Asset Allocation

The information provided by the Gold/Housing ratio in 2015 flat-out contradicts many widely held perceptions about market valuations today.

As an investment, gold is not for the faint of heart. You can make or lose a fortune, depending on your entry and exit points so, that being the case, is now a good time to buy gold?

If you have no gold or silver, you will be “Greeced,” “Cyprused,” or otherwise financially screwed for not taking responsibility for your own economic future. Those who already own either or both gold and silver know this although they still foolishly complain about the paper price continuing to decline - and that focus is grossly misplaced. Here's why.

Reasonable people understand that the stock market can go down as well as up so after a six year run that pushed the Dow Jones up dramatically, maybe it’s time to stop looking for reasons to buy stocks and begin looking for reasons to sell. This article presents 7 sound reasons to do the latter.

Do I need to invest in foreign stocks when the U.S. companies are now so global and the markets are so highly correlated?

Gold generally rises with uncertainty and desperation - two things in no short supply right now in Europe - yet gold can’t even make it back above the psychologically important $1,200-an-ounce mark. Why is that? Here's why.

History shows rather clearly that the stock market is prone to extreme events, aka crashes. The challenge is deciding when the risk for a repeat performance is unusually high... The leading factor, of course, is the business cycle but internal market issues can't be ignored either. With that in mind, I've developed what I think of as a crash-risk index for the U.S. stock market (S&P 500), which draws on signals from ten metrics that are reflecting different factors...

This comparison of stock values across all major world markets and forecast returns over the next five years suggests that, while this is not a “back up the truck” opportunity, it’s not bad either, particularly given how unappealing bonds and cash are at current yields.

Asset allocation is the most essential factor in building a high performing portfolio. Paying attention to the risk of each asset class allows you to create a portfolio that can beat the market in good times as well as bad.

With the market richly priced, forward returns just don’t look good enough. Worth the risk? I think it’s better to have a game plan in place that enables you to capitalize on the next major market correction – which in my opinion could be in the -40% to -60% range.