While your chances of winning an argument on any given topic are slim, there’s one situation where it’s non-existent. That’s when you’re confronted with a high-conflict personality.
Collateralized loan obligations are the largest source of demand in the loan market. Cheryl Stober breaks down some key drivers of CLO manager behavior.
The explosive rally in GameStop, pitting retail investors against hedge funds, has renewed calls to ban short selling. But new research shows how valuable short sellers are to the efficient functioning of markets.
The rationale behind the meteoric rise of Gamestop, a chain of videogame rental stores, and AMC, one of the nation’s largest cinema operators, is too unlikely to be believed. In just one month both stocks had risen by more than 600%.
Bank loans offer some of the highest yields in the current interest rate environment. We believe their unique characteristics may prevent many investors from considering them, but it may be a mistake to overlook them.
Inflation will likely heat up in the coming months, but not to worrying levels.
For all Millennial readers, if you visited a casino in your lifetime only to see your money quickly disappear, you have not seen anything compared to trading versus professionals. So to all you Robinhood traders I say, “Welcome to the Jungle.”
Heading into 2021, advisors face numerous headwinds: a potential return of inflation, sky high equity prices, possible negative returns on bonds. Yet advisors with retail clients have few good options to protect against these risks, and many that embraced alternative mutual funds and ETFs have been disappointed with low returns, high fees and large drawdowns.
The questions advisors are asking today is:
How can retail investors gain exposure to leading hedge funds yet with the client-friendly features of an ETF? Given the difficulties for many hedge funds in the 2010s, will hedge funds will return to the Golden Age of the 2000s, when they generated alpha through two bear markets?
The decade-long onslaught inflicted by growth stocks on value investors is due to end, according to Gerard O’Reilly. But the data is too “noisy” for him to say when that will happen.
There is no easy answer for income investors whose expectations and behaviors need to be adjusted accordingly.
You can take active steps to protect your practice, clients, and employees by following this checklist.
"There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch," my grandpa once told me. The adage suggesting you can't get something for nothing seems to have bitten millions of unwitting investors who used a popular trading platform, Robinhood.
2021 market outlook from BlackRock's municipal bond team.
In his forecast for 2021, Jeffrey Gundlach predicted a “regime change.” Investors should prepare for themes that reverse prior trends: U.S. equities will underperform the rest of the world, inflation will rise, volatility will be higher, and the dollar will weaken.
This is the second in my series about what I’d like to see more and less of in 2021.
LIBOR is still being retired, just a little later than initially expected.
Advisors still don't trust annuities. But rejecting them as unsafe is a misguided disservice to clients who would benefit from the financial solutions they provide.
The performance of ESG funds has been unimpressive, according to new research, and the occasional outperformance is driven mainly by funds’ expenses, exposures to certain industries and factors.
Half of Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement. Blame for this problem is usually pinned on some combination of low wages or irresponsible choices, but there’s another culprit: an expensive and antiquated 401(k) system. Reforming it could put billions more dollars into savers’ pockets.
How can credit markets help active investors achieve their goals in the present low yield environment? Here are 5 ideas.
There is strong demand for steady income. However, most investment products and strategies fail dismally in this regard.
We hope you enjoy the December NewsLetter from Harold Evensky.
Here are a few ways to leverage video communication, like Zoom, so that it works to your advantage…
A new breed of exchange-traded funds that hide their holdings has been slow to win over fans this year. That may change in 2021.
Given their small size, narrow focus and high degree of specialization, it is reasonable to expect that active sector funds generate alpha. New research shows this is the case – but with a lot of caveats.
This mass exodus of breakaway brokers hasn’t happened, much to the chagrin of us prognosticators, and I know why.
With Tesla Inc. about to be added to the S&P 500, people have wondered where index-tracking mutual funds will find the $80 billion of stock they’ll need to own in Elon Musk’s car-maker. Now they know: at least some of it will come from Elon Musk’s car-maker.
Given all the municipal bonds to choose from, how do you decide which ones should make up the core of your portfolio? With $3.7 trillion of muni debt outstanding1 spread among tens of thousands of issuers, the choice may seem daunting, but we’ll help you break it down.
In the year 2020, lower coupon bonds are cannibalizing higher coupon bonds.
As Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen is almost certain to pursue tighter coordination with the U.S. Federal Reserve next year -- repairing recent frictions -- though observers say she will be careful to avoid any specific move that could trigger a wave of Republican protests.
When we explore the specifics of an advisor’s business, there are commonly asked questions around the nuances between the SEC and FINRA.
Fair trade over free trade will remain the theme in Washington.
There is new reform legislation making its way through Congress which will significantly affect how many of us save for retirement and specifically how, and how much, we can contribute to our retirement accounts and at what ages. This is the most significant retirement saving reform legislation in years. I’ll break it all down for you below.
Defined outcome ETFs have quickly gathered almost $5 billion in assets; Not unexpected given their much lower drawdowns when the market crashed in March 2020; However, they are complex and expensive products and there are viable alternatives.
This is the fifth and last blog in our 2020 series, discussing why Russell Investments believes in the value of advisors. Here we discuss tax-smart planning and investing.
Municipals posted modestly negative total returns in October, with the S&P Municipal Bond Index finishing the month down -0.14%. Interest rates moved higher as economic data remained firm...
Municipal bond defaults have been rising, but investor demand remains robust. This incongruence may suggest the municipal market is behaving irrationally, but we don't think that's the case.
Evidence from the field of behavioral finance suggests investors can’t handle the truth – many delude themselves about their own skills and performance. The ability to delude oneself leads to persistent and costly investment mistakes.
Reflecting on the post-election landscape, Jeffrey Gundlach expects a split government to emerge, with a Biden presidency, Democratic House and Republican Senate. That outcome explains the gains in U.S. equities this week, but stocks are now “really overvalued.”
Illinois voters defeated a measure that would have allowed the state to raise taxes on its wealthiest residents, striking down a pillar of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s plan for shoring up the state’s finances and preventing its debt from being cut to junk.
Paying for qualified prospects from lead-generation services, can be profitable provided that the proper processes are in place to capture, follow up with, and nurture new opportunities.
The roller-coaster ride of 2020 still has a few twists and turns to navigate. But the massive policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic brought a quick, though incomplete, recovery. With volatility expected to continue, where can investors look for opportunities?
Jeffrey Gundlach, who famously predicted Trump’s victory in 2016, says the president will secure another term. David Rosenberg acknowledged that possibility, but is not so sure of the outcome. Both offered their predictions for the post-election economy and markets.
My 2007 book, Wise Investing Made Simple: Larry Swedroe’s Tales to Enrich Your Future, contained 27 tales to educate investors about important investment concepts and strategies. This article is in the spirit of those tales.
There has been increasing focus on the poor performance of a newly popular Wall Street product called special-purpose acquisition vehicles, or SPACs. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Nir Kaissar dived into the debate recently, citing research showing the returns of most SPACs are subpar.
Investor sentiment is telling a mixed story about the market’s ascent since the March low; begging the question, will the skeptics converge with the optimists?
If beating the market was as easy as becoming a top tennis player, there would be a lot more Serena Williams and Roger Federers. The lessons of acquiring skill in tennis are crucial for investors to heed.
Key Takeaways
The Investment Company Act of 1940 contains a loophole providing institutional investors an advantage over individual investors that some are using to the detriment of closed-end funds and their retail investors.
It is well-established that “lottery” stocks – those offering the potential for outsized returns, like penny and growth stocks – deliver poor performance. While one might expect that naïve, retail investors are the ones buying those stocks, new research shows that is not the case.
