The last eight years or so have given us what must be the strangest stock market bull run in history. I wrote five years ago that this is the bull market that nobody loves, and investors find it just as difficult to embrace today. Wall Street, London and other major global stock markets are nudging all-time highs, but investors continue to remain sceptical. Are they right to be afraid? …
It’s been a week since the Toronto Blue Jays lost the American League Championship to the Kansas City Royals. Although the sting of coming so close to the World Series for the first time in 23 years will take some time to dissipate, there are some lessons to be learned from the brand of baseball that the Jays played that can help investors understand how their investment time horizons affect…
It could be called the Great American Dichotomy: As the rest of the world struggles, the American economy continues to slowly grow. But some traders say that investors are making a big mistake if they think this divergence will continue forever. After Caterpillar (CAT) released earnings Thursday, CEO Doug Oberhelman told CNBC’s ” Squawk Box “: “We’ve seen a real dichotomy here in the world. The U.S. growing fairly slowly…
The chorus of investment gurus warning about a major downturn in equity markets grew louder this week when Carl Icahn said stock investors have “a lot to be concerned about it” during an appearance on Fox Business Network. There’s no doubt he — and anyone else weighing in on the matter recently — have a point. Rising interest rates combined with lofty valuations could easily put the brakes on the…
If you have a full-service investment account at a Canadian brokerage, your advisor has probably approached you in recent months to discuss the option of signing up for what is called a “fee-based account.” This means that you would be charged an annual fee of somewhere between 1-1.5% of the assets under advisement (AUA) at the brokerage, rather than paying commissions on individual buy and sell transactions. I am often…
From Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, to the September 2008 crash caused by U.S. financials’ exposure to toxic subprime loans and credit default swaps, it’s no wonder that, when autumn nears, so do investors’ fears of stock-market routs. During the 2008 collapse, which was the last major market crash aside from the flash crash of 2010, U.S. equities lost 21% of their value in a week and continued to crater until…
The correction many have been waiting for appears to have arrived, according to Tony Dwyer, U.S. portfolio strategist at Canaccord Genuity. He believes in order for this meaningful equity market pullback to last more than a day, there must be a fear of fundamental change. And Mr. Dwyer thinks enough ammunition is being provided by weak Chinese manufacturing data, more tapering from the Federal Reserve at its meeting next week,…
The ongoing turmoil in world markets has made for a herky-jerky ride this year. What did you learn? While most professional money managers expect stomach-churning volatility to continue, there’s no reason why you can’t still position your portfolio for safety, income or growth. Here are some mistakes to avoid: 1. Staying Out of the Market. Sure, the market this year was crazier than selling snowballs to Inuits. But by staying…