Hope and optimism that the economy may have bottomed were pushed to the front burner again, and all major indexes gained solidly to start the week out on a positive note. Lowe’s better than expected first quarter results provided the fuel for the rally, which was followed by improved homebuilder confidence as well as an upgrade of the financial sector. …
More On Risk Control
Saturday’s post “Buyer Beware of Risk control” elicited a number of reader comments. Here’s one I want to elaborate on: In your post, “Buyer Beware Of Risk Control,” you highlighted the statement, “It does not really matter how much of a return you make during good times, what matters is how much you keep when the markets turn south.” I …
Sunday Musings: Beneficiaries Of The Bailout—Banks And Wall Street
While my main day-to-day focus is on the use of a disciplined investment strategy via trend tracking, it pays to look at the big picture every so often to see where we stand economically and to assess the effects of the financial bailouts. Other bloggers are more qualified to talk on that subject, and I like to reference articles that …
Buyer Beware Of Risk Control
With the mother of all bears having mauled most portfolios in 2008, mutual fund companies are scrambling to come up with solutions to alleviate investor fear that nothing has been done to avoid a repeat performance. American Century believes that their attention to risk control has been paying off: About one-third of American Century’s 79 funds are in the top …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 5/14/2009
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpA long overdue pullback handed the bulls the first loss in six weeks. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs remains below its trend line (red) by -1.10% thereby confirming the current bear market trend. The international index has now broken above its long-term trend line by +1.94%, which triggered …
The Cost Of Survival
Reader Frank had this comment regarding the need to set up stop losses: I have been reading your column and understand the need for the trailing stops; however, the cost to transact at brokerage houses or the redemption time period at mutual fund firms are additional costs that must be considered and could become prohibitive in some cases. Do you …