One day I was doing some ETF screens, seeing what ETFs were having a good year in this market. I came across VAMO, Cambria Value and Momentum ETF, it caught my eye. I was particularly intrigued because it hasn’t performed all that great compared to the market since it’s inception. However, for the last two…
We are going to look at some consumer staple ETFs. Not all of these ETFs offer the same strategy. Some of them are passive and track an index. Some use quantitative strategies like momentum and factor investing. Lastly, some offer market-cap weightings and others are more equal weighting ETFs. None of these ETFs are presented…
What does Beta mean in Investing? Beta β measures the volatility of a stock in relation to the total market’s volatility. The total market is assigned a beta of 1.0 as a reference. Stocks with a beta greater than 1.0 are said to possess greater volatility than the market. Stocks with beta’s under 1.0 have…
The Total market is down 21.5% and the S&P 500 is down almost 16% Year to date. The total market is in a BEAR MARKET. Bear markets – KEEP INVESTING! A bear market is when one of the indices falls greater than 20% over an extended period of time. Bear markets are often wrapped with…
Recently people have been ringing the death knell for the 60-40 portfolio because bonds are going down as the same time as stocks. Many are saying the classic 60/40 portfolio is DEAD. Many people retiring are upset because their portfolios are down -25% and the bond portion hasn’t provided much protection. Can the 60/40 portfolio…
Cash is Trash is a saying you often hear investors make. This phrase was most recently spouted by Ray Dalio. He said it in 2020 and he is still saying it. On the other hand, investors like Warren Buffet are known for holding a good bit of cash. In the latest Berkshire-Hathaway investor newsletter, Buffet…
I began investing back in the mid 2000’s. Besides VTSAX, the only other investment I made was silver. Today I want to review how that silver investment turned out. Would I have been better off buying more VTSAX instead of silver? What are the disadvantages of investing in precious metals. I still have my receipt…
I picked these investment quotes because I think they teach good lessons, or I find them particularly relevant in today’s macro-economic environment. Some quotes from Warren Buffett, Paul Tudor Jones, and even Albert Einstein.
Comparing a bank and a credit union Today we are comparing credit unions to a banks. What’s the difference? Are credit unions safe? What are the advantages of a credit union? Do I have to choose one and not the other? Fees of a Bank vs. Credit Union When opening a checking or savings account,…
I decided to do a correlation analysis on my ENTIRE PORTFOLIO of stocks (and some ETF’s). In case you don’t already know CORRELATION measures the possible relationship between two items, in this case their price movements. Keep in mind, correlation isn’t causation and there could be a 3rd (or even more variables) that are influencing…
Here are my DIVIDENDS for the month of May. If you’d like to compare to last month, here you go: First up is my BROKERAGE account, here they are: Putnam Municipal Income Closed End Fund paid me 0.13 cents. Ha, if you haven’t seen my post before, I bought into this over a year ago…
Here are my DIVIDENDS for the month of April: 1)Macy’s-I sold out of Macy’s a while back but for some reason I’m still getting dividends. Hey no arguments. Macy’s paid me $4.53 2)Eastman Chemicals paid me $33.00 3)Schneider Trucking paid me .91 cents 4)QQQ $1.45 So as you can see not a WHOLE LOT in…
I’ve sold very FEW things on eBay this past month. This was partly due to mostly concentrating on cleaning things out at my parent’s house and trying to sell those things for my mom. Not to mention just scrambling to increase my online music business in a bunch of different ways. I lost about $400…
While I said I was working on REDUCING positions, I managed to INCREASE positions. I guess the deals got too good. I started a small position in HOME DEPOT. I do feel it can go a little lower here but Home Depot will be fine long-term and I thought it was a good chance to…
Ok, it is that time again. Time to look at my dividend returns for the month. Let me start off by saying I got 33.9% more dividend income this quarter than I did 3 quarters ago (same companies reporting). I went from $76. 32 to $102.19; I’m certainly pleased. Here are the six sources of…