If you were bullish on equities, there was nothing to like about yesterday’s trading activity. Existing home sales took front and center and with sales having dropped by over 27% to levels last seen in 1995, stocks got hammered and closed at their lowest level in about 7 weeks. As has been the norm, the home sale decline was greater …
Slipping And Sliding
Despite an initial upward thrust, the markets meandered aimlessly during the remainder of yesterday’s session, then gave up their gains and faded into the close. While the losses were manageable, trading activity was nevertheless a sign of uncertainty about the future status of the economy. Bonds were the beneficiary again, as they have been for most of this year, with …
More On The State Of The Economy
When commenting on economic issues in my weekly updates and/or daily blog posts, it seems that lately the most frequently used word has been “unexpected;” as in economists had expected a different outcome in regards to economic reports as was reported by the government. At times, the difference between expectations and actual outcome has been quite stunning confirming my long …
Sunday Musings: More Bond Bubble Thoughts
In regards to last Sunday’s post Bond Bubble Thoughts, reader Mal emailed this article titled “The Treasury Bond Bubble: A Survival Guide for Investors:” Concerns have been escalating lately about the possible risks of investing in Treasury bonds. Just how bad is that risk, and what should investors do about it? The most ominous warning came from Tobias M. Levkovich, …
Hard Sell Stops vs. Soft Sell Stops
Several readers have commented recently that they too prefer the use of a soft sell stop vs. a hard one. What’s the difference? Hard sell stops attempt to get you out of a position at an exact predetermined figure. For example, if you bought an ETF at $10, your trailing sell stop of 7% would be at $9.30. If the …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 8/19/2010
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpWorse than expected economic news handed the bears a win for the second week in a row. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs held above its trend line (red) by +2.48% (last week +2.30%) and remains in bullish mode. The international index has now broken barely below its long-term …