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Money Management: Divide and conquer with your portfolio

By David A. D'Ambrosio
POSTED: May 15, 2012
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There’s no way around it. Being an investor means learning to live with a certain amount of uncertainty. Everyone wants to ensure that their investments will produce the returns necessary to achieve their goals. However, investment results are dependent on factors that cannot be predicted or controlled, such as the direction of interest rates, the [...]

Money Management: Unemployment statistics – a mirage or real?

By Mitchell Thomas
POSTED: May 9, 2012
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The economic landscape is obsessed with the weekly jobless claims and the monthly unemployment stats released by the government. The extrapolation from these figures conjures up the economic health of a nation. Perceptions become our realities even if the accuracy of the data is imprecise and misleading. A continued dismal unemployment number without progress over [...]

Money Management: ETFs and their investment relatives

By Bozena Pomponio
POSTED: May 1, 2012
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Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become a globally significant investment vehicle in less than 20 years. The first ETF was introduced by State Street 19 years ago. Currently, ETFs are a $1,193 billion industry, up from $71 billion in 2000. ETFs are investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 as open-end funds or [...]

Money Management: Going for the gold – different ways to invest

By Christopher Raby
POSTED: April 24, 2012
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With the Summer Olympics rapidly approaching, you may be wondering how you can get your hands on your own gold —metal that is. Gold has served investors well over the past 10 years. Through March 31, the spot price of gold has appreciated 18.5 percent annualized for the trailing 10 years. During the same time [...]

Money Management: Outlook: Emerging markets in your portfolio

By Travis Gallton
POSTED: April 17, 2012
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  When it comes to constructing a long-term portfolio, you can never stress enough the importance of diversification and asset allocation. For the past 10 calendar years, the MSCI Emerging Market Index has outperformed the S+P 500 Index eight times. Emerging markets are countries that are in the transition of industrializing and streamlining business activity. [...]

Money Management: Discount narrowing methods of CEF managers

By James Quackenbush
POSTED: April 10, 2012
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Investors are continuously looking for undervalued investments that over time have the opportunity to increase in value and offer superior investment returns. One investment vehicle that is frequently undervalued relative to its underlying assets are closed-end funds. CEFs are investment companies that issue a limited number of shares to investors through an initial public offering. [...]

Money Management: All investor leverage is not created equal

By Joseph G. Mowrer III
POSTED: April 3, 2012
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Most fixed-income closed-end funds use leverage to enhance yields paid to common shareholders. The ability to use leverage is a primary feature that attracts investors to these funds. Prior to March 2008, almost all of these funds borrowed using the same (or very similar) product — Auction Rate Preferred Securities (ARPS). This vehicle provided funds [...]

Money Management: Low rates, inflation and your finances

By William Dostman III
POSTED: March 27, 2012
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Interest rates in the United States have been, and will continue to be for some time, exceptionally low. The Fed has already given the indication that they plan to keep the federal funds rate near zero through late 2014, as they attempt to reinvigorate the U.S. economy. This decision, along with several other factors, has [...]

Money Management: The optimal investment vehicle for municipal bonds

By Daniel Lippincott
POSTED: March 20, 2012
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In these trying times, when several local governments have warned of fiscal challenges and possible bankruptcies, investors seeking tax-free income must exercise more caution when selecting an investment. Fortunately, municipal bond investors now have a greater variety of investment vehicles to choose from than ever before. Municipal bonds can now be purchased individually, in mutual [...]

Money Management: Understanding closed-end mutual funds

By George Kiriakos
POSTED: March 13, 2012
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Investors are often puzzled when they hear the term closed-end funds. While they are often familiar with traditional mutual funds (or open-end funds), their closed-end cousins are often viewed as too esoteric to be worthy of consideration. The following is intended to serve as a primer to the world of closed-end funds. A closed-end fund [...]

Money Management: Asset allocation is your best bet for long-term

By George W. Karpus
POSTED: March 6, 2012
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As an investment professional, I am frequently asked “What should I invest in?” or “What is a good investment?” While the questioner is most likely looking for a hot stock pick, my 43 years of experience running investment portfolios leads me to answer “the best investment over the long run is a diversified portfolio with [...]

Money Management: Larger vs. smaller investment managers

By Z. Andrew Yarumian
POSTED: February 28, 2012
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Are you generally better off investing your equity assets with a larger or smaller investment manager? At first blush, you may instinctually think that a larger investment manager is superior. Having worked and observed investment managers of all sizes and shapes for more than 30 years, it is pretty clear to me that generally smaller [...]

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