Should Gold Have a Role in Your Portfolio?

By Herb Blank Our short answer is yes.  Generally speaking, the amount should be between 5% and 10% for diversification purposes. Gold doesn’t provide as much diversification as other assets in most time periods.  But in the greatest equity market collapses in history when the endurance of the US market and dollar as the safe … Read more

03/08/2021 What’s in Your Core?

By Herb Blank If you are an investor with less than $1 billion to invest and a holding horizon of more than 3 months, do NOT buy SPY to access exposure to the S&P 500.  This is true even though SPY has the most assets under management and the highest average trading volume by far. The simple … Read more

02/19/2021 ValuEngine Market Update, stock pick

ValuEngine is asked many times every day what our outlook for the market is for the next few months.  We always answer with uncertainty, as that is the nature of the markets these days. We are “generally positive” about the markets and recovery once we put Covid in the rear view mirror. But we are … Read more

Inside Actively Managed Equity ETFs

By Herbert Blank Actively managed ETFs have evolved very differently from index-driven ETFs.  Most of the assets have been accumulated in actively managed fixed income ETFs while the vast preponderance of Assets Under Management in Equity ETFs are index driven. Although there are many legacy reasons for this, the fact is that the efficiencies of … Read more

Dividend ETFs, How to Decide Which is Best for You.

By Herbert Blank Dividend ETFs have seen major inflows in recent years.  At a time when most fixed income ETFs have historically low yields, that interest is easy to understand.  There are more than 100 US-listed ETFs categorized by Morningstar, ETF.com, ETF Stream and others as Dividend ETFs.  Many of these use very different methodologies to satisfy … Read more

Making Sense of ESG ETFs and Impact ETFs 12/14/2020

By Herbert Blank There are more than 100 US-listed ETFs categorized by Morningstar and others under ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance).  All have an element of attempting to align investments with personally held social values. Under the hood, there are huge differences between many and subtle huge differences between others. Its a big subject, to … Read more

Stong Markets This Week! ValuEngine stock recommendations 11/23/2020

5000 stocks and 500 ETFs updated on www.ValuEngine.com The stock market had a great week.  Perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel for the virus with all sorts of positive vaccine news reaching the public this week.  The economy is not out of the woods yet, but any investment professional or informed individual … Read more

Low Volatility ETFs 11/13/2020

By Herbert Blank Welcome Herb to ValuEngine! Please see below for the first of many articles/blogs by Herb Blank. There are more than a dozen US ETFs with “Low Volatility” in their names.  It made a difference this year as many Low Vol ETFs struggled to keep up with during this year’s “downturn” when one would … Read more

Stocks/ETF’s for Uncertain Times 11/02/2020

Are you uncertain what the next few weeks will bring to your investments? Most are. A very contentious election tomorrow combined with increasing Covid numbers across the country are unsettling. Yet the markets have come on strong since earlier this year, and no one likes to miss out. ValuEngine Capital Management (VECM) has begun to … Read more

Dividend Stock Pick ValuEngine Update 10/26/2020

Markets are volatile and risky.  I have made a stock pick today that has good dividend payments, which helps to offset market risk. But, the stock is risky in other ways not necessarily associated with overall markets. FNHC (FedNat Holding Company) is an insurance company operating in the southeast US. The annual dividend is almost … Read more