Chart o’ the Day: Diversification Works

Michael Batnick and I submitted the below to Business Insider’s Most Important Charts in the World roundup…   Check out the entire run of charts at the link below: Wall Street’s Brightest Minds Reveal The Most Important Charts In The World (Business Insider)

Is the Fed now underestimating the labor market?

My pal Peter Boockvar’s not a fan of endless ZIRP. His thoughts on this morning’s strong jobless claims report below (emphasis mine): Initial jobless claims for the week ended July 19th were 284k, well below expectations of 307k, down from 303k last week and the lowest print since February 2006. While the Labor Department said…

QOTD: Moving On

LOL, via Wall Street Journal: The officials overseeing pensions for Los Angeles’s fire and police employees decided last year to get out of hedge funds altogether after an investment of $500 million produced a return of less than 2% over seven years, according to Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions General Manager Ray Ciranna. The…

“What have you done for me lately?”

The flipside of the performance chase. “What have you done for me lately? How dare you miss a market trend? Why aren’t we on top right now? Is something wrong? Have you lost your edge?” The type of investor who is easily impressed by short-term performance is also really easily disappointed when a strategy struggles. It’s…

Cutting the Millennials Some Slack

On the surface, this looks and sounds like some incredibly stupid investor behavior… via Business Insider: According to a new survey by Bankrate.com, millennials are uncomfortable with choosing the stock market as their preferred method of investing “money they don’t need for at least 10 years.” The survey reveals that today’s young Americans have a rather conservative…