I am a huge proponent of discovering macroeconomic trends and drilling down to find actionable investment ideas.  After identifying a trend, my next step is to look for confirmation with the big-money players. Are hedge funds and other institutional… Read More

Each week, one of our investing experts answers a reader’s question in the Q&A column from our sister site, InvestingAnswers.com. It’s all part of our mission to help consumers build and protect their wealth through education. If you’d like us to answer one of your… Read More

If you look out into the middle of the decade, then you can make the case for increasingly robust economic growth that could fuel heady top- and bottom-line gains in a number of sectors. But we’re not there yet.#-ad_banner-# Recent economic signs point to an eventual economic brightening, though there are enough boulders in the U.S. economy‘s path that could derail an economic expansion. So perhaps it’s wiser to focus on companies that are poised for solid growth in 2013. Out of all the of the companies in the S&P 500, 91 (or 18%)… Read More

If you look out into the middle of the decade, then you can make the case for increasingly robust economic growth that could fuel heady top- and bottom-line gains in a number of sectors. But we’re not there yet.#-ad_banner-# Recent economic signs point to an eventual economic brightening, though there are enough boulders in the U.S. economy‘s path that could derail an economic expansion. So perhaps it’s wiser to focus on companies that are poised for solid growth in 2013. Out of all the of the companies in the S&P 500, 91 (or 18%) are expected to boost sales by at least 10% this year. And of those firms, 72 are expected to boost per-share profits by at least 15% in the coming year.  A cluster of them reside in sectors that have already received a great deal of investor attention recently, so they can’t be seen as solid values in the context of projected 2013 results any more. Housing stocks, for example, fit into this category. Instead, value investors may prefer to focus on stocks that have solid growth prospects, but sport forward price-to-earnings (… Read More

Retirees are being confronted with a huge dilemma. In the past, investors on the verge of retirement could simply shift into fixed-income assets and still generate plenty of income to support a comfortable lifestyle.#-ad_banner-# Take the 10-Year Treasury note for example, considered the safest asset in the world for being backed by the full credit of the U.S. government. Just 12 years ago, the yield on these… Read More

Retirees are being confronted with a huge dilemma. In the past, investors on the verge of retirement could simply shift into fixed-income assets and still generate plenty of income to support a comfortable lifestyle.#-ad_banner-# Take the 10-Year Treasury note for example, considered the safest asset in the world for being backed by the full credit of the U.S. government. Just 12 years ago, the yield on these bonds was about 6.7%. That meant an investor with $1 million in retirement savings could generate close to $70,000 of annual income from investing in the U.S. government bonds. And that’s not even factoring in capital gains as yields continued to fall and push bond prices higher. It was a powerful combination that set the foundation for many comfortable retirements. But fast forward to 2013 and things could not be more different. Now, high-risk fixed-income assets such as the… Read More

“The cult of inflation may only have just begun.”  That was a bold and eye-opening sentiment legendary bond fund manager Bill Gross expressed in the summer of 2012. What on Earth is he talking about? After all,… Read More

OK, I’m always the first to admit it. When it comes to investing in Chinese stocks, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  That’s why I’ve opted to get investment exposure to… Read More

They’re the creme de la creme of the income universe.  Each one has increased its dividend every year for at least two decades… some sport track records with more than 50 years of consecutive dividend increases. All told, these… Read More

In the 1930s, the U.S. government sought to boost a flagging economy by maintaining very low interest rates. Throughout the decade, consumers benefited by obtaining low-rate mortgages — though their savings accounts garnered insultingly low levels of interest as well. Sound familiar? Well,… Read More

OK, I’m always the first to admit it. When it comes to investing in Chinese stocks, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  That’s why I’ve opted to get investment exposure to China only through mega-multinational companies such as PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) or General Electric (NYSE: GE).#-ad_banner-# I’ve always sided with the bears, who contend China’s economic numbers can’t be trusted because the command-and-control nature that the government has over the economy. Read More

OK, I’m always the first to admit it. When it comes to investing in Chinese stocks, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  That’s why I’ve opted to get investment exposure to China only through mega-multinational companies such as PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) or General Electric (NYSE: GE).#-ad_banner-# I’ve always sided with the bears, who contend China’s economic numbers can’t be trusted because the command-and-control nature that the government has over the economy. However, I’m also a big fan of emerging markets and telecom stocks. That’s why I just can’t deny the relevance of state-owned China Mobile Ltd‘s (NYSE: CHL) role in this investment theme. With nearly 600 million subscribers, China Mobile holds the position as the world’s largest wireless provider by market capitalization, with a whopping $227 billion. China’s economic growth has resulted in a rising middle class and telecom providers are usually one of the first sectors to benefits from this rise. Read More

Markets move in cycles of varying lengths. Some indicators, like the relative strength index (RSI), are based on that idea. RSI was designed by J. Welles Wilder for the commodity markets and some traders believe that commodities… Read More