This is the time when many people make resolutions for the upcoming year. Determining to lose weight, eat healthier or exercise more are some of the most common New Year’s resolutions. But last year, financially-related New Year’s resolutions also consistently made it into the top. As 2018 approaches, you may be vowing to do better around your physical and financial health. If you fall into the latter camp, here are five ideas to get you started: Manage Your Debt Efficiently Excessive and irresponsible use of debt is one of the biggest hindrances to financial success for many people. Every dollar that goes toward paying down debt is a dol...
Bear Market Signals Triggered In previous articles, we’ve reviewed the 30 risks for 2018. Now let’s look at the 19 bear market signposts. As you can see from the image below, 11 of the 19 signposts have been triggered already. The first trigger is the Fed raising rates by more than 75 basis points. This cycle, the Fed has raised rates by 125 basis points, so that has been met. Since 1982, every bear market has been preceded by over 75 basis points of rate hikes. We aren’t at the end of the rate hike cycle yet. The current estimate on the CME Fed Watch tool has the most likely scenario being that the Fed will raise rates twice by Dec...
In this interview with Jim Goddard, I had to give another update on Bitcoin, because right now it is all anyone is talking about. But in this update, I talked about the reality of Bitcoin that Bitcoin players don’t know about as they are caught up in a bubble not knowing what is happening outside of the daily Bitcoin movements. At the same time, the stock market and gold investors don’t look at it seriously so aren’t seeing this huge thing happening with Bitcoin in its relationship with other markets. And I talk about what I really think is the best place to put money now which is gold and gold stocks....
The S&P 500 is up for 13 straight months (including a “perfect year” of 12 monthly positive returns – which has never happened before) and just reached its most overbought level since 1959… At least Santa delivered a little gain for stock investors today… (and the same desperate late day ramp as yesterday) For the 4th day in a row, Nasdaq was smacked lower around the open… Notably, as AAPL has suffered so it appears traders are rotating into FANGs… NOTE – Small Caps just can’t catch a bid in December as Trannies soar… And while stocks are soaring, breaking records never seen in...
During the 40 months after Alan Greenspan’s infamous “irrational exuberance” speech in December 1996, the Nasdaq 100 index rose from 830 to 4585 or by 450%. But the perma-bulls said not to worry: This time is different—-it’s a new age of technology miracles that will change the laws of finance forever. It wasn’t. The market cracked in April 2000 and did not stop plunging until the Nasdaq 100 index hit 815 in early October 2002. During those heart-stopping 30 months of free-fall, all the gains of the tech boom were wiped out in an 84% collapse of the index. Overall, the market value of hous...
We’ve used data based on the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which publishes price data weekly on home heating oil in 38 states by dollar-per-gallon before taxes. Unlike natural gas and electricity, home heating oil is provided by independent retailers. The latest price of home heating oil nationwide is $2.92, up a penny from last week and up twenty-five cents since the beginning of the season. EIA’s heating oil data is seasonal – from October through March. Here’s a look at the series since its inception in 1990. The next chart shows a regional breakdown. As you can see, it’s extremely volatile. Anoth...
Investors have had a great time for most of 2017, as major market indexes broke records on multiple occasions and are on course to create new annual records. Earnings for the S&P 500 increased in each of the last three quarters, with the index likely to report more profits in the October to December time frame. The prime factor backing this extended gain is robust economic growth. On the flip side, the market witnessed occasional losses. Geopolitical concerns, particularly those related to North Korea, hurt the market on several occasions. Also, there was much speculation about the likelihood of tax cuts receiving legislative approval be...
Rick Ackerman joins me today to share his thoughts on the move up in gold and the continued strength in the US markets. For gold Rick has a target he is watching before getting too excited. For US markets Rick is seeing more of the same as we enter 2018. (Audio length 00:10:15)...
The Bitcoin Peak Might Be In There’s a belief system among long term investors in bitcoin, known as hodlers, that bitcoin will always rally. The concept is if this rally ends in an elongated correction of 50% or more, there will eventually be another rally which brings it to new heights a few years down the line. I don’t agree with that thesis at all. Given the lack of advancements in the blockchain technology recently with Coinbase constantly shutting down when there’s volatility in bitcoin, transactions taking a long time to confirm, and transactions costing more money, I don’t think this currency can increase in value exponentially...