Leveraged and Inverse Funds

Using LOGICLY data, we look at two of Direxion’s leveraged gold miners ETFs and their key features.

Individuals are increasingly looking for more tailored investment solutions, so it makes sense for plan fiduciaries to consider a more personalized approach, according to John Kutz, National Retirement Plan Strategist. He says personalization may be the ticket to better retirement outcomes.

Investing in the stock market typically brings to mind the strategy of buying low and selling high. However, there’s another, somewhat counterintuitive method some investors employ: short selling.

Portfolios with large allocations to alternatives can have many benefits. However, alternative allocations can deviate meaningfully from policy, particularly during periods of equity-market turbulence.

A new psychological contract is transforming the modern workplace, highlighted by an increase in collective actions and changing employee expectations.

Confounding market and economic signals persist as the year’s end draws near. In a year punctuated by heightened uncertainty as investors attempted to navigate a confluence of risk factors, stock and bond correlations proved a significant challenge to traditional portfolios.

Year-to-date, technology has outperformed the broader market largely given the prevalence of low leverage, high profitability and consistent earnings across many names in the mega-cap tech space.

In our 2024 outlook, bonds emerge as a standout asset class, offering strong prospects, resilience, diversification, and attractive valuations compared with equities.

Like some advances earlier this year, the market's current surge hasn't been defined by strong breadth underneath the surface—which will be key for a sustained, durable advance.

We speak with ClearBridge Investments’ Jeff Schulze about a topic on many investors’ minds: the 10-year US Treasury yield and the path of monetary policy. He also shares his views on the latest US retail sales data and whether consumer resilience will last into 2024.

A China ‘Recovery’: How important is the loss of confidence within China itself?

Is the bond bear market finally over? That is the question everyone is asking now that bond prices rallied sharply following the November FOMC policy meeting.

Rising interest rates and inflation have kept emerging markets (EM) bulls from charging. But an improving macroeconomic environment could potentially be underway after the Federal Reserve’s recent rate pause.

Geopolitical factors and higher-for-longer interest rates have taken the steam out of 2023’s equities rally the past few months. But the recent rate pause could clear the path for gains in the S&P 500 for the remainder of the year.

The 2- through 30-year Treasuries rallied hard to drop yields from 12 to 18 basis points. By example, the 10-year Treasury price bottomed out at $91.86 (4.93%) and peaked at $95.25 (4.48%). This is a 3.4-point price swing or 45 basis point drop in yield.

Interest rates have been rising and yields have followed the same path. So traders bullish on bonds have essentially been seeing a repeat of 2022’s weakness. However, the recent pause in rate hikes by the Federal Reserve could bring more bulls back.

Policy changes at the Bank of Japan could potentially reverse capital flows, shift global yields higher, contribute to a stronger yen, and increase the value of Japanese stocks.

Given the response from China’s highest leadership levels, a fast recovery is preferable. The second largest economy will have to do this without a heavy influx of financial aid from the government. It would have to rely on measured steps in policy adjustments.

Tesla’s stock has fallen 20% the past month as bears continue to apply pressure following the electric automaker’s Q3 earnings report. A Tesla turnaround or more selling will provide enough volatility for traders unsure of which side to take, which is where leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can help.

Higher macro and market volatility, along with greater dispersion, creates a favorable environment for active trading, according to K2 Advisors. Get the team’s latest hedge-fund strategy outlook.

It has been several weeks since ether futures ETFs have launched with little fanfare in early October. But since then, the crypto ETF market has seen several significant events which has caused the price of bitcoin to rise to near $35,000.

In smart beta, we find that factor returns—net of changes in valuation levels—are much lower than recent performance suggests. In fact, many of the most popular new factors (some 458 at last count) have succeeded solely because they have become more expensive.

It’s been a great year for alternative income strategies as inflation, interest rate, and recession risk fears dominated markets. Garrett Paolella of NEOS and Christian Magoon of Amplify ETFs joined VettaFi’s Tom Lydon to discuss alternative income opportunities at the Income Strategy Symposium hosted by VettaFi on October 27.

Franklin Equity Group portfolio managers Daniel Scher and Blair Schmicker make the case that REITs are more than just a “collection of assets,” as they were once viewed, and instead offer exposure to quality business models and professional management teams with long track records of value creation.

Direct Indexing empowers RIAs to transform tax losses into valuable assets, helping clients offset capital gains on federal tax returns and minimize annual income tax liabilities.

Much like Halloween, it has been a scary time for investors.

Credit volumes witnessed some strong highs and lows in the third quarter. Notably, July—a month where trading volumes are generally steady—saw very inconsistent flows over the month. September, meanwhile, followed historical trends with an increase in primary market supply, reflecting higher volumes in the secondary.

Despite progress on bringing down inflation from mid-2022 highs, data from online job postings suggests that wage pressures may be reaccelerating. Beneath the surface, growing divergence in wage gains across occupation categories may be adding a layer of complexity to the outlook for labor markets.

Rising yields have undoubtedly done a number on bond prices, but they open up bearish opportunities in certain inverse leverage exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Credit challenges to come as the economy slows.

The calendar third quarter of 2023 was a messy one for financial markets at large, and we were not immune to its lack of charms. Nonetheless, it’s been a pretty good year for our small-cap strategy.

The longer the U.S. debt is left to grow, the harder it will be to correct.

The strength in consumer demand has been one of the defining characteristics of a very resilient U.S. economy and September’s retail and food services sales report confirmed that the U.S. consumer is alive and well.

Investments in alternative energy have become unattractive due to higher interest rates, not changes in government policies, adoption or pricing of green technologies.

In the month of October, gold’s price began to trend upward. This jump in the price of the precious metal comes after consecutive drops in its value since May.

Big tech has obviously been a major mover for the stock market in 2023. With third quarter earnings forthcoming, there should be plenty of opportunities for broad-based ETF as well as single-stock ETF plays.

We have been looking at big historical/economic/political cycles for the past two months.

As investors face continued macroeconomic and market uncertainty, evolving the 60/40 portfolio of stocks and bonds to include alternative investments may help build portfolio resiliency.

The long history of business cycles illustrates that rising inflation precedes recessions. Inflation accelerations don’t just happen, they are caused.

When it comes to processing power for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, speed is essential, but chipmaker Nvidia also wants to be first in terms of manufacturing.

A multi-asset approach to sustainable investing brings a broad and more balanced palette to paint with.

Some investors are considering making tactical tilts to their fixed income portfolios to take advantage of the current high-yield environment.

Japanese profits have benefited from the prolonged deleveraging of Japan Inc. The reduction in debt coupled with exceptionally low interest rates has allowed cash flow to impact the bottom line.

As the “soft landing” narrative grows, the risk of a “crisis” event in the economy increases. Will the Fed trigger another crisis event? While unknown, the risk seems likely as the Fed’s “higher for longer” narrative is compromised by lagging economic data.

Value-conscious, historically-informed, full-cycle investors place a great deal of emphasis on the relationship between the price an investor pays today and the cash flows they can expect to receive in the future. The reason is simple.

The High Yield Bond category is up 5.9% through September, ranking it among the best performers in the fixed income space. Payden & Rygel’s Jordan Lopez and Nick Burns outline three factors contributing to the market’s strength.

Our September Cyclical Forum was the first to be held in London, where the economic situation today reflects what’s happening around the world.

The higher-for-longer interest rates narrative could continue to negatively affect small-cap companies. This is because they look to stay afloat in the current macroeconomic environment.

However, $22 billion moved into fundamentally weighted equity index ETFs, while dividend and momentum ETFs had outflows. This is sizable and warrants some added attention.