When investors hire an advisor to help them make money fast, it often turns out that the only person making money is the advisor. Advisors not held to a fiduciary standard are likely to churn clients' portfolios, meaning they'll buy and sell, either chasing performance or generating fees and commissions for themselves by reinvesting the clients' money too often. With a new regulation taking effect from the Department of Labor, advisors traditionally held to the low "suitability standard" will be required to adhere to the more stringent "fiduciary standard" in some client retirement … [Read more...]

Even though short-term interest rates are now increasing, investors are telling Yellen & Co., the pace of hikes is still way too slow. The reach for yield remains a dominant theme in fixed income markets. Here the WSJ reports that the demand for leveraged loans is on fire. Investors are desperate for decent income and riskier companies are taking full advantage. The upshot is that the world of leveraged loans appears to be going slightly mad. Loan sales are running ahead of the pace of the past three years, fueled by a rush of money into the sector. Retail investors have piled … [Read more...]

One of the many great features of the stocks in Young Research's Retirement Compounders portfolio (RCs), is their dividend paying histories. Pair the RCs with a solid fixed-income investment, and you're on your way to being a world class investor. At MarketWatch, investing legend John Bogle echoes the call for defensive investing. One development could mitigate much of the advantage that index funds enjoy and slow the rush to own them, but you’re probably not going to like it. When the market suffers a prolonged decline, active managers can gain an edge over indexers by moving large … [Read more...]

Investing in the consensus isn't always the right course of action. Beware when the financial press and the majority of analysts agree on something. It can be a sign that the opposite is true. This idea was fleshed out nicely in 2008 by Stephen McClellan in Full of Bull: Do What Wall Street Does, Not What It Says, To Make Money in the Market. Now you can see evidence of the phenomenon of herd investing again in the case of Europe.  The Financial Times reports that Europe's strong performance is a big surprise among investors and economists. Chris Giles and Claire Jones write: The consensus … [Read more...]

Martin Fridson is one of the best high-yield bond analysts, period. I had a chance to meet Mr. Fridson when I started a small stock club at Babson College in Wellesey, Massachusetts in the early 90s. Two of my favorite professors at Babson are involved in this story. The first is Joel Shulman, who introduced me to Fridson. He suggested my stock group co-sponsor a talk by Fridson. Thanks to Professor Shulman, to this day, I have a signed copy of Fridson’s book Investment Illusions in my office. In looking up that book for this post, I found Financial Statement Analysis, now in it's fourth … [Read more...]

Make no mistake. I am a believer in Jeff Bezos. I even coined a term in his name: The Bezos Law: If Jeff Bezos enters an industry, prices will be lower. But that doesn’t mean I’m a buyer of the stock. Remember the dot-com boom and bust? I do. I had a front row seat as a college intern with the founding team of a grocery home delivery start-up. It was the Webvan of the east coast, with the same unfortunate result; Bankruptcy. What went wrong? Turns out, among other things, shoppers like to pick their own produce. What’s changed? Not much, as far as I can tell. Will FreshDirect be … [Read more...]

Is $5 billion spent on a company’s headquarters really money well spent? In the following article about the construction of the Apple’s new Mothership it seems as if those who remain are still worried about not disappointing Steve Jobs. Has Apple lost its edge? Amid all the fanboy anticipation, though, Apple has also taken some knocks for the scale and scope of the thing. Investors urging Apple to kick back more of its bounty to shareholders have questioned whether the reported $5 billion in construction costs should have gone into their own pockets instead of a workplace striving for … [Read more...]

The NASDAQ Composite index plunged over 2.5% yesterday on fear that President Trump's pro-growth economic agenda of tax-reform and regulatory roll-back were going to be derailed by scandal. Some stocks and sectors were down much more than the Nasdaq's 2.5%. How did Young Research's Dynamic Maximizers portfolio fare during the carnage?  It rose 0.18%. The Dynamic Maximizers (DMs) is Young Research's maximum safety portfolio. It is ideal for retired investors and IRAs. The portfolio is featured monthly in Richard C. Young's Intelligence Report. … [Read more...]

Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) is a little blue-book about little things that can change your life…and maybe the world. It was inspired by the commencement speech McRaven gave on May 21, 2014. Start your day with a task completed. Make your bed. And, as he explains in Chapter Ten: Never Quit. McRaven told Business Insider in an interview: Admiral McRaven: We used to have a saying in SEAL training, "Take it one evolution at a time." Meaning don't look six months down the road. Don't ask yourself or don't look and say, "My gosh, I've got more swims and more … [Read more...]