I feel deluged lately by webinars and events touting investments in gold and precious metals. One theory pushed to support investment in these industry groups is that 1974 is here again. They claim it is inevitable that the market will tank further as the economy plunges into stagflation, a deeper recession accompanied by huge inflation … Read more
In 2022, the majority of stocks and stock ETFs that have outperformed their peer groups were classified as value, high income, or both. That may or may not continue into the future. Last week, a colleague who prefers investing in stocks to ETFs asked me if I knew any stocks that the ValuEngine model ranked … Read more
An excellent ETF.com article was posted on September 22. “NYC Comptroller: Blackrock ESG Standards Alarming” highlighted a very public effort by Brad Lander to shame Blackrock into being more environmentally conscious. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander demands the company bolster its climate disclosures and publish a plan that establishes its commitment to net-zero greenhouse … Read more
In 2018, the General Industry Classification System (GICS) that defines the sector and industry groups of the S&P 500 made major changes to better reflect the changing global stock market environment. The primary change was the creation of the Communications Services sector and elimination of a separate Telecommunications Services Sector. All of the approximately 5,000 … Read more
According to Investopedia, the industry that is best equipped historically to deal with a rising interest-rate environment is banks. Generally, higher rates have led to wider spreads which in turn have led to higher profits for regional and money center banks. Therefore, we looked through Bank ETFs to see which ones our models found attractive … Read more
Six months ago, I discussed ways that investors could stay invested with one eye squarely on wealth preservation in a risk-on environment. We are still in a risk-on environment where the choices we reviewed in March are still relevant. One half of the list included five stock-based ETFs without derivatives that focus on stocks with … Read more
The following news item is an excerpt from an Investment News Article dated August 18, 2022. The full article can be viewed HERE. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin announced a ‘sweep’ of firms offering the new ETFs, which he compared to gambling at a casino. With the first single-stock ETFs only about a month … Read more
The list of best performing equity ETFs in the US thus far this year has been dominated by two categories: 1. Leveraged/Inverse – almost always the case by definition and 2. Single industry/sector – including energy, utilities, defense, and insurance et al. Leveraged and inverse ETFs are short-term trading tools that are very rarely, if … Read more
With the S&P 500 now officially in bear market territory, a major specter hanging over the market right now is the prospect of recession. Many experts say it is now inevitable. Morningstar’s research legend John Rekenthaler explained in a column Thursday that this bear market does not necessarily portend a recession and I agree. An underlying … Read more
I have written a lot in my blog analyzing and differentiating ESG, sustainable and impact ETFs. In 2020 and 2021 on a percentage basis, this segment was among the fastest growing in the ETF marketplace. Moreover, during most of that time, the market performance of these funds validated the concept that investing in ESG ETFs … Read more