Over the past few years, I’ve written repeatedly about the compelling long-term opportunities presented by emerging markets. These economies possess superior long-term growth prospects but trade at a considerable discount to more mature markets in Europe and the United States.  Still, it’s hard to understate the importance of “long-term” in that outlook. Emerging markets are quite volatile and can quickly rack up short-term losses. Indeed, in recent weeks a number of emerging markets have tumbled sharply, in large part due to concerns of an economic slowdown in China that is dampening demand for exports… Read More

Over the past few years, I’ve written repeatedly about the compelling long-term opportunities presented by emerging markets. These economies possess superior long-term growth prospects but trade at a considerable discount to more mature markets in Europe and the United States.  Still, it’s hard to understate the importance of “long-term” in that outlook. Emerging markets are quite volatile and can quickly rack up short-term losses. Indeed, in recent weeks a number of emerging markets have tumbled sharply, in large part due to concerns of an economic slowdown in China that is dampening demand for exports in countries such as Australia, Brazil and South Africa. I wrote about the issue in this recent column. For a while there, global investors were dumping emerging-market bonds just as fast as they were selling emerging-market stocks. Then a light bulb went off: Investors realized that bonds are a lot safer in a slowing economy — for a pair of reasons. Those two factors:… Read More

Anyone with a dime invested knows about the emotional aspect of financial markets.#-ad_banner-# A recent investor behavior study by research firm Dalbar shows that the average equity investor has seen a return of just 2.3% annually over the past 20 years, underperforming the S&P 500 by an annual average of 4.3%. The culprit? About half of the shortfall in returns — 45% to 55% — is due to psychological factors like fear of loss and following the herd, according to the… Read More

Anyone with a dime invested knows about the emotional aspect of financial markets.#-ad_banner-# A recent investor behavior study by research firm Dalbar shows that the average equity investor has seen a return of just 2.3% annually over the past 20 years, underperforming the S&P 500 by an annual average of 4.3%. The culprit? About half of the shortfall in returns — 45% to 55% — is due to psychological factors like fear of loss and following the herd, according to the study. Individual investors are notorious for emotional investing like irrational exuberance or panic selling. In fact, in 2012, investors trying to time the market guessed right just 42% of the time — worse odds than a coin flip. But investing in bonds is different, right? Many investors follow stocks passionately while the fixed-income portion of… Read More

One of the best income strategies in the world involves a “glitch” in the financial markets. It allows individual investors to generate “Instant Income” from the best companies in the world. The best part, more than 80% of… Read More

One of the best income strategies in the world involves a “glitch” in the financial markets. It allows individual investors to generate “Instant Income” from the best companies in the world. The best part, more than 80% of the time, in my experience, investors don’t have to buy a single share of stock. I’ve been using this strategy to deliver winning income trades for readers during the past few months. So far, the results have been great — my strategy has allowed us to enjoy thousands of dollars in “Instant Income.” For example, we made $2,700 “Instant Income” from a… Read More

One of the best income strategies in the world involves a “glitch” in the financial markets. It allows individual investors to generate “Instant Income” from the best companies in the world. The best part, more than 80% of the time, in my experience, investors don’t have to buy a single share of stock. I’ve been using this strategy to deliver winning income trades for readers during the past few months. So far, the results have been great — my strategy has allowed us to enjoy thousands of dollars in “Instant Income.” For example, we made $2,700 “Instant Income” from a $6,400 “down payment” on MasterCard (NYSE: MA) in July 2012. That’s an immediate return of 42.2%. Last September, I collected $710 from Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), a company that’s never paid a single dividend. And last October, I collected $125 “Instant Income” from Coach (NYSE: COH) for every $880 I set aside. It’s clear that this the strategy has a lot of income potential. Yet, less than 25% of investors are taking advantage of the “glitch” to generate income. And I think I know why… My “Instant Income” strategy involves one of the most misunderstood corners of the investing world: the… Read More

In this modern age of instant market access, high-frequency trading and real-time news, there really is nothing new under the sun. The stock market still goes up and goes down, investors still make and lose money, and the basic market dynamics between a buyer and a seller remain the same. Many market lessons taught a century ago still ring true today. One of the most influential and successful stock market speculators of all time… Read More

In this modern age of instant market access, high-frequency trading and real-time news, there really is nothing new under the sun. The stock market still goes up and goes down, investors still make and lose money, and the basic market dynamics between a buyer and a seller remain the same. Many market lessons taught a century ago still ring true today. One of the most influential and successful stock market speculators of all time is the legendary Jesse Livermore. Many lessons can be learned from both his successes and failures, which were epic in scale. He made and lost several fortunes over his career, and his life ended tragically.#-ad_banner-# Livermore was keenly aware of his own shortcomings. Although this knowledge wasn’t enough to save him, the wisdom he shared with the world is as much worth heeding today as it has ever been. Let’s take a closer look at the man once called the “Speculator King” and one of his powerful investing strategies. Fortunes Won, Fortunes Lost… Read More

Anyone with a dime invested knows about the emotional aspect of financial markets.#-ad_banner-# A recent investor behavior study by research firm Dalbar shows that the average equity investor has seen a return of just 2.3% annually over the past 20 years, underperforming the S&P 500 by an annual average of 4.3%. The culprit? About half of the shortfall in returns — 45% to 55% — is due to psychological factors like fear of loss and following the herd, according to the… Read More

Anyone with a dime invested knows about the emotional aspect of financial markets.#-ad_banner-# A recent investor behavior study by research firm Dalbar shows that the average equity investor has seen a return of just 2.3% annually over the past 20 years, underperforming the S&P 500 by an annual average of 4.3%. The culprit? About half of the shortfall in returns — 45% to 55% — is due to psychological factors like fear of loss and following the herd, according to the study. Individual investors are notorious for emotional investing like irrational exuberance or panic selling. In fact, in 2012, investors trying to time the market guessed right just 42% of the time — worse odds than a coin flip. But investing in bonds is different, right? Many investors follow stocks passionately while the fixed-income portion of… Read More

Income-starved investors are faced with bleak prospects. Stocks in the S&P 500 index might only reward investors with a dividend yield of 2% or so over the next 12 months. As an alternative, investors could consider 10-year Treasury notes, but those pay even less. Based on history and very long-term charts, stocks do seem like the better choice. Prior to 1951, stocks offered investors more income than bonds. Read More

Income-starved investors are faced with bleak prospects. Stocks in the S&P 500 index might only reward investors with a dividend yield of 2% or so over the next 12 months. As an alternative, investors could consider 10-year Treasury notes, but those pay even less. Based on history and very long-term charts, stocks do seem like the better choice. Prior to 1951, stocks offered investors more income than bonds. As you can see in the chart below, something changed in 1951, and bond yields topped dividend yields for the next 60 years. In November 2011, the relationship reverted back to its historical alignment, and stock market yields have been at least slightly above bond yields ever since. This relationship is important to income investors because asset allocation rules have been developed based on the data. Many retirement investors have learned that a balanced portfolio should be 60%… Read More

One of the best income strategies in the world involves a “glitch” in the financial markets. It allows individual investors to generate “Instant Income” from the best companies in the world. The best part, more than 80% of… Read More

Income-starved investors are faced with bleak prospects. Stocks in the S&P 500 index might only reward investors with a dividend yield of 2% or so over the next 12 months. As an alternative, investors could consider 10-year Treasury notes, but those pay even less. Based on history and very long-term charts, stocks do seem like the better choice. Prior to 1951, stocks offered investors more income than bonds. Read More

Income-starved investors are faced with bleak prospects. Stocks in the S&P 500 index might only reward investors with a dividend yield of 2% or so over the next 12 months. As an alternative, investors could consider 10-year Treasury notes, but those pay even less. Based on history and very long-term charts, stocks do seem like the better choice. Prior to 1951, stocks offered investors more income than bonds. As you can see in the chart below, something changed in 1951, and bond yields topped dividend yields for the next 60 years. In November 2011, the relationship reverted back to its historical alignment, and stock market yields have been at least slightly above bond yields ever since. This relationship is important to income investors because asset allocation rules have been developed based on the data. Many retirement investors have learned that a balanced portfolio should be 60%… Read More

Income-starved investors are faced with bleak prospects. Stocks in the S&P 500 index might only reward investors with a dividend yield of 2% or so over the next 12 months. As an alternative, investors could consider 10-year Treasury notes, but those pay even less. Based on history and very long-term charts, stocks do seem like the better choice. Prior to 1951, stocks offered investors more income than bonds. Read More

Income-starved investors are faced with bleak prospects. Stocks in the S&P 500 index might only reward investors with a dividend yield of 2% or so over the next 12 months. As an alternative, investors could consider 10-year Treasury notes, but those pay even less. Based on history and very long-term charts, stocks do seem like the better choice. Prior to 1951, stocks offered investors more income than bonds. As you can see in the chart below, something changed in 1951, and bond yields topped dividend yields for the next 60 years. In November 2011, the relationship reverted back to its historical alignment, and stock market yields have been at least slightly above bond yields ever since. This relationship is important to income investors because asset allocation rules have been developed based on the data. Many retirement investors have learned that a balanced portfolio should be 60%… Read More