If you’d like us to answer one of your investing questions in our weekly Ask The Expert Q&A column, email us at editors@investinganswers.com. (Note: We will not respond to requests for stock picks.) Question: When’s the best time of year to invest? –Valerie V., Seattle Investors have become well acquainted with the phrase “Sell in May and go away,” which suggests that stocks only generate… Read More

If you’d like us to answer one of your investing questions in our weekly Ask The Expert Q&A column, email us at editors@investinganswers.com. (Note: We will not respond to requests for stock picks.) Question: When’s the best time of year to invest? –Valerie V., Seattle Investors have become well acquainted with the phrase “Sell in May and go away,” which suggests that stocks only generate gains until Memorial Day, after which they slip in value before rising again after Labor Day. Is this axiom on the mark, or is it a myth? Well, in an analysis of 100 years’ worth of monthly returns, Bespoke Investment Research couldn’t find any such trend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 0.37% on average every June, 1.39% each July, and 1.01% every August. Then again, the market tends to modestly rise in most months, with February… Read More

Going against the masses rarely pays off in investing. Finding an opportunity that the rest of the market is completely missing, identifying the right instruments, calculating the right amount of leverage and… Read More

Risk equals reward, right? This has been an investment concept for more than a century. The notion implies that every asset class delivers gains that account for their volatility and risk. Bonds (which have default risk) generate modestly better returns than cash, large-cap stocks have delivered better returns than bonds over the long haul, and small-cap stocks,… Read More

Risk equals reward, right? This has been an investment concept for more than a century. The notion implies that every asset class delivers gains that account for their volatility and risk. Bonds (which have default risk) generate modestly better returns than cash, large-cap stocks have delivered better returns than bonds over the long haul, and small-cap stocks, the riskiest asset class of all, are expected to generate the best returns of all, at least for investors who can stomach the wild swings. But is the adage really true? Are you really compensated for risk with better returns? The answer may surprise you. To see whether you are taking on too much risk in search of rewards, let’s turn to Stanford University professor William Sharpe, who devised a handy measure of risk-adjusted returns back in the 1960s. His “Sharpe ratio” is used… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More