Post tagged with stock market

  • Repairing the wall of worry

    March 28th, 201103:24 PM ET
    By Mark Biller
    A week ago, I wrote about the fact that the market tends to experience 5% pullbacks quite often, noting that the most recent one is the sixth such pullback during the current two-year current bull market. One of the main points of that post was that regardless of the recent events in Japan and the Middle East/North Africa, the market was "o...

  • And the Forecast Calls For...

    January 13th, 201109:48 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    Here in Georgia where I live, we got six inches of snow Monday morning. Very unusual for this part of the country. But the weather forecasters were dead-on in their predictions, so we were prepared and are now cozy here with plenty of provisions and, if need be, a back-up source of heat. The folks who forecast weather for a living are usually ...

  • What is Market History Telling Us?

    September 16th, 201001:58 PM ET
    By Mark Biller
    Here's an interesting study from Bespoke Investment Group. They went back to 1928 looking for the six-month period where the stock market most closely resembled the six months we've just been through. Then they looked to see what the future held from that point. See their study and charts here. Particularly noteworthy is the way that 1959/60 peri...

  • Are stocks cheap right now, or not?

    September 09th, 201001:42 PM ET
    By Mark Biller
    This question is more difficult to answer than you might expect. On the one hand, plenty of observers are ready to declare that stocks are very attractively priced. Most focus on the traditional price-earnings multiple (P/E) we discussed in detail in our June and July SMI newsletters. Here's an example (from an Associated Press article)...

  • Thinking long-term when the market is wild

    July 21st, 201003:11 PM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    "So how should one manage money in an era of unpredictability and volatility?" asks a story on the front page of Monday's "Money" section in USA Today. The Dow Jones industrials' 261-point plunge Friday sparked by a sharp drop in consumer sentiment in July highlights that gloominess persists....In recent weeks, a spate of economic reports h...

  • Can ignorance be bliss?

    May 24th, 201002:00 PM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    In September 2008, just before all panic began to break loose in the markets and the economy, the SMI newsletter featured an article titled, Don't Look!: Blissful Ignorance Can Be Your Investing Ally. Key paragraphs: Unless you just happen to like high levels of stress, it simply doesn't pay to follow the daily movements of your portfolio. Sur...

  • Fund investing: How the mighty have fallen — but that's OK

    May 14th, 201008:20 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    When a certain mutual fund does especially well for you during a particular market season, it's easy to fall in love and hold on to that fund forever (or at least much longer than you otherwise would, absent the initial success). That can be a big mistake. One of the primary virtues of SMI's Fund Upgrading strategy is it helps keep us from get...

  • "Three questions to ask of a top-performing mutual fund"

    April 13th, 201010:26 AM ET
    By Austin Pryor
    A few days ago, I asked if you were on the outside looking in as the market continues its long and steady advance. If so, you're not alone. MarketWatch writer Chuck Jaffe points out that while the S&P 500 is up about 50% over the past year (from 3/31/09 through 3/31/10), relatively few investors have been along for the ride. Jaffe provides d...

  • It's a guy thing: Study shows men more likely to sell at market lows

    March 18th, 201010:21 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    Okay, guys. Show some backbone. Or some patience. Or stop being so overconfident. A study from Vanguard (released late in 2009 but picked up last week in the New York Times) shows that during the market downturn of '08 and early '09, men were much more likely than women to sell their shares at stock market lows, rather than patiently waiting for a...

  • Making progress by dollar-cost-averaging

    March 08th, 201008:59 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    Lots of number crunching has been going on since early January, as fund companies and related organizations compile data for the decade just ended. (SMI is no different: you can find our recently released 2000-2009 performance data here.) Fidelity, the top provider of employer-based retirement plans, has completed an analysis of the 10-year ex...
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