Investments, Financial Markets & Economy

Time To Take Control: Informed, Diversified Investors Can Weather Market Storms

Robert Riedl, CPA, CFP, AWMA, Managing Member of ETF Model Solutions and CEO and Director of Wealth Management for its affiliate, Endowment Wealth Management, Inc. was recently featured in the article titled Time to Take Control: Informed, Diversified Investors Can Weather Market Storms, which appeared in the most recent issue of Insight Magazine.  Rob’s quotes in the article include: On Q1 2020 financial market volatility: “Everyone didn’t even want...

Five Top Tech Stocks Now Comprise 18% of S&P 500

From the “know what you own” department, the top 5 stocks in the S&P 500 now make up 18% of the index, according to a recent report from Goldman Sachs.  Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) make up the highest concentration at the top of the index since 2000, when Cisco (CSCO), General Electric (GE), Intel (INTC) and ExxonMobil (XON) comprised 18% of the...

Nasdaq Publishes Proposal for “Intelligent Ticks”

Nasdaq is leading a coalition of market participants recommending to the SEC the adoption of a market-based approach where not tick would be wider than a tick’s average quoted spread.  The goal is to reduce costs for investors through tighter and  and more stable spreads.    As trading characteristics change over time, market forces would determine in which one of six “Intelligent Tick” buckets and equity would trade ($0.005,...

Will U.S. Investors Need to Navigate Negative Interest Rates?

A recent article from Bloomberg highlights the challenges that negative interest rates are having on German savers and bankers alike (see Bloomberg).  While historically unprecedented, the negative rate phenomenon has become a global commonality, with $15 trillion of global debt carry negative yields.  In Switzerland, government bonds across the entire maturity spectrum and there are 18 countries currently with negative bond yields.  Savers apparently still view government bonds as...

The Next Markets for ETF Disruption? Hedge Funds, Private Equity and SMAs

Hedge funds and private equity are two large markets with huge fees and lockup periods that are ripe for disruption by ETFs, says Matt Hougan of ETFs.com at their annual Inside ETFs conference. Such markets will continue to drive growth in assets in ETFs, which currently account for only $5 trillion of the $150 trillion in global assets. Despite their growth, trading in ETFs is falling, suggesting that ETFs...

U.S. Markets “T+2” Shortened Settlement Begins Tuesday

When you return from the long Labor Day holiday, your securities transactions in equities, corporate or municipal bonds, unit investment trusts, and any securities comprised of these security types will be subject to a “trade date plus 2 days” ( “T+2″) shortened settlement, from the current”T+3”.  Thus, any trades executed on Tuesday will settle on September 7. The move harmonizes U.S. markets with most major international markets.  It is also expected to reduce...

New Book Encourages Investors to Join The “Index Revolution”

Charley Ellis’ new book “The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now” discusses how the investment landscape has changed and how investors are better served with passive, indexed strategies than active management.  A few stats investors should consider: Trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange increased from three million to five billion shares daily over the past 50 years. The dollar value of trading in derivatives rose...

A Look at Managed Futures

In a recent article on Bloomberg.com, Ye Xie discusses one winner in the Brexit rout. Over the past few days, managed futures funds were one of the few investment classes to boast positive returns. One fund, AQR Managed Futures Strategy Fund, rallied 6.3% over the past 2 days (as of June 27, 2016). What are managed futures? Managed Futures are an example of an alternative investment which adds diversification...

More Collective Investment Trusts Being Added to DC Plans

There are now over 3,200 collective investment trusts (CITs) tracked in the Morningstar CIT database, collectively holding nearly $2 trillion according to a recent article that appeared on WealthManagement.com.  That’s up from $896 billion in 2008.  Callan Associates estimates that 71% of DC include at least one CIT in their plan up from 60% and 52% in 2014 and 2013, respectively Why are CITs becoming more popular?  Reasons included...

Of Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z

Interesting facts on America’s generational dynamics from recent WSJ blog: Generational Definitions: Greatest Generation (born before 1928) Silent Generation  (born between 1928-1945) Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964) Generation X (born between (1965-1980) Millennials (born between 1981-1997) Generation Z ( those born after 1997) A few interesting facts on how our population is evolving: Millennials now outnumber baby boomers Generation Z is expected to surpass baby boomers and become the second largest...