With the new year just beginning, many investors will begin looking at their portfolio and trying to figure out how to shift their investment strategy to include sectors that should outperform in 2014. One investment strategy I like to use during the beginning of the year is to look for a situation where fundamentals are improving, but market sentiment remains weak. At year-end, many times you will see tax loss selling occurring. Essentially, investors are selling those holdings that have gone down the most to crystallize the losses for tax purposes. This also presents an opportunity—if the long-term investment strategy is sound. One sector that has been hit hard is the precious ... Read More

Just the other day, I was talking to a friend of mine who seemed extremely cheerful. I asked why, and he said that his investments have performed well over the past few months and he saw no reasons to worry. This is a common problem with investor sentiment; people tend to become complacent and only look to the recent past as an indication of what tomorrow will bring. This is quite dangerous. Investor sentiment is often wrong and can be used as a contrary indicator, buying when others are dumping their stocks and taking profits when others are blissfully unaware of the changing land ... Read More

Do you feel wealthier today compared to last year? According to the Federal Reserve, you should, as the household net worth of Americans rose 2.5% between the second and third quarters of 2013 for a total of $77.3 trillion. (Source: “Financial Accounts of the United States,” Federal Reserve, December 9, 2013.) The Federal Reserve calculates household net worth by looking at the value of stocks, homes, and other assets, minus mortgages and debts. In fact, the nominal total wealth is at a record high. Adjusted for inflation, the current level of net worth is approximately one percent below the peak prior to the Great Recession. On paper, it appears as though econom ... Read More

One of the interesting things about investors is how so many become complacent over time. When precious metals like silver were rising steadily, more and more people jumped on the bandwagon. But times have changed.

There is something going on right now in the copper market that should alarm you. Over the past week, the price of copper has plunged, recently hitting a four-year low. Why should this matter? Most investors and analysts are placing bets that economic growth is about to re-accelerate globally. Never before has the world been so interlinked, so we must pay attention to what is occurring internationally. Copper is an important part of the potential for economic growth, not just because it is used in building and construction, but because it is als ... Read More

According to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) last Friday, the unemployment rate stood at 6.7% in March, which is similar to the unemployment rate in February. A total of 192,000 jobs were added, of which food and drinking places added more than 30,000 and “temporary” help services in the professional and business industry added more than 29,000 jobs. The labor market fell slightly short of expectations as analysts had forecasted the unemployment rate to be 6.6% for March. (Source: “The Employment Situation — March 2014,” Bureau of Labor Statistics web site, April 4, 2014.) The Fed announced it would start to scale back its monetary stimulus last December, after jobs numbers started to ... Read More

The one thing that savers and investors have these days is choice. More and more securities come to the marketplace every day and the kinds of investments available to individuals have really improved over the last few years. One of the most useful, more popular investment vehicles nowadays consists of exchange-traded funds, otherwise known as ETFs. An ETF is a security that trades on a stock exchange, but follows a commodity, an index, or a basket of assets (e.g. an index fund). ETFs can be very useful in diversifying your portfolio as well making a bet without using derivatives. Fo ... Read More

We have the fiscal cliff and national debt to contend with, along with jobs, manufacturing growth, and economic renewal. Moreover, there’s a recession in the eurozone that is negatively impacting the global economy, including China, Japan, and the U.S. My view is that stock values could falter in 2013, so you need a safe haven to park your capital, which many of you know is in gold. There has been plenty of talk in these pages regarding gold and whether the precious metal is headed for $2,000 an ounce. In my view, the current global risk will support and drive gold prices higher. For you, the question is whether to buy the physical bullion or gold mining stocks. For the average investor, I favor gold stocks over ... Read More