JT

Japanese Stocks are In Play: Should You Follow?

April 8, 2013

The Bank of Japan is engaged in the most aggressive quantitative easing in the world (here’s what happened previously to ETFs that went wild following US QE Announcements). If you thought Ben Bernanke’s asset purchases were something, you’ll see the Bank of Japan as a lunatic. After the election of Shinzo Abe, investors moved boatloads […]

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The 4% Rule is Dead, but these ETFs Might Help

March 31, 2013

The days of consistent 4% annual withdrawals from a retirement fund are long gone. A paper from Morningstar rejects the idea that anyone can pull 4% per year from their retirement balance with any confidence.  Overconfidence is common, but not prudent. Here’s the skinny: Low rates crush income potential – At the time the 4% […]

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Why Transportation ETFs Should be a Core Portfolio Holding

March 24, 2013

Transportation has all the makings of an excellent business. It’s a consolidated industry with a product that is necessary for day to day life on planet Earth. While it isn’t very exciting as a business model, over the long term the transportation sector has rewarded investors with spectacular returns. It’s also extraordinarily cyclical. As anyone […]

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Finding the Best Exposure in Homebuilding ETFs

March 18, 2013

Homebuilding ETFs are making it much too easy for new investors to make the biggest mistake of them all: taking an ETF’s name at face value. While there are three ETFs that claim to give investors to homebuilding, the stocks these funds hold and the proportions in which they hold them varies dramatically: SPDR Homebuilders […]

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Buy Falling Angels for Higher Yields

March 10, 2013

Market Vectors thinks that the best way to get ahead in the bond market is with the “Falling Angels,” bonds that have fallen from investment grade to below investment grade. Over time, companies that have moved from investment grade to junk have given their debt investors higher returns. Market Vectors has a new fund for […]

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Here’s Why Vanguard’s Dividend Growth ETF is a Top Pick

March 3, 2013

Dividend stocks are hot with investors who realize that most historical stock market gains have come from dividends. The role of dividends in investment performance does not go unnoticed. Dividends also have a few other advantages for the investor: They serve as a guide for earnings quality. Many companies generate only accrual earnings, rarely generating […]

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Is This the Start of a Bear Market in Gold?

February 24, 2013

Famed investing legends are dumping their gold holdings. George Soros dropped his stash of gold (held in the popular SPDR Gold Trust (GLD)) while Louis Moore Bacon sold all of his gold holdings in his Moore Capital Management fund with the exception of a modest position in a physical gold ETF, Sprott Physical Gold Trust […]

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Bet on Higher Interest Rates with ETFs

February 17, 2013

Interest rates can’t stay low forever? Or can they? This week famed value investor Jim Grant announced to a group of ETF insiders that he was short the bond market, making an explicit call that he believed that rates would rise faster than yields could reward investors. The ETF space offers several opportunities for going […]

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Junk Bonds: Adjusting for “The Great Rotation”

February 10, 2013

January 2013 was marked with the concept of a “Great Rotation” from fixed income to stocks. The premise is simple: after more than 30 years of a bull market in bonds, investors buying today are buying at record low yields. Relative to 2% on a 10 year treasury bond, a dividend-paying stock at a fair […]

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