Weekly Market Insight: Why Did Stocks Drop? ­­Last week did nothing to dispel October’s reputation as a tough month for the markets. The S&P 500 lost 3.94%, the Dow declined 2.97%, and the NASDAQ dropped 3.78% during what was one of 2018’s most volatile weeks so far. All three indexes are down significantly for the […]

Weekly Market Insight – Examining October Stock performance was mixed last week as investors considered the impact of interest rates, international affairs and corporate earnings.[i] The S&P 500 gained 0.02%, and the Dow added 0.41% to post its first weekly gains in October. The NASDAQ declined 0.64% and extended its losing streak.[ii] International stocks in […]

­Weekly Market Insight – Stocks Take a Ride Volatility was back in full force last week. The three major domestic indexes posted several days of losses before experiencing wide swings on Friday. By week’s end, the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), which investors use to help measure fear in the markets, had increased by approximately 70%. […]

Weekly Market Insight – Examining Economics Although new data continued to show strength in the U.S. economy, markets stumbled across the globe last week.[i] The S&P 500 lost 0.98%, the Dow dropped 0.04%, and the NASDAQ declined 3.21%.[ii] International stocks in the MSCI EAFE struggled, posting a 2.35% loss.[iii] While U.S. and international stocks followed […]

VIDEO – Retirement Investing Pitfall #8 – Excessive Single Stock Risk This video is going to touch on retirement investing pitfall #8 from my book, Plan Smart Retire Right. This is the risk of investing excessively in a single stock or company. Now every investor needs to decide how he or she wants to approach […]

New Records and Changes Last week brought new tariffs and data, and another look at changes coming to equity classifications. Overall, the S&P 500 gained 0.85% and the Dow was up 2.25%, while the NASDAQ dropped 0.29%.[i] International stocks in the MSCI EAFE had sizable growth, posting a 2.89% increase.[ii]   A Look Back: Last […]

A Shaky Start to September Domestic markets fell last week due to negative trade news and declining tech stocks, with the S&P 500 and Dow both breaking their multi-week winning streaks. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ posted losses for 4 days in a row for the first time since April and experienced its worst September start since […]

VIDEO: Retirement Investing Pitfall #7 – Prospect Theory & The Sunk Cost Fallacy   In this video, we are going to touch on the retirement investing pitfall #7, referred to as Prospect theory. Prospect theory centers on the interesting financial behavior that if two equal choices are put in front of an individual, one presented […]