Category

Wall Street

Wall Street

Here's the Big Problem with Wall Street's Darling Buy-Write Funds

By , Special Situation Strategist, Money Morning - • Print | Email

"Psst. Hey, I got something for you – the perfect investment.

"It's gonna give you 5% to 7% in income, plus appreciation. It does better than the stocks in down markets, and there's loads of upside potential when stocks are riding high.

"There's options trading, too, but get this: You don't have to worry about 'em – the fund manager's gonna take care of that.

"You in? Just sign here…"

That sounds pretty compelling, right? Income, appreciation, outperformance, and no trades to execute.

There's just one flaw: It's complete crap – and expensive, too.

So, naturally, it's selling like hotcakes, with investors falling for it hook, line, and sinker all over the place.

Let me show you what's really going on with this investing craze - and why you don't want to be anywhere near it...

Stocks

Is This the Best Track Record on Wall Street?

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning - • Print | Email

We turned back the clock to this time five years ago to test the performance of the Money Morning VQScore™ tool. What we found is simply astonishing…

If you bought our top-rated stocks in May 2013, you would have made some serious cash.

In fact, if you know of a hedge fund, Wall Street bank, or even your own financial advisor who matched this record, we'd love to hear about it...

Wall Street

The World's Biggest Money Manager Just Blew the Lid Off Wall Street's Snake Oil Scam

By , Special Situation Strategist, Money Morning - • Print | Email

Earlier this month, BlackRock Inc. reported fantastic earnings for the first quarter of 2018, surpassing Wall Street's expectations on nearly every metric.

Now, BlackRock is the largest money manager on the face of the earth, so any sane individual interested in keeping up with the markets – and therefore making money in them – needs to pay close attention to BlackRock's performance.

The company reported net inflows of $55 billion into its money management products. It also hiked the dividend by 15% and bought back $335 million in stocks, both of which contributed to the solid 6% gain shareholders saw from January to March.

Now, BlackRock is far too large for me even to consider owning. I only target unreasonably undervalued companies, and any company known as the world's largest "anything," let alone money manager, will always be far from undervalued. 

But when BlackRock is speaking, it's a good idea to listen. The recent earnings show the company now has over $6 trillion in assets, meaning the suit-wearing foot soldiers are pretty damn good at selling their products.

And this most recent earnings report speaks volumes about how these products are falsely marketed to you…

They're marketed as investments that don't provide underwhelming returns when, in reality, that's exactly what they provide...

Wall Street

Wall Street's "Official Bear Market" Lie Is a Rip-Off Designed to Take at Least 20% of Your Wealth

By , Liquidity Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email

The often-repeated claim that a 20% market decline is an "official" bear market is pure Wall Street BS.

There is no official standard for what constitutes a bear market. It's a classic big lie.

There's no official body to set the standard, and it couldn't be done even if there was.

Setting aside all commodities, bonds, real estate – anything else that's traded daily – stocks alone are bought and sold in around 60 different markets all over the planet, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Each has a wildly different capitalization, as well as vastly different betas and standards of volatility.

There can be no universal "20% down standard" to apply to all markets, all instruments, and all commodities. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

The idea that there could be an "official bear market" is absurd on its face, yet the media keeps repeating this nonsense ad nauseam.

It's another example of them being clowns and intellectually lazy stooges for the Wall Street establishment.

It would be funny... if the lie wasn't told at your expense. It'd be funny if millions of investors didn't fall for it hook, line, and sinker every time the lie is floated in the media...

Wall Street

This Chart Shows the Perils of Trading the VIX; Here's a Better Way to Get Rich

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning - • Print | Email

Traders can be lured toward complex financial instruments thanks to the potential of otherworldly returns.

Just look at what happened to traders who got involved in the now-defunct VelocityShares Daily Inverse ETN (XIV), a particularly nasty piece of financial engineering created by Credit Suisse.

The XIV taught its investors a hard lesson: Wall Street isn't your friend...