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by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                                January 21, 2016  2015 – Year End Market Review In year just past, we experienced many things-a prelude to a Presidential election, a renewal of terrorist concerns, a trip to Pluto-but in the investment markets, we will look back and yawn.  Despite some entertaining ups and downs, particularly in the third quarter […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                                February 4, 2016 Could You Stomach the Perfect Investment? Suppose a mutual fund knew for sure which 10% of the largest U.S. companies would earn the highest returns over the next five years, over each upcoming five-year period.  You'd invest in that fund and hang tight, right? A research company called Alpha […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                                February 25, 2016 Avoiding the Pain There's no question that we experience emotional pain and anxiety when our portfolios are losing money due to market downturns.  Behavioral scientists tell us that we feel losses twice as keenly as positive returns. But that doesn't tell us what we really want to know, which […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                                February 27, 2016 The Prediction Game If you want to look like a brilliant stock market analyst, keep predicting the same thing over and over again until it finally happens. A great example of this marketing strategy is newsletter publisher Marc Faber, whose website modestly describes him as "an international investor known […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                                March 1, 2016   The Good Side of Bad Markets After the recent downturn in the U.S. and global stock markets, you can be pardoned if you wished that the markets were a bit tamer.  Wouldn't it be nice to get, say, a steady 4% return every year rather than all these ups […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                                March 2, 2016 Recovery–For How Long? Yesterday, the U.S. stock markets went up 2.39%, the highest one-day return in a month.  Analysts attributed the rise to a variety of economic news that suggested that the American economy is not, after all, plunging into recession.  The buoyant mood among investors may not last, […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                                March 3, 2016 Strong Dollar, Weak Profits Oil prices are getting all the blame for the recent U.S. stock market downturn, but it's hard to see the connection when so many companies and consumers benefit from low energy costs.  A better culprit is the strong dollar. The accompanying chart shows how strong […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                                March 8, 2016 A Vanishing Value Premium? Value stocks underperformed growth stocks by a material margin in the US last year. However, the magnitude and duration of the recent negative value premium are not unprecedented. This column reviews a previous period when challenging performance caused many to question the benefits of value […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                               March 11, 2016   What's Riskier Than the Riskiest Stocks? Any seasoned investor will tell you that buying one stock is riskier than buying a basket of stocks.  The underlying concept is diversification-the idea that the movement of the shares of many different companies, taken together, will be smoother than the trajectory of any […]