By Bob Stokes
5/18/2012 5:30:00 PM
Ten days before the most recent stock market top (May 1), an April 21 Barron's online headline read: "...Big Money Poll Finds Money Managers Are Bullish." But since the start of the month, the Dow Industrials has given back over 900 points. What gives?...
Filed Under: Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Elliott wave, investor psychology, mutual funds, Robert Prechter
Category: Stocks
By Bob Stokes
5/4/2012 4:15:00 PM
Very rare exceptions aside, money markets have been safe. Learn why they now may be a lot less safe...
Filed Under: money markets, banks, central banks, credit crisis, debt crisis, deflation, economic depression, euro stoxx 50, europe, european central bank, European debt crisis, european markets, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), mutual funds, stimulus package, U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed)
Category: U.S. Economy
By Bob Stokes
4/23/2012 5:15:00 PM
If Apple and other fund favorites continue to lose their polish, what could that mean for the overall market? Well, let's see what market history teaches us...
Filed Under: Dow Industrials, Elliott Wave Principle, hedge funds, investment decisions, investment strategy, mutual funds, Nasdaq Composite, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), pension funds, S&P 500
Category: Stocks
By Nico Isaac
2/3/2012 5:00:00 PM
On February 1, Facebook revealed plans to raise $5 billion in the biggest internet initial public offering ever. Soon after, the vast majority of Facebook's 845 million users clicked "like" on the soon-to-be IPO's wall post. So, the big question remains: Does this salvo of social networking and micro-blogging sites really have a new "face"? One, for that matter, that won't turn into a sad, frowning emoticon from another tech boom gone bust?
Filed Under: Bob Prechter, Elliott Wave Theorist, hedge funds, herding, mutual funds, prechter, S&P 500
Category: Stocks
By Bob Stokes
1/20/2012 4:45:00 PM
Investors believe municipal bonds are safe, but the evidence suggests that a change for the worse is underway. That evidence includes...
Filed Under: financial forecast, municipal bonds, mutual funds, pension funds
Category: U.S. Economy
By Bob Stokes
1/4/2012 5:15:00 PM
"The reports of hedge-fund dysfunction are starting to appear; the size and number of disruptions will multiply many times in coming months...hedge funds will find themselves unable to..." Read the rest of this quote from the October Financial Forecast...
Filed Under: Elliott Wave Theorist, financial forecast, hedge funds, mutual funds, risk appetite
Category: Stocks
By Susan C. Walker
9/16/2011 2:30:00 PM
It’s all about the yield, which, according to Morningstar Inc., has averaged about 5.75% over the past 20 years for equity REITs. So, what’s not to like about REITs?
Filed Under: Bear market, commercial real estate, mutual funds, Robert Prechter
Category: Stocks
By Bob Stokes
6/28/2011 6:15:00 PM
The fact that a substantial percentage of U.S. based money market funds have holdings in European banks doesn't mean a given money market fund will suffer a loss. Yet exposed money market funds may be at risk if the sovereign debt crisis escalates...
Filed Under: conquer the crash, Elliott Wave Theorist, European Union (EU), Greek debt, Irish debt crisis, liquidity, mutual funds, Robert Prechter, safe haven, soverign debt crisis
Category: U.S. Economy
By Bob Stokes
5/25/2011 9:45:00 AM
The investment officers who oversee those funds clearly are not afraid of risky investments. They've jumped into them with both feet...All is well when most financial markets are rising. But what if...
Filed Under: cash, diversification, market forecasts, mutual funds, pension funds, sentiment, stock indexes
Category: Stocks
Current Echoes of the Old Mania
EWI's May Financial Forecast reveals whether these familiar notes are the sounds of a new bull market
By Nico Isaac
5/11/2011 12:15:00 PM
In the decade leading to the end of the Great Asset Mania in 2007, a rising tide of credit expansion drove many major financial market trends in remarkable harmony. Yet in 2009 this correlation seemed to diverge: stocks, precious metals, and oil moved contra-cyclically. But today, the trend in those markets is aligned once again.
Filed Under: bull market, credit crisis, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), gold futures, mania, market forecasts, mutual funds, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), silver, U.S. dollar, U.S. Treasuries, unemployment, Wall Street
Category: Stocks
By Bob Stokes
4/19/2011 12:15:00 PM
The power of collective psychology reaches far and wide, and is no respecter of persons. The market technician is as susceptible to the siren song as the fundamentalist. The "smart money" is taken in as quickly as the "dumb money." Traders and investors alike are seduced by the sweetness of the sound...
Filed Under: Campaign for Independent Thinking, Elliott Wave Theorist, mutual funds, Robert Prechter, sentiment
Category: Stocks
By Bob Stokes
3/4/2011 6:15:00 PM
While stock mutual fund investors have largely been on the sidelines during much of the rally since the bottom two years ago, their actions have recently changed...
Filed Under: Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Elliott Wave Theorist, herding, mutual funds, Robert Prechter, sentiment
Category: Stocks
By Debbie Iseler
12/8/2010 3:30:00 PM
...I asked what kind of bonds they got into. “High-yield bond funds,” was the answer. What kind of bonds are these funds invested in? To this question I got blank stares. How long do you plan on staying in these funds? This got the reply I was afraid I'd hear: “Why would we get out when they are so much safer than stocks?” That's when my new interest in these once boring investments turned to fear -- for my friends.
Filed Under: junk bonds, municipal bonds, mutual funds, personal finance, Robert Prechter, U.S. Treasuries, Treasury bonds
Category: Interest Rates
By Susan C. Walker
10/8/2010 2:45:00 PM
Remember in 1999-2007, when stock buyers were sure it was “all about incremental earnings”? Now it’s all about “incremental yield,” with no regard whatsoever for the safety of principal. What's wrong with this picture?
Filed Under: mutual funds
Category: Classic Prechter
Picking Up the Bear Trail
An Approaching Bear Will Likely Catch "Happy Campers" Unawares
By Bob Stokes
10/5/2010 4:30:00 PM
If another "ransacking" by a bear is possible, are there any useful signs to watch for? One way is to...
Filed Under: Goldman Sachs, S&P 500, Robert Prechter, mutual funds
Category: Stocks
By Susan C. Walker
8/20/2010 2:15:00 PM
When it's sunny, you head outside without a thought, but when it's rainy, you look for your umbrella. When the markets are trending up, you don't worry about your investments much, but when the markets turn bearish ... what do you do?
Filed Under: Treasury bills (T-bills), mutual funds, U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed)
Category: Classic Prechter
By Bob Stokes
5/24/2010 3:15:00 PM
Imagine what $2 billion would buy. How many college tuitions would that pay for? How many gas tanks would that fill? Not to mention things like clothes and groceries. Well, between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, May 20, two thousand million dollars vanished from one state pension fund.
Filed Under: pension funds, mutual funds, bailouts, Robert Prechter
Category: Stocks
By Editorial Staff
5/16/2008 3:15:00 PM
Most people have begun to accept that the U.S. economy is in recession whether or not the National Bureau of Economic Research has labeled it a recession yet. If you, too, think that the economy is headed for hard times, the next question is, how do you prepare for it?
Filed Under: recession, mutual funds, U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed)
Category: Stocks
By Robert Folsom
5/9/2008 1:15:00 PM
When it comes to mutual funds, the truth is this: An ever-larger number of people give their money to an ever-smaller number of managers, who in turn oversee the taking of an ever-bigger slice of the pie.
Filed Under: mutual funds, diversification
Category: Stocks