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
Do Not Be Alarmed By the Closing of JP Morgan Indexed ETFs. I say this even as I say that I believe this may be part of an emerging trend. Many mutual fund companies that are known for touting active management but stuck their feet in the water with ETFs will likely follow suit. The … Read more
There was a hilarious Match.com commercial at the end of 2020 where the year, portrayed by Kristen Bell, became a perfect match for Satan. This is exactly how many equity investors felt about the first half of 2022. 2020 turned out to be a good year for the market as the government stepped in with … 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
The history of QQQ, Invesco QQQ Trust, is that it was a game-changer from the very start. Beginning in 1999 with the development of the Nasdaq-100 index by John Jacobs, then a Nasdaq executive and now a professor at Georgetown and Steven Bloom, the product was an overnight success. It was Jacobs’ vision to take … Read more
In the past January Year-End review, I noted that ValuEngine models were predicting a down market for 2022. In March, as fears of interest rate hikes, continued runaway inflation and global implications of the Russian invasion played on investors’ minds, I wrote a column specifically on potential safe harbors in the wake of the perfect … Read more
Between inflation skyrocketing beyond expectations, the drumbeats of war and increasing global sanctions on Russian Oil, macroeconomic themes have dominated the 2022 stock market 15 weeks into the year. Throwing out derivatives-based ETFs, the top 11 US ETFs ranked by price performance this year are primarily focused on energy companies. All of the approximately 5,000 … Read more
When ProShares launched BITO, the Bitcoin Futures Strategy ETF last autumn, the ETF along with Bitcoin were promoted as “stores of value.” The rationale was that Bitcoin was independent of stock markets and would provide diversification away from equities and tend to rise when equity markets fell. Unconvinced, I wrote a column at that time … Read more
There is no sugarcoating it. January was a lousy month for the market. Many pundits are certain that this is the beginning of a yearlong downturn. Other experts are calling this a dip and a buying opportunity. Our models at ValuEngine are mixed with a six-month forecast on S&P 500 ETFs of +2.6% but a … Read more