Latest Posts

  • Finance 0

    Brazil Growth Outlook Worsens: ETFs In Focus

    Brazil’s Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles expects a lower economic growth rate for 2017. He expects the GDP to grow 2% year over year in the fourth quarter compared with the earlier estimate of 2.7%. Therefore, the full year average is expected to be slightly less than 2%. Meirelles stated that the lowered outlook is because of the recent political crisis that inundated Brazil. President Michel Temer was accused of accepting bribes from meat-packing company JBS. Earlier this week, corruption charges were brought against him by the prosecutor general of the country (read: Should You Buy Brazil ETFs After Brutal Sell-Off?). Adding to the ...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Nasdaq Party Over? Part II

    << Watch Part 1...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Market Talk – Friday, June 30

    Posted Jun 30, 2017 by Martin Armstrong Following a weak US session, Asia fell in sympathy with US prices and then leveled as China’s core held in well, especially as PBOC set the YUAN rate at 6.7744 – the highest in a while. China’s Manufacturing data helped Shanghai but the core large cap’s suffered as the Hang Seng lost -0.8%. Japan’s CPI and Manufacturing did not help the Nikkei and that closed -0.9% as the JPY remained with a 112 handle indicating that maybe the “normal” flight to safety may be in the process of change. ASX fell on mineral, commodity and ASX bounce to close the day down 1.66% not a great day to finish the ...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    A Few Highlights From Evidence-based Investing Conference

    Earlier this week, I attended the Evidence-Based Investing Conference (West) and spoke on “The Factor Zoo” panel. I present a few highlights / takeaways from the event before. Of course, these are just my personal reflections, so anything excluded is simply because I could not be everywhere at once. Highlights: Investor Behavior Matters Embrace Transparency Being an Evidence-Based Investor is difficult! Investor Behavior Matters Day 1 began with Barry Ritholtz’ talk on investor behavior. A takeaway from his talk (and from the event overall) is that investor behavior matters. (1) Barry makes a key point for advisors: there are (...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Improving Data? Income Or Tax Receipts

    This morning we learned that Real Disposable Personal Income rose at the fastest month-over-month rate since April 2015, up 0.6 percent. Looking at a year-over-year basis, real Disposable Personal Income rose at the fastest rate since October 2016. That growth in income however, didn’t translate into spending with Personal Consumption Expenditures nearly flat, with an increase of just 0.055 percent on a month-over-month basis. On a year-over-year basis, May’s spending was up 4.2 percent, although the rate of increase has been slowing since March. Rising income levels are supported as well by recent comments we’ve seen. “Labor, we cont...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Honey, I Shrunk The VIX

    There’s been a growing chorus lately suggesting that perhaps the record low VIX readings aren’t due to record low feelings about volatility, but instead due to the dramatic increase in VIX products and assets betting on decreases in volatility. As RCM Alternatives notes, it sure feels like that is the case, with every move higher in the VIX seemingly smacked down earlier, and with more force, than the one before it.   We’ve covered it here, here, and here, but who wants to read when you can see it in pictures… infographic style:    ...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Moving Averages: June Month-End Update

    The S&P 500 closed June with a monthly gain of 0.48% after a monthly gain in May of 1.16%. All three S&P 500 MAs are signaling “invested” and four of the five Ivy Portfolio ETFs — Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU), iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury (IEF), and Vanguard REIT Index ETF (VNQ) — are signaling “invested”. In the table, monthly closes that are within 2% of a signal are highlighted in yellow. The Ivy Portfolio The above table shows the current 10-month simple moving average (SMA) signal for each of the five ETFs featured in The Ivy Portfolio. We’...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    FV Nasdaq Party Over?

    Watch Part 2 >>...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    AskSlim Market Week – Friday, June 30

    ...
    On June 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Value In Beat Up Alternative Asset Managers?

    RBC Capital Markets analysts Kenneth Lee and Mark Dwelle look at the beat up world of asset management and like some of what they see. The list of problems facing traditional asset management firms is deep and well-known. In a world where the Department of Labor reached above the US Securities and Exchange Commission to develop a fiduciary rule for recommending investments that limit a firm’s profitability, computer-based “robo-advisers” threaten to make human asset advisers obsolete at a time when Eugene Fama categorized portfolio management as a part-time job. Yet in such a hostile environment, hidden value inside the asset managem...
    On June 30, 2017 / By