclical bottom. Limiting your exposure to commercial real estate today isn’t a bad idea, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be preparing for the next … [Read more...]
The Start of a Merger Frenzy in the Pipeline Sector?
There are few publicly traded businesses that have better economics than oil and gas pipelines. The business is simple. The pipeline companies dig a hole, lay some pipe, and collect a relatively stable revenue stream that is often inflation adjusted. The barriers-to-entry are high, and maintenance capital spending requirements are low. The downside: investors in pipelines have to periodically deal with their fellow shareholders losing their heads and causing unnecessary price volatility. The most recent bout of volatility came last fall when the Alerian MLP index lost 40% over about a six … [Read more...]
One of World’s Largest Traders won’t Touch These Funds
Virtu Financial, one of the world’s largest electronic market makers says it won’t touch bond ETFs because they are too hard to trade. Bond ETFs have become increasingly popular over recent years. Many individual investors have been flocking to bond ETFs. They are a major component of robo-advisor portfolios. Bloomberg reports that assets have increased five-fold since January of 2010 to about $600 billion. So why is one of the world’s largest traders avoiding this booming market? From Bloomberg: One of the world’s largest electronic market makers won’t touch increasingly popular … [Read more...]
Vanguard is Crushing it in ETFs
Vanguard is crushing the competition in ETFs. State Street and iShares were the early movers in ETFs, but after a late start, Vanguard has come on strong. Vanguard is now the second largest ETF provider in the U.S., with $483 billion under management and it is winning the inflows race among big providers YTD (+11.6%). You won't find Fidelity among the list of top ETF providers yet, but a slew of new listings and an assets under management base of over $2 trillion make Fidelity an up and coming contender. The graphic below comes courtesy of the crack Bloomberg Brief ETF team. … [Read more...]
Vanguard’s Best Performing ETFs
Here's a shocker, and a stomach churner for all those who abandoned bonds completely for what were believed to be the greener pastures of the stock market. [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix=""]Three out of the five best performing Vanguard ETFs YTD are bond ETFs.[/inlinetweet] That's right, boring ole bonds, not stocks, are this year's big winners. The Vanguard Extended Duration ETF is up 18.48% YTD. The Vanguard Long-term Bond ETF and the Long-term Corporate ETF are up almost 14%. The only two equity funds that made the top five were Energy and Utilities--both were laggards last … [Read more...]
This Mutual Fund is a Ticking Time Bomb
We are more than seven years into an economic expansion, but short-term interest rates are just a fraction of a point higher than they were during what many economists like to dramatize as a narrowly avoided depression (prevented by their heroic actions, of course). The Fed’s strategy of keeping rates in the tank to meet its ever shifting “economic goals” has created one of the greatest yield-reaching episodes in financial market history. You have traditional bond investors trying to substitute higher risk dividend income for full-faith and credit pledge interest income. In bonds, junk has … [Read more...]
Consumers are the Bright Spot in Economy
Personal consumption spending in the 2nd quarter increased at an almost 4.4% annual rate while broader GDP growth barely cleared the 1% hurdle. GDP is the blue bars in the chart and personal consumption spending is the gold line. … [Read more...]
New Home Sales Soar
New home sales soar to highest level in almost nine years. … [Read more...]
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