Invest

The Newest Investing Scam You Need to Know About

Thumbnail image for The Newest Investing Scam You Need to Know About

There’s a reason why index funds are your best choices for investing: they don’t try to time the market they have low management costs they own an entire segment of the market (or the whole market), so there’s no stock picking involved This is not news. Study after study has proven that index funds are […]

Read the full article →

Does Congress Really Want to Regulate Wall Street?

Thumbnail image for Does Congress Really Want to Regulate Wall Street?

More than one year after the financial collapse, Senate Banking Chair Christopher Dodd formally released a proposed financial reform bill, entitled “Restoring American Financial Stability.” The bill intends to create three new independent agencies: the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the Agency for Financial Stability and the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration. It intends to create a […]

Read the full article →

Why Reverse Stock Splits Hurt Shareholders

Thumbnail image for Why Reverse Stock Splits Hurt Shareholders

Once primarily a tool of shady penny stocks, the reverse stock split has become a favorite of exchange-listed financial companies during the chaos of the past year. A reverse split reduces the total float of common shares while maintaining the same total market cap, mashing the stock price of multiple shares into the price of […]

Read the full article →

Are You Properly Valuing Your Stock’s Dividends?

Thumbnail image for Are You Properly Valuing Your Stock’s Dividends?

Recently, some of America’s big corporations have been cutting or eliminating their dividends. As an investor, I would like some income with my investment dollar. Dividends help recover the initial investment. For companies that do pay dividends, the current yield is an easy and ever present method to check and compare stock returns. One method […]

Read the full article →

If You’re Going to Trade Stocks, Read This First

Thumbnail image for If You’re Going to Trade Stocks, Read This First

Regular readers of Automatic Finances will know well that we advocate long term, buy-and-hold investing. Overall, for both small and large investors, it remains the most stable and consistent approach to both wealth creation and preservation. Short-term trading, in comparison, carries considerable risks to an investor’s capital. That’s why it’s important to make that distinction […]

Read the full article →

Should You Keep Multiple Investment Accounts?

Thumbnail image for Should You Keep Multiple Investment Accounts?

In the past, when we’ve talked about diversifying your investments to manage risk and preserve wealth, it’s been in relation to multiple asset classes or industry sectors for equities. But what about the equally obvious strategy of spreading your investments around, and maintaining separate accounts at different institutions? Amongst high net worth individuals, it’s commonplace […]

Read the full article →

Investing in Gold to Preserve and Grow Wealth

Thumbnail image for Investing in Gold to Preserve and Grow Wealth

Today’s guest post is from Andrew, who presents a view of gold generally opposite of mine — but worth understanding to better round out your personal finance knowledge. – Jason “The desire for gold is the most universal and deeply rooted commercial instinct of the human race.” – Gerald M. Loeb Gold may be the […]

Read the full article →

The Argument For Actively Managed Funds

Thumbnail image for The Argument For Actively Managed Funds

Look, it’s not going to surprise anyone that I heavily advocate investing in low-cost, passively managed index funds. They offer the best return on your money for most investors, and not only do they help you better understand your investments, they ensure that some salesperson isn’t hoodwinking you with their investment suggestions. But I can […]

Read the full article →

Ask the Readers: Do You Manage Your Own Investments?

Thumbnail image for Ask the Readers: Do You Manage Your Own Investments?

As the role of money managers and investment advisers change following the stock market crash, many “normal” investors are re-evaluating the value in hiring someone to make financial decisions for them. You know that we’re big proponents of understanding what you’re investing in and, if you feel comfortable, managing those investments yourself. But it may […]

Read the full article →

Diversify Your Investments. No, Really, We Mean It

Thumbnail image for Diversify Your Investments. No, Really, We Mean It

Diversifying your portfolio is one of the most fundamental pieces of an investment strategy. It’s essentially the old aphorism that says you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. The underlying motive for diversification is to reduce risk: by having your investments spread between different funds, equities, or financial instruments, your portfolio is less […]

Read the full article →

Can Monkeys Pick Stocks Better than Experts?

Thumbnail image for Can Monkeys Pick Stocks Better than Experts?

We’ve spent plenty of time explaining why investing in passive, low-cost index funds will out-earn actively managed funds in the long-run, and that most fund managers can’t even outperform the indexes they’re trying to beat over time. The underlying theme of these posts is that stock market “experts” aren’t really experts at all. They may […]

Read the full article →

There Is No Level Playing Field

Thumbnail image for There Is No Level Playing Field

In recent weeks, the business media has been host to a rising tide of faux-outrage at perceived injustices in the financial marketplace. A lot of column-inches have been devoted to High Frequency Trading and, more recently, a tempest in a teapot has been brewing over bond-flipping by originators and institutional investors. Arguments like these are […]

Read the full article →

Profit Takers, Wall Street and Your Investments

Every so often I hear a television or radio commentator talking about the day’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Sometimes they say, “The market was up today, but profit takers drove stocks lower late in the day.” They make profit takers sound like bad guys. Does buy-and-hold investing produce profit takers? Or is […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →