The most searched term on the financial website Investopedia.com in 2015 was "smart beta.” Here are eight things to bring you up to date on this fast-growing but widely misunderstood investment trend.

We who inhabit the northern hemisphere will soon enter summer. Many would say summer is already with us – most schools are closed, and a general laziness is beginning to set in – especially for those in the “protected” class. For many of them, summer is a verb. They “summer” in the Hamptons, or Lake Tahoe, or somewhere in the tropics.

If you’re a serious investor—and because you’re reading this, I have to assume that you are—gold is looking more and more like a crucial trade. Only two weeks remain before United Kingdom voters decide on whether the country will continue to be a member of the European Union (EU) or become the first-ever to leave it. The “Brexit,” as it’s come to be known, is arguably the most consequential political event of 2016—perhaps even more so than the U.S. presidential election in November—with far-reaching implications.

As amusement park visits rise in the summer months, the ever-popular roller coaster analogy seems appropriate for the stock market. Since the beginning of 2015, stocks have had some fairly major ups and downs, but we now sit about where we began. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy for investors to get off the ride, and we expect the frustrating, grinding environment to continue for the near future. Equities have yet been unable to break through to new highs, while fixed income continues to offer little in terms of yield.

Markets have taken investors on a wild ride in 2016, with conflicting messages about expectations for economic growth and inflation. Through April, the S&P 500 Index had returned just more than 3%, erasing its 10% correction at the start of the year. Since a trough on Feb. 11, global and domestic equities have largely followed suit and rebounded to the levels of fourth-quarter 2015. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hit a low for the year so far of 1.66% on that date, but ended April around 1.83% — although not without its own choppiness. The CBOE Volatility Index spiked in January and February, fell off in March and early April and then showed rising volatility again at the end of April. In our view, this has become a speculative market.

Many of you know the way that I construct portfolios. I typically begin with a base of mutual funds, but not just any mutual fund. I tend to invest in mutual funds where I know the portfolio manager (PM) and like his or her investment style. Then, because I talk to these PMs, I hear lots of good ideas.

Are investors overly wary in the currently ragged environment for risk assets?

Vest Financial Group Inc. was cofounded in 2012 by Jeff Chang. In this interview, Chang discusses Vest’s dedication to serving investment advisor and brokerage firms in bringing wider access to innovative options-based strategies.

A pivotal difference between robo- and human advisors is the level of fiduciary care they provide to clients. Understanding how to exploit this Achilles Heel will allow planners to compete effectively with the next generation of technology-enabled advice.

Do you remember back in the early 80s when interest rates peaked at 15.25% and most everyone felt rates were moving higher, certainly not lower?  The fact is, it was the single best time in history to get bullish on bonds.

If we put hope and wishful thinking aside and look at what the economic and corporate data tells us, the U.S. economy is flirting with recession and markets are due for a bear market correction of 30-50%. The U.S. and global economies are growing more slowly than forecasted just a few months ago. Data indicates that instead of getting stronger, macro trends are getting weaker.

“Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’ (Billy Preston)” . . . is the first line from Billy Preston’s hit song “Nothing From Nothing” recorded in 1974 on the album “The Kids & Me.” It was a song one of my bands used to play in an era long gone by. I recalled the tune while reading one market maven’s letter last Tuesday where the author commented that, “Monday was perhaps the nothingest of nothing days.”

Yusko took the stage Thursday morning and told a story about a time in 1999 when he served as the chief investment officer of the University of North Carolina endowment.  He presented to his board in December 1999 and showed them the GMO 10-year forward annualized return predictions.  GMO had advised investors to expect a negative 1.9% over the coming decade (annualized per year for ten years from 2000 – 2010).

With the first four months of the year in the books, I’d like to take a moment to break down the performance of alternatives thus far.

The running-to-stand-still pattern in U.S. equities may continue, with bouts volatility expected. But U.S. economic growth appears to be improving and stocks could start to sniff out a potentially better second half for both the economy and earnings. Investors should remain patient, and use volatility as opportunities to rebalance around normal strategic allocations in both U.S. and international equities.

The first actively managed exchange-traded product (ETP) was launched in March 2008. Seven years after initial introduction, first-generation active ETPs have total net assets of $19.46 billion – less than 0.2% of the combined assets of actively managed mutual funds and active ETPs. The slow development of active ETPs primarily reflects the reluctance of fund sponsors to offer leading active strategies in a format that requires daily disclosure of fund holdings. Unlike first-generation active ETPs, NextShares are not required to disclose their daily holdings and can therefore maintain the confidentiality of fund trading information. Operating as NextShares, active ETPs can realize their full potential as alternatives to traditional mutual funds with built-in performance and tax advantages and the convenience of exchange trading.

The pullback in smaller US stocks over the past year offers a compelling opportunity for investors who want to restore their exposure to the asset class. But how they go about it matters.

Over the past 35-40 years, the industry and media have told investors to invest passively, or to buy and hold. We believe this approach is flawed and hurting rather than helping people invest successfully. The passive, buy and hold concept was developed in response to the damage inflicted on investors and the mutual fund industry in the 1970s.

CEFs may help add yield as a component of a balanced, long-term investment portfolio, industry professionals say.

Sometimes it is good to sit back, reflect, recharge and then, once again, drive forward.  I pulled open a drawer and found, tucked at the bottom of a pile, a few notes I wrote down many years ago.  Notes from Mom…  I wanted to remember her.

After gaining 16% from the February low, SPX has been trading in a 2% range during May. A minor 20% of the rally has been retraced, a sign of resilience and consolidation. Despite the recent rally, investors are positioned for weakness, not further gains. There might still be a capitulation low ahead but the set up is for higher prices in the next month(s). End of May and start of June seasonality is possible short-term tailwind for equities.

Something’s gotta give. The global growth environment remains subpar — stable but at a disappointingly sluggish pace. Central bankers, where possible, continue to ease policy, but the financial market reaction is increasingly unpredictable. In this environment, the predominant theme this year has been a bounce back in the most beaten-down assets — including commodities and emerging markets.

Strange are the times when a third of all government debt around the world carries a negative yield, and yet such is the case today. From Japan to eurozone countries, investors are faced with the tough decision of accepting subzero yields, doing nothing—or seeking other so-called “safe haven” options. Many have rediscovered gold, and as I pointed out earlier this week, demand for the yellow metal as an investment just had its best first quarter ever, with near-record inflows into gold ETFs.

Are you sabotaging your investment commentary with bad writing? You may have wonderful insights into the markets, the mutual funds or ETFs you use or your clients’ best next steps. But if your ideas are poorly written, they won’t win the results that you desire. Clients, prospects and referral sources will turn away if you don’t recognize – and fix – the five mistakes I identify below.

Donald Trump will be our next president, according to Jeffrey Gundlach, because Hillary Clinton is such an ineffective campaigner. Gundlach did not endorse Trump or say whether he would vote for him. But he said a Trump victory is inevitable – and offered some insight into how markets will react.

A calmer tone prevailed across markets in April despite major central banks choosing to pause from adding substantial support. Mixed economic data underscored a tepid fundamental backdrop. The market rally continued in April, though underlying sentiment may have cooled more than the rally suggested.

“Invest in good companies, don’t use leverage, invest in liquid investments, don’t do private deals and light a candle and pray for a positive outcome.” -Leon Cooperman, Omega “Debt drains away vital resources from economic growth. Fighting a debt crisis with more debt is doomed to failure, yet that is not only what global central banks did during the crisis but long after markets stabilized (though the crisis never truly ended, just slowed). This was an epic policy failure that continues today.” -Michael Lewitt, The Credit Strategist

Interest rates have been very low for a long time now. One of the stated intentions of the policy was to encourage investors to be somewhat less conservative, placing their capital in areas that would be more helpful to economic growth.

Our interview with Bloomberg’s ETF expert on his new book: what’s next in ETFs, how investors will find performance in the future and why smart beta is a “very big deal.”

With spring in full swing and Earth Day last month, communities are holding activities to help people become more environmentally conscious as the snow melts away. These activities not only have a positive impact on the environment but also socially—who doesn’t enjoy a clean, green environment?

The late-great Marty Zweig—one of my bosses from 1986 to 2009—was a pioneer in investor sentiment indicators. He was often asked to share his single favorite indicator, and he typically cited “Time and Newsweek cover stories.” Note this was a pre-Internet, pre-social media era, and what he was referring to was the tendency for those two mainstream publications to put bulls or bears on their respective covers in the same week. With nearly perfect timing, when both mags put bears on their covers, the bear market typically in place was likely ending or over. Conversely, when both mags put bulls on their covers, the bull market typically in place was likely ending or over.

At the beginning of each month, I like to look at equity market valuations. The stock market moved higher in April, yet for the fourth quarter in a row, corporate earnings were down. The good news about market valuations is that they can tell us a great deal about the annualized returns we are likely to get over the coming 10 years. The bad news is they tell us little about returns over the coming two years.

The erudite professor goes on to note that while the differences between 3.5% growth and 2% may seem small, the resultant consequences are large. For example, by 2008 Americans were three times better off than they were in 1952. He writes, “Real GDP per person rose from $16,000 [per year] to $49,000.” However, if growth in the 1950 to 2000 timeframe was only 2%, instead of 3.5%, the per capita income metrics for that same timeframe would have been just $23,000, not $49,000.

A favorable credit environment and technical factors have contributed to strong high-yield municipal performance. We see limited room for further appreciation with yields near historical lows, tighter credit spreads and a municipal curve as flat as it was pre-financial crisis. Weaker relative value and the late stages of economic expansion argue for conservative high-yield muni positioning.

This is the final installment in my series of articles on fairly valued mid-cap selections. My inspiration to produce these articles was at the request and suggestion from regular readers who were frustrated at the lack of coverage and/or articles on mid-caps. To accommodate those requests, I screened through the S&P 400 mid-cap index with the assumption that it represented a credible universe of high-quality mid-caps. The fact that I was only reviewing the S&P 400 index was missed based on many comments received on my previous articles in this series. In other words, I only included fairly valued research candidates that are members of the S&P 400 index in this series.

Correlation is not causation when it comes to emerging markets and commodities.

Since we just finished tax time (or filed an extension to delay facing the reckoning until October), it is a good time to review your tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Whether you have five or 35 years until think you will retire, you will want to make progress to full retirement readiness.

He sure feels like he’s heavy.  From The Wall Street Journal this morning, “U.S. Growth Starts Year in Familiar Rut.”  “A sharp pullback in business investment and weak global demand dragged down an already-lackluster U.S. economy in the opening months of 2016, the latest setback in a bumpy expansion entering its seventh year.”  That marked the economy’s worst performance in two years.

Equities fell this week, led by an 11% drop in the US's largest stock, Apple. For the first time since the February low, the near-term trend in SPY is weak: the current set up normally leads SPY, through price and time, to its 50-dma and lower Bollinger Band, both currently about 3% lower. Overall, breadth, sentiment, macro, commodities and seasonality support higher equities prices in the week(s) ahead. The month of May typically starts strong and the NDX has been down 7 days in a row: combined, these suggest a positive start to the week is likely.

The 2016 U.S. presidential election. has drawn more potential candidates, more controversy and perhaps more media coverage than any election in modern U.S. history. It also has been said that this year’s presidential contest is the most important of our time.* The same argument could be made from an economic perspective.

Currency movements more than a failed "freeze" deal explain volatility in crude prices. But energy market fundamentals will ultimately determine price levels more than currency effects.

If the US stock markets don’t collapse between now and Friday, this will be the second-longest bull market on record. Really. The current bull market began in March 2009 and will have lasted for 2,608 days (7.2 years) on Friday. If so, it will top the former second-longest bull market which ran from 1949 to 1956 (2,607 days). That’s quite impressive.

Today, my plan was to highlight two of my favorite analysts, Dr. Lacy Hunt and Dr. Gary Shilling.  But that plan has changed and importantly, I believe, what I share this week can give us a better understanding of the structural issues we face.  And how they might be fixed.  Listening to Bloomberg’s Tom Keene early this week, I stood quiet as he interviewed Daniel Alpert.

SPY made a new all-time high this week. The short and long term trend is higher. Despite a gain of 16% over the past 10 weeks, the majority of evidence indicates that investors largely remain skeptical and defensive. That, together with strong breadth, implies that higher highs still lie ahead. Shorter term, SPY is back to where it failed, repeatedly, to go higher in the spring, summer and fall of 2015. In the best scenario, attaining and then holding significant gains will likely take time.

For 12 years, we used active asset management, that is, professional money managers and/or actively managed mutual funds. After the dot.com bear market in 2000, we became more and more dissatisfied with the cost and performance of professional money managers. After much research….

Rising U.S. interest-rates aren't the headwind for emerging markets many expect. It depends on where you start.

Today’s financial planning tools, including the new generation of “robo” advisors, have profound shortcomings, according to Dan diBartolomeo. DiBartolomeo says that the technology most advisors use suffers from serious problems – from prescribing a costly regimen of ongoing portfolio rebalancing to failing to incorporate a holistic balance sheet of assets and liabilities – and these problems are unwittingly depleting their clients’ assets.

My 18-year-old son, Matthew, came to me asking about how the economy works.  This summer he will be an intern and task one prior to his start date is to read “How the Economic Machine Works.”  There is much we can learn from history and it makes sense to study the research from some of the brightest amongst us.  From there, he and I will begin a dialogue.

The economic calendar is moderate. Fed Heads are mostly on the bench. The Doho oil conference (combining OPEC and non-OPEC producers) will be the first major news for the week ahead. Markets have already anticipated the outcome, just as they have the trend of first- quarter earnings. It is a classic test of the theme: Is it time to sell the news?

In part 1 of this series on fairly valued mid-cap investment opportunities I primarily focused on non-dividend paying growth oriented mid-caps. In part 2 of this series I turned my focus to finding fairly valued dividend paying mid-caps. However, as I was evaluating dividend paying mid-caps in the S&P 400 mid-cap index, it became clear to me that the differences between dividend paying mid-caps were more important than the similarities. Therefore, I have grouped the dividend paying mid-caps I found into 3 separate offerings focusing on sectors. In this, part 2A, I will be exclusively covering fairly valued mid-sized regional banks.