market sentiment

Although I am fairly young, this is the most difficult job market that I can remember or can even imagine. Everyone I speak with seems to have some level of job insecurity. During tough economic times in the past, there were always a few professions that were “safe”: medicine, law, government, etc. These days however, [...]

When purchasing stocks, you are essentially buying the right to receive a share of a company’s income. But the income of some companies sells in the stock market for much less than it does for others. The measure used to compare companies by how much investors must pay for each dollar of income is called [...]

Inverse ETFs are a class of ETFs that rises in value when their underlying asset falls. For example, the ProShares Short QQQ ETF (whose underlying asset is the NASDAQ) will rise, if the NASDAQ falls. So, if you expect companies in the NASDAQ to perform poorly, you could buy the ProShares Short QQQ. Recently, Inverse [...]

A while ago, I asked the question: how much should we invest internationally? Ever since, I came to believe that I am over-weighted in U.S. equities at 72% invested. I believe that my international equities exposure should be closer to 50%, because both the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and market capitalization represents less than 50% [...]

How much should we invest internationally? That’s the question that I want to explore with you today. Last week, I posted What’s Wrong with this 401k Asset Allocation? and SJean commented that “25% international is risky” — a sentiment that is shared by a few other commenters. I don’t agree with the comment and want [...]