Tag Archives: volatility

Why should blue chip stocks be your starting point when creating a diversified portfolio and what exactly defines blue chip stocks? In this post, I...answer those questions and more.

...Volatility has now returned to the stock market after a hibernation of several years...[and such] an explosion of volatility is indicative of a change of trend. The recent signals transmitted by this market have been classic and have been telling us that we have entered the final topping process of this extended and stretched economic cycle.

Overall, the market was due for a pullback. It seemed like every trading day in January, the market was only rising so it is only natural that, eventually, the market was going to fall but it’s just that many didn’t think this type of volatility was going to happen so soon. Here are some things to keep in mind.

You have alternatives for protecting your portfolio, and you can decide when you want to start. Here are a dozen choices.

If there’s been a worse place to be as an investor over the past few years than gold & silver stocks then I haven’t found it. Over the past three years a diversified basket of these metals and mining companies is down over 65%. In that same time the S&P 500 is up nearly 75%, an enormous difference in performance. Here's a look at the historical numbers to get a better sense of how they tend to act.

I'm with Buffett on real assets over paper, but on gold he's flat wrong...I guess Warren found crony capitalism in a fiat world was an easier way to get rich than hard work with honest money.

A large number of investment professionals confuse risk and volatility to the point where the terms are treated as being virtually synonymous. This has resulted in the flawed investment principle that reducing volatility will (and must) reduce risk. Such thinking is deeply misguided, and following it has dire consequences for investors. Let me explain more about what risk and volatility are and are not.

Stocks rallied through May this year mostly on expectations of continued easy money from the Federal Reserve but after the Fed indicated last week that tapering could begin as early as this fall, coupled with concerns about Chinese growth, stocks sharply reversed course and Treasury yields spiked. I expect market volatility to last through the summer as investors remain uncertain about the future of monetary policy and the strength of the global recovery. That said, I wouldn’t advocate abandoning stocks. Here's 3 reasons why.

Risk is inevitably mispriced when unprecedented intervention suppresses risk [and, as such, the] policies that appear to have been successful for the past four years may continue to appear successful for a year or two longer but that very success comes at a steep, and as yet unpaid, price in suppressed systemic risk, cost, and consequence. [This article identifies 8] key dynamics that will continue to play out over the next two to three years [and an] understanding of the eventual consequence of such influential trends - that risk is inevitably mispriced when unprecedented intervention suppresses risk. Words: 1299

Dr. Marc Faber, the author and publisher of the "Gloom Boom And Doom" report is one of the most well-read economists out there. I am of the opinion that his suggestions and investment advice are more realistic than any other economist or analyst we hear and read regularly. The summary of Dr. Faber's latest monthly report suggests that he views 2013 as a year of capital preservation. In other words, Dr. Faber is not very bullish on risky asset classes for 2013. This article discusses Dr. Faber's views and the reasons to remain cautious in 2013. Words: 1494; Charts: 3; Tables: 1