Almost everyone has an opinion, right? And I believe those who may claim to have no opinion are often just reluctant to share it. Since I am so long in the business of investing, I receive questions about my opinion of the near future market results. My opinion is worth [...]
Sometimes I will hear from readers who say that I talk too much about the government and politics in my column that is supposed to be about the economy and money. I actually agree with them. But until the government and politicians stop playing such a big of role in [...]
You have probably seen statistics that over decades of time, the general stock market rises by an amazing percentage, but average investors experience mediocre or even poor results. Vats of ink—in the old days at least—have been invested in writing about the reasons for this anomaly. Today there is [...]
What just happened in 2023 financially in the US? For professionals, it was one word: Surprise! After suffering an 18 percent plus drop in 2022, the S&P 500 index gained 26.4 percent, almost back to its all-time high point of January 4, 2022. The gargantuan tech companies led the Nasdaq [...]
Energy is the lifeblood of everything in the universe. We leaped out of the dark ages by harnessing the power of stored energy in the form of burning wood, then coal, and rocketed forward with the use of gasoline and other fossil fuels to power our energy needs. We simply [...]
It’s been about 15 years now since we had our last true recession. Last year nearly everyone, including yours truly, expected a recession to take hold by spring of this year. As it goes with most things with the stock market, when most people expect something, it usually does the [...]
In behavioral psychology there is a principle called risk aversion theory. The concept states the human mind has a naturally tendency to feel the pain of losses more than the pleasure of gains. For many investors who saw their accounts drop by more than 20% in 2022 they are probably [...]
The late great baseball legend, Yogi Berra, is credited with this quotation: It is tough to make predictions, especially about the future! If there were a perfect field for applying this, investing must be it. Our viewpoint (and that of our favorite economists at First Trust Advisors, LP) remains that [...]
For decades, commentators on the Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) have referred to the action of raising federal funds interest rates as taking away the punch bowl at the party. After finally arousing from sleep after the inflation fire was already getting out of control, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has [...]
