Taking a Defensive Stance on Defense Stocks

Amidst widespread speculation, The return of President Trump as commander-in-chief could threaten earnings growth in the defense industry in 2025. Analysts seeing it this way point to these items on the perceived Trump agenda: Hardball negotiations with defense contractors led by the new Department of Government Efficiency co-heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy; Trump’s stated belief one … Read more

Sector ETF Major Provider Comparisons

What Can We Learn from Sector ETFs? My last blog focused on the 3rd quarter rotation from large cap-weighted growth ETFs to index ETFs that were more value-oriented, equally weighted and/or mid- and small-cap focused.  Sector ETFs are often used for rotation strategies in addition to being vehicles for long-term investment.  There are 132 sector … Read more

Stock Market 3rd Quarter 2024 – A Sea Change in Leadership or Just a Pit Stop?

Despite expectations for weak-to-negative returns in 2024 because of an anticipated recession that never happened, 2024 has been a very strong year for the market and its major benchmark ETFs.  The S&P 500 has been in a relentless uptrend since rebounding from the lows of the bear market of 2022.  The Nasdaq-100 has been even … Read more

Exploring Canadian Opportunities

At a recent meeting, I was asked about stock investment opportunities in Canada. That question inspired this article. Although many Canadian companies are listed only on the Toronto Stock Exchange (or the smaller exchanges in Montreal and Vancouver), there are more than 218 Canadian companies with direct listings on US stock exchanges. ValuEngine has some … Read more

Beyond QQQ: Two Nasdaq ETFs for Finding Potential Future Tech Superstars

The Nasdaq-100 Trust ETF, ticker symbol QQQ, is both one of the most loved and most hated ETFs in the US market.   Investors who bought and held $10,000 worth 15 years ago on September 10, 2009 have every reason to love it.  They now have seen that investment grow to $126,000, an annualized gain … Read more

Explosive Active ETF Growth Reaches a New Milestone

Since 2021, actively managed ETFs have enjoyed the highest percentage growth of any ETF category.  Coupled with the huge decline in traditionally structured mutual funds in the same period, it is understandable that these active mutual fund managers who once shunned ETFs as a fad are now offering ETFs and/or converting existing funds to ETFs. … Read more

Russell 2000 Rebalancing Post-Mortem

The Russell US Indexes are designed to reflect the ever-changing US equity market, and the annual reconstitution process is critical to maintaining accurate representation. The Russell Indexes differ from other major US stock market indexes in a variety of ways.  Russell was also the first index family to use float-adjusted market capitalization, using only shares … Read more

Targeting Tech for the Remainder of 2024

Targeting Tech Stocks Below The Magnificent Seven Although the rise of the largest technology stocks known as “The Magnificent Seven” has not yet reached return levels experienced midway through 2023, they are off to another relatively strong start as a group.  One stock that has stood out in particular is Nvidia (Ticker: NVDA) which has … Read more

Market Efficiency and Personal Access to Cash Receipts Improve Dramatically: T+1

On May 28, 2024, a new rule went into effect that will affect almost every stock, bond, and ETF trade in U.S. markets.  This new rule establishes the “T+1” settlement cycle, and it relates to how long it takes for securities transactions to clear and settle.  These securities include all US exchange-traded stocks, corporate and … Read more

Quantitative Investment Modeling – 120 Years Since Bachelier: Part 2 (After Computers)

Part I of this article (posted on Blog.ValuEngine.com on May 22, click HERE) started with Louis Bachelier’s work from 1900 and covered all the theoretical work done up to and including William Sharpe, Ph.D.’s seminal work in 1964.  However, none of that early research had yet been applied successfully to actual investments in any meaningful … Read more