Asset Allocation

By definition, rare events should seldom occur and applying that understanding to financial markets assumes that all market events follow a normal distribution or, in layman's terms, a bell-shaped curve. More specifically, the statistics say that 99.7% of all daily movements should fall within three standard deviations of the mean, no more. Well, guess what? New research suggests that they clearly don't follow such a pattern - that "unlikely" doesn't mean "never". [Let me expand on that.] Words: 1079; Charts: 1

While conventional advice is to always stay invested, this is not the best strategy when we are at the end of the current paradigm. As we enter 2020, the question we have to ask is: How close to the edge of the cliff do we dare to go?...

If you are near retirement or already in retirement, there are many much better investment options than gold or even recession resilient high-dividend stocks that generate consistent income in both good and bad times. This article examines REITs and explains why they hold the best bet against inflation.

We are living in a highly globalized world with U.S. large cap companies generating a high percentage of their profits from abroad. As such, their exposure to a trade war has never been higher and, should tensions continue to rise, we believe we are set for a disaster to happen. It begs the question: "Where should one invest to “trade-proof” one's portfolio?"

The World Gold Council data shows that...26% of 2018 gold demand was for investment purposes while another 15% was demanded by central banks. Against that backdrop, there are three arguments for holding gold in a portfolio:

Beating the S&P 500 is so difficult that the index outperforms most active money managers but Warren Buffett has consistently done so. Over the last 30 years BRK.A has had an average annualized total return of 14.9%, while the S&P 500 has returned 9.4%.

Investing in blue-chip stocks that offer capital protection and steady dividends in volatile times looks like a smart option. In view of these factors, we have narrowed our search to the following stocks based on a good Zacks Rank and other relevant metrics.

The markets have recovered since the stock market correction in December 2018, and it seems nobody is worried anymore, but the numbers are not looking good, so caution is advised if you decide to jump into the stock market.

It’s hard to say where markets will head in 2019 – but before we get into the nitty-gritty of a new year, it’s worth taking one final look back at 2018 to see how it impacted investors.

Those who own long-term Treasuries and gold will make a lot of money in the next 12-36 months, and those holding stocks will writhe in pain at their enormous paper losses.