Where’s the catch? None.
Earlier this week, Charles Schwab announced that starting Oct. 7, clients can buy and sell stocks and ETFs listed in the U.S. or Canada online for free instead of the 4.95/$6.95 per trade fee. Next day, TD Ameritrade and ETrade reluctantly followed. Fidelity and the...
Deeply Disturbing
With the President facing impeachment, investors are cringing, thinking of a repeat of 1974 when Nixon went down and took the markets with him. But history suggests otherwise. When Andrew Jackson was impeached, markets cared little. When Bill Clinton was impeached,...
The movie is over..shed no tears
MoviePass, a company that started a too-good to be true service in 2017, of offering consumers a movie a day at theaters for $9.99 a month, has finally closed doors. They simply ran out of money subsidizing all those customers who took full advantage. Unfortunately,...
When is the next recession?…Some say we may already be in it
The inverted yield curve, a key predictor for financial downturns, has appeared in recent months several times. Yet U.S. stock markets are still near their all-time high while U.S. retail sales appear upbeat. Paying attention to the yield curve inversion that has...
How independence ruined a nation
Traditionally, independence meant freedom. And freedom meant prosperity and economic growth. In the case of Zimbabwe, it went the other way. Robert Mugabe, who died this week was the mastermind, who liberated and destroyed the country. In 1980, Mr. Mugabe took power...
Interest rate cuts are no longer what they used to be Inbox
Traditionally, business investment used to rise when US companies took on more debt and companies took on more debt when the interest rates were cut, making it cheaper to borrow money and deliver a boost to the economy. That was the prevailing theory until the one...
A “low risk” strategy that loses millions of investors’ money at UBS
Earlier this week, UBS revealed that its Yield Enhancement Strategy or YES that manages $5 billion, has lost at least $60 million YTD of investor money at its retail client accounts. Ordinarily, this would come as no surprise at a hedge fund and would hardly make the...
Looking for reliable signals to provide direction
With constant whipsawing and mixed messages from the White House and the Fed alike, investors are seeking direction from the bond market that has traditionally provided the most reliable signals. While other sections of the U.S. Treasury yield curve have inverted for...
The future ain’t what it used to be
There were two mass shootings within 24 hours in America this week. Firearms stocks spiked. U.S. stocks plunged the most this year as China responded to Trump’s latest tariff threats. The yield curve blared its loudest U.S. recession warning since 2007. Bitcoin, an...