Municipal bond yields moved higher in 2018 and seem likely to continue moving up in 2019 if market expectations for further interest-rate increases play out.

RIAs must grow sustainably in order to achieve the scale needed to deploy the latest technology systems and build out a centralized infrastructure. Relying wholly or primarily on referrals is a foolhardy strategy.

For years we have quoted Benjamin Graham’s book The Intelligent Investor, which Warren Buffet has said is the best book ever written on investing. The operative quote from said book is “The essence of portfolio management is the management of risks, not the management of returns.” He closes that thought by saying, “All good portfolio management begins, and ends, with this premise.”

Brandon Rakszawski is Senior ETF Product Manager at VanEck. In this interview, he discusses the newly introduced VanEck Vectors Morningstar Durable Dividend ETF (DURA).

Martin Kremenstein is senior managing director and head of retirement products and ETFs at Nuveen, a TIAA company. In this interview, he discusses the latest trends and innovations in ESG/SRI investing.

We describe a spending-power measure that has an excellent track record predicting the economy. As financial markets struggle to regain their nine-year-long buoyancy, our measure bears watching.

California is currently battling two devastating wildfires in California. The Camp Fire, located in Butte County (north of Sacramento) has so far burned 135,000 acres, destroyed 7,600 residences and caused 71 fatalities, making it the deadliest wildfire in California's history. 

A brief monthly update on what's happening in the municipal bond market.

Old Big Red sprung a leak a while back. Many of you are familiar with Big Red, but there are a few of you who might need an introduction. Big Red is my 18-year-old Chevy Silverado 2500 HD. I realize this may not be the type of vehicle driven by the majority of bankers, money managers, financial advisors, or brokers...

Years ago we studied the tactics of Jesse Livermore, along with a number of other stock market operators, and have found many of those strategies to be just as valid today as they were decades ago.

We've managed client assets in floating-rate corporate loan strategies since 1989. Our longest-running fund will surpass its 30-year mark in 2019. Along the way, we've developed deep expertise in this asset class. Today we manage more than $45 billion in floating-rate corporate loan assets, for clients all around the globe and in every discernible delivery format.

Conventional market wisdom two years ago didn’t look right for long, as gains in industries seen as politically favored faded while one sector expected to suffer quickly rebounded.

The Leonid meteor shower hit its zenith over the weekend, and you didn’t even need a telescope to see it. You did need a warm blanket, but all you had to do was lay down on your back to enjoy a great show.

The sweeping tax overhaul signed by President Donald Trump this year has many positive aspects for investors, while also creating both opportunities and challenges for financial advisors who use tax-efficient strategies.

Index returns and traditional active management may fall short, so PIMCO StocksPLUS Small takes a different path to seek small cap alpha.

When it comes to US high-yield bank loans, we don’t mince words: we think the risk rarely justifies the potential reward.

Neil J. Hennessy is portfolio manager and chief investment officer at Hennessy Funds, where he personally manages or co-manages six of the firm’s funds. In this interview, he discusses his outlook for the market and the economy, and why he thinks Japanese and energy stocks are exceptionally attractive.

Corporate bonds offer incredibly poor prospects under any scenario, according to Jeffrey Gundlach. If rates rise, prices will drop quickly because their durations are between 7 and 10 years. Falling rates are no better, he said, because they would be accompanied by a bear market in stocks with effects that would extend to corporate bonds.

The Federal Reserve has three key objectives for monetary policy: maximizing employment, stabilizing prices and moderating long- term interest rates. Regardless of what many observers may say, the Fed generally is not concerned about increased stock market volatility.

Advisors should look more closely at their clients’ investments as well as portfolio design from a liquidity perspective. Investors, particularly those with long-term goals, may be paying for daily liquidity they don’t need. By ignoring liquidity premiums, advisors are not maximizing the funds of their clients.

Invesco research reveals a disconnect between market expectations and portfolio allocations in market-cap-weighted funds.

I can guarantee a few things about Howard Marks’ new book, Mastering the Market Cycle. You will enjoy the thoughtful writing in clear language, and you will learn one great, and I believe correct, idea about the operation of markets.

We could almost hear our history professor espousing Hoffer’s works recently when we were asked by a particularly smart media type if trust and character would really command a “premium” price earnings (P/E) ratio in today’s environment? Our response was “of course,” and as an example we offered up a quote from John Pierpont Morgan...

Perhaps the most dominant trend in the mutual fund industry over the past several years has been the rise of passively managed, index-tracking mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs), which have supplanted a large portion of actively managed assets under management.

Positive catalysts are in place in all three countries, and across emerging markets valuations and earnings expectations make for a potential rebound in 2019.

We have a normal economic calendar. Tuesday’s election will take center stage. Markets have less than expected interest in the election. Partly this reflects confidence in a split outcome, with no major policy changes.

Up until last Monday (October 29, 2018) we had focused on our short-term model’s “sell signal” of October 2, 2018. The “S” word alone makes most investors uneasy. They find the “B” word, “buying” more pleasant.

As the stock market bull potentially nears the end of its run and we head into the last two months of 2018, many investors are making adjustments to their portfolios.

In part 1 of this series titled “How Many Stocks Should I Own?” found here, I focused primarily on how many stocks an investor might need to hold in a stock portfolio for adequate diversification. In this part 2, my focus will shift to category selections.

Preparations ahead of a hurricane and rebuilding after it temporarily boost tax receipts in affected areas. But longer-term effects on muni markets are usually negligible.

US equities are down 10% from their all-time highs just 5 weeks ago. The trend in equities has turned bearish, and that is not something that should be taken lightly. The evidence pointing to a major top being formed has further increased.

And the perfect storm has hit the equity markets over the past month. However, we had an early warning of such events when, on October 2, 2018, our short-term proprietary model registered a “sell signal” and we said to sell trading positions.

In their fourth-quarter (Q4) 2018 outlook, K2 Advisors’ Research and Portfolio Construction teams take a deeper look at alpha, and why they feel it’s misunderstood. They believe offering these insights will help investors better understand the rationale for owning retail mutual funds that invest in hedge strategies.

One of the most commonly asked questions I receive from investors is: how many stocks should I put in my portfolio? This is a widely debated subject that is most commonly referred to as concentrated versus widely diversified portfolio construction.

This year, there very well may be a political “October Surprise”, though as we write this we are running out of days in which one may occur (perhaps the recent spate of “pipe bomb” deliveries to prominent Democrats qualifies, though the actual sender of those bombs remains highly questionable).

Alternatives allocations are becoming more mainstream in wealth management portfolios, though implementation varies greatly among financial advisors.

Crowded trades have become all too common in fixed-income markets. But running with the crowd is risky, particularly when it comes to illiquid assets like bank loans that may not be easy to sell during a market downturn.

The biggest failure in investment management—the gap between the returns realized by the investor and the returns earned by the strategy or fund the investor owns—typically remains in the shadows with the glare of the spotlights focused on alpha. Smart beta is no exception. We propose two ways to reframe the client performance review that we believe will result in better long-term outcomes.

Brian Smedley is Senior Managing Director and Head of Macroeconomic and Investment Research at Guggenheim Partners. In this interview, he discusses his outlook for the economy and the capital markets, and how the economy is likely to run into a recession in the first half of 2020.

At Schwab IMPACT, stop by the Guggenheim booth (620), to meet Brian Smedley, and see him present Forecasting the Next Recession on Tuesday 10/30, at 11:15 AM ET, Showcase Stage C.

Anthony Eames is a vice president of Eaton Vance Management and director of responsible investment strategy. In this interview, he discusses the emerging trends in ESG/SRI products and how advisors can better serve their clients with responsible investing solutions.

Stop by to see us at booth 300 in the exhibit hall, where you’ll have a chance to talk with our product representatives.

My friend and mentor Ray DeVoe use to say that going over old reports can be an exercise in humility, as you cringe while reading some errant forecast of another time. “How could I have been so stupid?” is the unsaid reaction. On the other hand it can be an ego trip, as you proudly go over some forecasts that were right on target.

By managing liquidity risk, we help ensure that portfolios are well-positioned both to withstand stress scenarios and to potentially take advantage of market dislocations.

We really like Rudyard Kipling’s line, “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too;” and clearly “men” doubted us when on October 2 our short-term proprietary model flashed a sell signal and we subsequently advised selling trading positions.

It might feel like a different landscape for investors in municipal bonds after the big moves in yields and prices this past month. Thankfully, they are historically rare. But like the "taper tantrum" of 2013, they can be unnerving when they do happen.

Even before the market selloff, downtrodden value stocks were perking up as pricey growth stocks stumbled. But durable index-level shifts are harder to call than individual stock price disconnects from business fundamentals.

It is hard to say with certainty what drives trading on any particular day, but it doesn’t seem a stretch to say that over the past few months a combination of tariffs and Federal Reserve rate hike fears have broadly impacted both equity and fixed income markets.

According to the 2018 edition of the Stock Trader’s Almanac, October has been a “great” time to buy. Once ranked last in terms of stock performance, the 10th month has delivered relatively average returns since 1950. What makes it so attractive is that it’s followed by November and December, historically among the very best months for stocks. We’re also entering the three most bullish quarters of the four-year presidential cycle, based on 120 years of stock market data.

Following a substantial run-up in 2017, China's stock markets experienced notable volatility in recent quarters. The MSCI China Index was down roughly -9% year to date measured in U.S. dollars as of September 30, 2018, while China's mainland, domestic A-shares were down nearly -20% measured in U.S. dollars for the same period.

When studies are done on active versus passive funds, they should be performed on an apples-to-apples basis – to account for different exposures to the factors, such as size, value, momentum and profitability/quality, that explain differences in returns. Here’s how some researchers who failed to do this reached a surprising conclusion.

John Maynard Keynes, the British economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of economics, once said, “When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do, sir?” So on a short-term trading basis, we came into last week believing the S&P 500 (SPX/2885.57) was going to grind higher into our envisioned mid-November’s “energy peak.”