Investing

A prudent investor is able to spot when an asset becomes a high risk and then has the sense to move his or her funds into one that is a lower risk but, unfortunately, complacency has turned investors brains into mush. Real estate & stock asset values are near their top while the silver price is closer to its bottom. Thus, assets that are near a top are HIGH RISK, and those near a bottom are LOW RISK. It’s really that simple.

Buying and selling based on a moving average of monthly closes can be an effective strategy for managing the risk of severe loss from major bear markets. In essence, •when the monthly close of the index is above the moving average value, you hold the index, •when the index closes below, you move to cash. A chart of the S&P 500 monthly closes since 1995 shows that a 10- or 12-month simple moving average (SMA) strategy would have ensured participation in most of the upside price movement while dramatically reducing losses.

What makes 2018 remarkably different from the recent past is rising stock market volatility. Since the start of the year, the CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX) has shot higher by around 100%. By comparison, the VIX was -42.5% for the three-year period from January 2015 to December 2017. While rising volatility might put certain people on edge, but it’s not necessarily bad. Here are 3 strategies for managing market volatility.

For the majority of Americans, investing has never worked as promised. The problem is that most individuals cannot manage their own money because of ‘short-termism.’ Despite their inherent belief that they are long-term investors, they are consistently swept up in the short-term movements of the market. Fear is a stronger emotion than greed. People sell out, usually at the very bottom, and almost always at a loss. Let’s look at some of the more common trading mistakes to which people are prone.

Life is like going the wrong way on a moving escalator. Walk and you stay put. Stand still and you go backwards. To get ahead, you have to hustle or, at least, your money has to hustle. You have to make your money make you money and dollar cost averaging as an investment strategy is like steroids for your money. The difference between doing it and not doing it is millions of dollars.

Do you really need portfolio diversification?...Everyone assumes that broad asset class portfolio diversification is advantageous...[as it] reduces the risk associated with events that can trigger a decline in any one asset class...[and makes] financial planning more reliable and predictable by reducing the variations in portfolio performance from year to year. Simply put, portfolio diversification is a sound investment practice but, [that said,] exactly how much risk reduction, in actual numbers, is obtained through application of this philosophy? [Bottom line, is] asset class diversification all that it’s cracked up to be? This article...addresses...the benefits of diversification among various classes.

Whenever some financial “pundit” says that the best way to get into a stock is by averaging down, we sometimes cringe. Why? Because, at best, you’ll be getting into a stock at a lower average price...but more importantly, you can be getting into a stock that’s poised to sink much, much lower and that’s a risk no one wants to take.

Using beta to build a portfolio is a smart and easy thing to do. All you have to do is make sure you understand your risk tolerance and not build a portfolio that is overweight in one sector of the stock market...

Overall, the market was due for a pullback. It seemed like every trading day in January, the market was only rising so it is only natural that, eventually, the market was going to fall but it’s just that many didn’t think this type of volatility was going to happen so soon. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Many of us think Wall Street is using sophisticated tools to make money. It is...but big Wall Street firms also use simple tools to make money. One tool many large firms use is the advance-decline line.