Risk minimization requires the identification of what’s inside a portfolio. Risk control requires decision-making by the owner of the investment assets. Risk management requires a selection process from a universe of securities that meet a known set of qualitative standards.

Risk minimization requires the identification of what’s inside a portfolio. Risk control requires decision-making by the owner of the investment assets. Risk management requires a selection process from a universe of securities that meet a known set of qualitative standards.

Why do we jump through all of these “prevent-defense” hoops? Because we just don’t know how or have the patience to design and manage a classic, safer, plain vanilla, stocks and bonds portfolio. The market cycle is the favorite son of the investment gods. You either make it your friend or fail as an investor!

Big publishers want to sell already big names; discovering new ones is not in their wheelhouse. Are they responsible for the problems in the financial markets? Of course not, but they do have a perverse, if indirect, impact. By constantly publishing the same Wall Street friendly message, they contribute to the brainwashing.

The Stock Market is a dynamic place where investors can consistently make reasonable returns on their capital if they comply with the basic principles of the endeavor AND if they don’t measure their progress too frequently with irrelevant measuring devices

A correction is a beautiful thing, simply the flip side of a rally, big or small. Theoretically, even technically I’m told, corrections adjust equity prices to their actual value or support levels. In reality, it’s much easier than that. Here’s a list of ten things to think about doing, or to avoid doing, during corrections of any magnitude:

The key to successful Investment Management is Asset Allocation, the process of dividing the available investment dollars into two, and only two, buckets: Equity and Income Investments. All investment grade securities fit within one of these two classifications, based solely upon the primary purpose for their ownership. There are several key issues involved in successful Asset Allocation

By Jonathan Burton SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Knowing that there can be too much of a good thing, many investors are wary about how stock and bond markets this year will follow their remarkable 2009 surge. One thing’s for sure: This year won’t be like the last. “We’re not going up 65% in the first [...]

It was a fabulous decade for those investors who were able to see over, beyond, and through artificial time constraints to find the long-term opportunities within every beautiful market cycle undulation. There were plenty of gyrations to gyrate to if you only knew how.

Sunday, 20 Dec 2009 02:50 PM Skeptical kids can doubt whether Santa Claus exists. But for stock-market statisticians, there’s not much debate: The year-end lift known as the Santa Claus rally is no myth. The stock market typically posts modest, but reliable, gains in late December into the beginning of early January. “It’s pretty much [...]