Investing

Imagine that 5 years ago you invested $10,000 in the S&P 500. How much would it be worth today, with dividends reinvested but adjusted for inflation? The answer: $18,542 for an annualized real return of 12.41%. This article also provides the answers to S&P 500 returns over the last 10, 15, 20 and 30 years.

The price of gold has been feeling the pressure lately from a stronger U.S. dollar, which is at a four-month high, and rising Treasury yields. Nevertheless, the yellow metal eked out a positive March quarter, returning close to 1.3%, while the S&P 500 Index posted its first negative quarter since 2015. This tells me the investment case in gold and gold mining stocks remains as strong as ever. Below are four more reasons why I think you should consider adding gold stocks to your portfolio right now.

If you believe this time is different and you can’t see how over-valued the Dow Index is based upon the MACD technical, then maybe it might be prudent to allow a Doctor to take a Cat-Scan to find out if you have any brains left in your head!

The saying “sell in May and go away” infers that the stock market is seasonally weak from May to September and, as such, one should not own stocks during that period of time. As illustrated in the chart below, however, the stock market is not particularly bearish then. It is merely less bullish (i.e. the odds of the market going down vs. up are equivalent). That’s why “sell in May and go away” is not a good trading strategy. Let me illustrate that fact further in the 10 charts below.

The “death cross” occurs when the 50 daily moving average falls below the 200 daily moving average and is seen by mainstream financial media as a BIG bearish signal. It isn’t. It is actually more often a medium-long term bullish signal than a bearish signal. Below are all the S&P 500’s death crosses that have occurred over the past 20 years and they substantiate that it isn’t a useful indicator. Take a look.

This infographic illustrates 5 key reasons why it is important to own some platinum and/or palladium.

Larger allocations to gold are merited, then silver and investors should consider very small allocations to platinum and palladium.

Attention millennials: if you want to grow your financial portfolio - and enjoy your retirement as well - it’s high time you undertook serious money management responsibilities today which will help you establish a solid financial foundation. Here are the top 3 investments for millennials.

This post answers the following questions about day trading: What is it?; What are its advantages and disadvantages? and How we can improve on day trading’s disadvantages?

Investors want to know how much of their portfolio they should be in cash but there is no absolute answer to this question. Some investors and traders will hold no cash when they have a strong opinion on the market while others will always hold some cash (e.g. at least 10%) no matter how strongly they believe in their market outlook. You can decide what percentage of your portfolio you should hold in cash right now by considering the following factors: