The winds of change blew through the financial markets in February, leading to the first stock-market correction (a decline of at least 10% from the previous high) in two years. What caused the correction, and
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Observations on the Market Correction
There’s rarely a good reason for a stock market downturn. I’ve been studying many of the historical bear markets and corrections that don’t get as much publicity as the usual suspects
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I recently answered a member question about the return of SMI's recommended bond funds so far in 2018. A primary focus of that reply was that, while of course we'd love to always earn great returns from our bond holdings,
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The SMI Bond Upgrading strategy debuted at the beginning of 2015. This approach involves investing half of the bond portfolio in two “core” funds which do not change. These two funds provide stability to the portfolio. The
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The SMI Bond Upgrading strategy debuted at the beginning of 2015. This approach involves investing half of the bond portfolio in two “core” funds which do not change. These two funds provide stability to the portfolio. The
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It's been a little over two years since SMI revamped our approach to bond investing. This change was explained in the article, Introducing an Upgrading Approach to Bond Investing that Outperforms the Bond Market. Bonds
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An “asset class” is a broad category of investments that tend to have similar risk characteristics and respond similarly to market forces. The most common classes are stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, and cash
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There are two key points to understand about yesterday's Federal Reserve decision to boost interest rates another 0.25%:
The decision to raise rates was made primarily in response to positive economic news
The markets'
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An expectation of higher interest rates is nothing new, as experts have been predicting higher rates for over a decade now. But it appears the wheels may finally be in motion to produce those long-anticipated higher rates.
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Inflation is the silent stalker of investment returns. Because it is neither paid directly, nor is it deducted — as taxes are — inflation often escapes detection even as it undercuts buying power. Even relatively low
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