ETFS

By James Zdralek, Senior Usability Design Expert, SAP What if the world ran on new classes of digital currency that are inflation resistant, create price stability, discourage bubbles and deflationary spirals? What if they could protect citizen’s savings without reducing liquidity when they save rather than spend? Rapid change will continue due to ongoing digital transformation.

At long last, Brazil is back and it will blow Mexico away next year as a relatively safe bet for growth in 2018, analysts from Morgan Stanley suggested in a report dated Dec. 8. Mexico’s been doing quite well, thanks to the strong U.S. economy that it depends on for nearly all of its exports.

The U.S. stock market was up 8% in three weeks, which is a little under half of what the S&P 500 did all last year. January marked the 22nd of the last 23 months that the market was higher in total return. It’s almost impossible today to make a bear case for anything except for,

Watch Now Jon Maier, Chief Investment Officer, Global X sat down with Julie Cooling, Founder & CEO, RIA Channel to discuss their suite of income, thematic, country funds, and factor-based ETFs. Maier moved to Global X from Merrill Lynch to offer his experience and knowledge of ETF model portfolio management. As the due diligence manager and gatekeeper

When I started cold calling for prospects at the Dean Witter Reynolds office on 17th Street in Denver in the early 80s, the 30-year municipal bonds I was pitching yielded 14%+ tax-free — without checking, I believe this was substantially more than is paid these days. I’d passed the securities exam and had just returned

For some, moments like these on Wall Street were made for the risk takers. National economic advisor Larry Kudlow warned the Fed about an inverted yield curve and what it means for the economy: in short, it means recession. The Fed is hiking. The market is thinking the economy will slow, and that’s pushing Treasury

The believers are hanging on for dear life.  The bull market is in its 9th year as of March, when it hit 666 in intraday trade on March 6, 2009…and hasn’t looked back since. If this keeps up for another 12 months, it will be the longest running bull market in history. BlackRock Investment Institute,

Global markets were volatile again last week. Here are some of the major movers and indicators that investors should be watching. As you read through, note that the breakdown in historical relationships between different markets can be just as important as a new high or low in price or value. Gold & U.S. Real Yields

These 2  very different markets have price charts that hit higher highs this week: the yield on the 10-year Treasury note and the price of oil, as seen in the actively traded West Texas futures contract. It had an almost synchronous feel Tuesday when both established fresh 52-week highs — if you followed along, you

Despite the failure this week of the NASDAQ Composite Index to make it to new highs, these 5 NASDAQ listed stocks all showed real strength by taking out previous peaks in price and establishing fresh multi-year highs: Points International is an internet information provider based in Canada. The stock hasn’t been this high since 2015.

History shows investors will stick with their mutual fund and Exchange Traded Fund holdings in the next downturn, Investment Company Institute Chair Ted Truscott asserted today. It’s a myth these investors are prone to panic when the markets go against them force and force funds to dump securities onto the market at fire-sale prices, Truscott

That’s “big dividends” in the relative sense. With the U.S. 10-year Treasury rate at 2.7%, then stocks paying more than a 4% dividend yield are of interest. An equity has more risk intrinsically than a government bond — if you’re willing to accept that, then you may find the higher yield a more attractive choice.

Elder financial abuse impacts millions of Americans each year, to an estimated tune of $2.9 billion annually. The financial exploitation of senior Americans is only going to continue to grow as scams targeting that segment of the population become more sophisticated. In an attempt to take a step towards countering some of the negative impact

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi signaled that further rate cuts in the euro-zone are unlikely. That means rates are going higher sooner rather than later. Who is going to be the buyer of all that negative interest rate debt, nearly a trillion of it in the market according to Fitch. Negative to zero

The re-election of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff did not wipe out local asset prices as many predicted. And even though many investment firms see the Bovespa index eventually bottoming out at 46,000 points before rallying again, the story on the long-term is still out.  For now, a short honeymoon period with the new Dilma is

For years Boyar Research has offered up winning stock picks for value investors to study during the holidays when it publishes a list of 40 forgotten companies set to surge in the new year. Since Boyar Research began hunting for its so-called Forgotten Forty stocks, these picks have handily beaten the S&P 500 Index. The

Investors are bidding down the yields on bonds issued by highly rated countries around the world, causing German, Swiss, Japanese and Dutch 10-year bonds to offer negative yields. Lending to the United States for 10-years presently yields 1.35%, down from the 2%-plus rates they yielded at the end of 2015, even once risky governments like

Warren Buffett, the jocular Midwestern billionaire best known for his appearances in business magazines and on CNBC, has joined Twitter. Yes, that’s right, the online bastion of starlets and rappers and millions of ordinary teenagers is now an outlet for probably the most anti-technology curmudgeon of modern times. His first tweet? “Warren is in the

For three decades, Byron Wien, vice chairman of multi-asset investing at the Blackstone Group, has made it a habit of publishing ten surprises for investors in the New Year. His predictions involve market moving events he believes have a better than 50% chance of occurring, but that are being treated by investors as unlikely. Wien would likely be

A lot of hair has been pulled over the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote. Sure, there were a couple of days when there was extreme volatility, but there are more important investment truths that need to be heeded. It’s easy to take your eye off the ball when so much turmoil is dominating the business headlines. You want

For more than a year, many of America’s weightiest CEOs and investors have been working to solve a major issue looming over the companies and portfolios they oversee: There’s a gap in confidence between investors and the corporations that trade on public stock markets. Many investors have grown frustrated with what they perceive as excessive executive compensation,

So much for Britain’s vote to leave the European Union creating an immediate earnings headache for America’s largest banks. On Thursday morning, JPMorgan Chase shrugged off June’s Brexit vote, posting better than expected second quarter results, led by stronger than forecast trading activity and continued growth at the bank’s consumer business. The results augur well for banking

The retail investor is tip-toeing into the market this week as expected. Last week, in an interview with Forbes, Allan Conway, a fund manager for Schroders in London told me that he expected the retailer to return to the market within the next few weeks, but that flow would not last for long. “Most of

If you want to charge the maximum possible price for anything, the strategy is simple — reduce supply. The Rolling Stones, always keen on presenting themselves as working-class louts who get paid to misbehave, nevertheless understand economics. They’re doing just four “50th Anniversary” shows, two in London, two in the United States in New Jersey.

In late September,  Campbell Soup increased its divided 7.6% from 29 cents a share to 32 cents. Earlier in the month  Microsoft  raised its quarterly payout 22% to 28 cents per share from 23 cents. And just last week  Kraft Foods Group  announced a 5% increase from 50 cents to 52 cents. Net dividend payout

I’ll give you a tip-off from the get-go. If you try to trump the do-nothing, leave-it-alone retirement plan, it’s not going to end well for your portfolio. Why you’re headed for an unhappy ending is a matter of hard facts. By trying to outwit the market and guess what’s going to happen next, you’ll likely

As part of our ongoing Best Ideas 2013 coverage, which was initiated in our recent Investment Guide, I offer you the best and worst idea from Adviser Investment’s Jeff DeMaso. Jeff works with one of the most trusted names among mutual fund and ETF money managers , Dan Wiener. Dan and Jeff produce a newsletter

A banner with Twitter’s logo in front of the New York Stock Exchange on the day of the social… [+] network’s IPO. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife) Young and profit-less Twitter is a risky investment. At $42.90 a share it’s not a particularly cheap investment either. ETF issuer Global X Funds is betting it

Manisha Thakor |44 Hometown: Columbus, IN Alma Mater: Harvard M.B.A.; Wellesley College B.A. Specialty: Indexing Day Job: Director of Wealth Strategies for Women, Buckingham and The BAM Alliance Cred: After 20 years managing money at firms like Fayez Sarofim, SG Warburg,  and Atalanta/Sosnoff Capital, Thakor started MoneyZen Wealth Management in 2012 to build portfolios of

I was recently asked by an editor to write a piece on how Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will impact the U.S. economy and markets. I declined. The next president will matter, of course, to the future of the country and the world, but may have almost no long-term impact on the economy and markets.