Six-Month Update – Wealth Preservation with Limited Market Participation in a Risk-On Environment

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

Should You Consider Buying Single-Stock ETFs?

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.

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

Re-Allocations of ETFs Under the Specter of Recession

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

Traditional Values-Driven ETFs

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

The Many Faces of QQQ

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

Navigating the Volatility Vortex – How Well Have Safe Harbor ETFs Performed?

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

Why Pay More for Your Investments?

Consumers have never been happy about paying more for the same (or less) from one place than from another.  It has only been within the past twenty years or so that investors have gotten wiser to this practice. Financial advisors, planners and the media have increasingly made investors more aware of how much less expensive … Read more

2nd Quarter US Benchmark ETF Update

The first quarter was rather turbulent. But given the unexpected burst of inflation and the savage Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the final price reading of the S&P 500 of -5.2% comes almost as a relief.  A late rally in March mitigated the overall damage The ETF reports on ValuEngine that follow market benchmarks provide … Read more

How Did the Stores of Value Hold Up during the Turbulent First Quarter?

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