More than 10,000 Americans reach the age of 65 every day and move the demographic needle further to a change in spending power, preferences and political clout. In five years, over 50% of the U.S. population will be over the age of 50. But you’ve already heard this story, right? The demographic boom is just building up steam, and for years, investors have been rushing to find every retirement housing and health care stock under the sun. Wall Street has been… Read More

More than 10,000 Americans reach the age of 65 every day and move the demographic needle further to a change in spending power, preferences and political clout. In five years, over 50% of the U.S. population will be over the age of 50. But you’ve already heard this story, right? The demographic boom is just building up steam, and for years, investors have been rushing to find every retirement housing and health care stock under the sun. Wall Street has been talking up the coming change for quite a while, and the usual suspects all trade at pricey levels. Senior Housing Properties (NYSE: SNH) trades at almost 34 times trailing earnings and has missed earnings expectations in 11 of the past 12 quarters. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals Fund (NYSE: XPH) trades for an expensive 19 times trailing earnings, a premium of almost 20% on the rest of the… Read More

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. If the two market crashes since the turn of the century have taught us one thing, it is that this proverb is extremely relevant to investing. Investors relying only to future growth in stock prices for their returns were badly burned as they saw their portfolios decimated by the dot-com bust and the Great Recession. Those investors holding portfolios with an even mix… Read More

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. If the two market crashes since the turn of the century have taught us one thing, it is that this proverb is extremely relevant to investing. Investors relying only to future growth in stock prices for their returns were badly burned as they saw their portfolios decimated by the dot-com bust and the Great Recession. Those investors holding portfolios with an even mix of dividends and growth were certainly not immune, but they could at least look to past cash returns for overall performance.#-ad_banner-# On average since 1962, the market has suffered crashes of more than 20% in a year once every seven and a half years. Still, investing is about long-term returns, and even the best dividend stocks may not get your portfolio to its goal. So what’s an investor to do? The answer lies… Read More

Anyone with a dime invested knows about the emotional aspect of financial markets.#-ad_banner-# A recent investor behavior study by research firm Dalbar shows that the average equity investor has seen a return of just 2.3% annually over the past 20 years, underperforming the S&P 500 by an annual average of 4.3%. The culprit? About half of the shortfall in returns — 45% to 55% — is due to psychological factors like fear of loss and following the herd, according to the… Read More

Anyone with a dime invested knows about the emotional aspect of financial markets.#-ad_banner-# A recent investor behavior study by research firm Dalbar shows that the average equity investor has seen a return of just 2.3% annually over the past 20 years, underperforming the S&P 500 by an annual average of 4.3%. The culprit? About half of the shortfall in returns — 45% to 55% — is due to psychological factors like fear of loss and following the herd, according to the study. Individual investors are notorious for emotional investing like irrational exuberance or panic selling. In fact, in 2012, investors trying to time the market guessed right just 42% of the time — worse odds than a coin flip. But investing in bonds is different, right? Many investors follow stocks passionately while the fixed-income portion of… Read More

Anyone with a dime invested knows about the emotional aspect of financial markets.#-ad_banner-# A recent investor behavior study by research firm Dalbar shows that the average equity investor has seen a return of just 2.3% annually over the past 20 years, underperforming the S&P 500 by an annual average of 4.3%. The culprit? About half of the shortfall in returns — 45% to 55% — is due to psychological factors like fear of loss and following the herd, according to the… Read More

Anyone with a dime invested knows about the emotional aspect of financial markets.#-ad_banner-# A recent investor behavior study by research firm Dalbar shows that the average equity investor has seen a return of just 2.3% annually over the past 20 years, underperforming the S&P 500 by an annual average of 4.3%. The culprit? About half of the shortfall in returns — 45% to 55% — is due to psychological factors like fear of loss and following the herd, according to the study. Individual investors are notorious for emotional investing like irrational exuberance or panic selling. In fact, in 2012, investors trying to time the market guessed right just 42% of the time — worse odds than a coin flip. But investing in bonds is different, right? Many investors follow stocks passionately while the fixed-income portion of… Read More

I love it when rain keeps falling on a company whose future is sunny.  News that the Internal Revenue Service was scrutinizing this company’s application to become a real estate investment trust (REIT) sent the shares down 5.5% in one day last month. Regardless of whether the company is allowed to change its corporate status, the fact that it’s applied to do so means upward of $420 million in additional taxes over the next four years.#-ad_banner-#… Read More

I love it when rain keeps falling on a company whose future is sunny.  News that the Internal Revenue Service was scrutinizing this company’s application to become a real estate investment trust (REIT) sent the shares down 5.5% in one day last month. Regardless of whether the company is allowed to change its corporate status, the fact that it’s applied to do so means upward of $420 million in additional taxes over the next four years.#-ad_banner-# This company’s shares also took a beating on April’s first-quarter earnings report, plummeting 12% when revenue and profits missed lofty analyst expectations. Even though revenue increased 17% over the previous year and the company’s gross margin was an outstanding 50%, analysts expected 7 cents more in earnings per share. Investors punished the stock, and short-sellers are swarming, with almost 17% of… Read More

Some stocks are good for a quick pop, but you have to time it just right. Case in point: Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) investors have seen several double-digit surges over the last year. They’ve also seen the stock plummet by as much as a third on more than a few occasions. High-risk and high-reward stocks are great for kick-starting a portfolio, and they certainly make investing interesting, but many investors have been… Read More

Some stocks are good for a quick pop, but you have to time it just right. Case in point: Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) investors have seen several double-digit surges over the last year. They’ve also seen the stock plummet by as much as a third on more than a few occasions. High-risk and high-reward stocks are great for kick-starting a portfolio, and they certainly make investing interesting, but many investors have been broken by high-flying has-beens. For instance, wireless giant BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) made a lot of people wealthy as its stock price rocketed 17-fold between 2003 and 2007. Investors who bought in at BBRY’s height, on the other hand, are looking at a 90% loss. A chance at overnight success is great, but the single best way to make money in stocks is to buy those you can buy and hold “forever.”… Read More

Some stocks are good for a quick pop, but you have to time it just right. Case in point: Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) investors have seen several double-digit surges over the last year. They’ve also seen the stock plummet by as much as a third on more than a few occasions. High-risk and high-reward stocks are great for kick-starting a portfolio, and they certainly make investing interesting, but many investors have been… Read More

Some stocks are good for a quick pop, but you have to time it just right. Case in point: Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) investors have seen several double-digit surges over the last year. They’ve also seen the stock plummet by as much as a third on more than a few occasions. High-risk and high-reward stocks are great for kick-starting a portfolio, and they certainly make investing interesting, but many investors have been broken by high-flying has-beens. For instance, wireless giant BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) made a lot of people wealthy as its stock price rocketed 17-fold between 2003 and 2007. Investors who bought in at BBRY’s height, on the other hand, are looking at a 90% loss. A chance at overnight success is great, but the single best way to make money in stocks is to buy those you can buy and hold “forever.”… Read More

When you’re the leader of the free world, you can make a few investment mistakes and still do pretty well.#-ad_banner-# You are guaranteed an annual pension of just under $200,000 for the rest of your life and can make millions more giving speeches. Former President Bill Clinton made $13.4 million for the 54 speeches he gave in 2011, almost a quarter of a million each on average. In addition to the lecture circuit are the book deals, board seats and any number of other perks that… Read More

When you’re the leader of the free world, you can make a few investment mistakes and still do pretty well.#-ad_banner-# You are guaranteed an annual pension of just under $200,000 for the rest of your life and can make millions more giving speeches. Former President Bill Clinton made $13.4 million for the 54 speeches he gave in 2011, almost a quarter of a million each on average. In addition to the lecture circuit are the book deals, board seats and any number of other perks that come from those four (or eight) years of leadership. With this kind of potential income, who cares if you make a few extra percent on your portfolio? Then There’s The Rest Of Us… Unless you are one of the lucky few who have this kind of potential income, you are going to need to manage your nest egg and seek higher returns. But with bonds yielding next to nothing, gold and commodities out of favor, and many sectors of the… Read More

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) made history last month with the biggest corporate bond issue ever: $17 billion in six different maturities. That’s more than the GDP of the 29 smallest countries combined — and Apple did it by promising to pay just 1.4% a year in interest.#-ad_banner-# Everyone caught the news, but many overlooked the huge consequences it has for the… Read More

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) made history last month with the biggest corporate bond issue ever: $17 billion in six different maturities. That’s more than the GDP of the 29 smallest countries combined — and Apple did it by promising to pay just 1.4% a year in interest.#-ad_banner-# Everyone caught the news, but many overlooked the huge consequences it has for the market. This deal has the potential to push a lot of stocks higher and not just those tied to the Cupertino, Calif.-based giant. Apple will be using the debt to return $100 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases over the next two years. Evidently, the Street likes the plan, with big investors like David Einhorn buying more… Read More

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) made history last month with the biggest corporate bond issue ever: $17 billion in six different maturities. That’s more than the GDP of the 29 smallest countries combined — and Apple did it by promising to pay just 1.4% a year in interest.#-ad_banner-# Everyone caught the news, but many overlooked the huge consequences it has for the… Read More

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) made history last month with the biggest corporate bond issue ever: $17 billion in six different maturities. That’s more than the GDP of the 29 smallest countries combined — and Apple did it by promising to pay just 1.4% a year in interest.#-ad_banner-# Everyone caught the news, but many overlooked the huge consequences it has for the market. This deal has the potential to push a lot of stocks higher and not just those tied to the Cupertino, Calif.-based giant. Apple will be using the debt to return $100 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases over the next two years. Evidently, the Street likes the plan, with big investors like David Einhorn buying more… Read More