I’m sure it won’t surprise many value investors that stock correlations are at an all time high. It’s not like value investors need even more challenges thrown in their face. There were two posts late last week that showed data on this rise in correlations. Lets take a look. First, Read more…
With all the discussion of the current economic situation in the US, jobs, deficits, etc.. it constantly amazes me how short term oriented and myopic investors can sometimes be. In this regard I think we could gain some insight by looking at what’s happened in Japan since 1990. Barry Ritholz Read more…
Earlier this week my wife and I were discussing the stock market events that were taking place in front of us; markets gripped by political intrigue, both domestic and overseas, violent swings in volatility, slowing economic growth, and lots of uncertainty. I then started telling her about what my plan Read more…
It’s time again to update mREIT earnings results. All of the mREITs that I track have now announced Q2 2011 earnings with MFA finishing up the announcements this morning. Instead of doing separate posts for each of the 7 mREITs on my list I decided to do a summary post Read more…
It’s time again for the monthly update of the income investor dashboard. July was an exciting month with stocks dropping in general, bonds defying the consensus chorus and rallying, and volatility spiking higher. Below is the updated income investor dashboard. As usual the highlighted green cells are for those areas Read more…
In my latest post on investment fees I compared the impact the average fees of active mutual funds vs have on total investment returns. I also compared the active mutual fund fees to those of index funds and to those of individual stock investments. That exercise was a bit theoretical Read more…
Now that the first half of 2011 is over I wanted to step back and look at the performance of the sectors in the income investor dashboard. Lets look at the YTD performance of the dashboard and see if it offers any insights. Below are the 1H 2011 total returns Read more…
Wow! That was truly a crazy last week of the month. A great week for stocks and a not so great week for bonds. This is when zooming out and looking at market changes over a monthly period helps to add some perspective. Having said that lets jump right in Read more…
Investment fees are such a detriment to future wealth that literally investors should flee from them like their lives depended on it. I’ve touched on the topic of investment fees before using hypothetical fees and looked at their long term impact. It’s awful. But it looks even worse when fees Read more…
May has come to a close. It was certainly and interesting month for income investments. Here is the beginning of June Income Investor Dashboard updated with prices as of the close of trading June 1, 2011. As usual the green highlights are for the sectors that became cheaper during the Read more…
I am a contrarian investor by nature. When there is too much fanfare around an investment, be it a stock or whole asset class, I usually find myself wanting to run for the exits. The hair on the back of my neck literally stands on edge sometimes. Most value investors Read more…