A study conducted by economists at the Bank of England found that the vast majority of the 450-basis point decline in global interest rates since the 1980s was due to…
Tag: interest rates
Active Investors Get a Chance to Shine
From the investor’s standpoint, a low level of unemployment isn’t necessarily good news, says a recent Bloomberg article. However, it can bode well for active versus passive investors. When more…
Hedge, But at What Cost?
Crowded trades can undermine investors’ attempts to find safe havens, according to an article in last month’s Wall Street Journal. “Now it is more expensive to insure against losses in…
What Rising Rates Mean to Low-Vol Investors
“Confusing risk with volatility can be dangerous,” says a recent report by Greenline Partners, as it “can lead to seeing things that do not exist.” This according to an article…
How Could Rising Rates Affect Small-Cap Stocks?
As we continue to wait for the Fed to move on rates, questions loom as to how a rising rate environment will affect the markets. In a recent article for…
Jason Zweig on Why Interest Rates Matter
When shopping for sale items, it’s customary to look at the price tag and see how much an item has been “marked-down”. You’d rather browse the “30% off” rack than…
To Bolster Returns Large Investors Will Have to Come Up the Risk Curve
Gone are the days when a conservative bond portfolio will provide a decent return. Low interest rates and a sluggish economy are forcing investors to accept higher risk to get…
The Only Fed Voice that Matters – Listen to Yellen
James Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer recently weighed in on Federal Monetary Policy in a Bloomberg Report video. Grant believes the Fed “conceives its principal work to be suppressing…
The Importance of Dividends for the Long Term Investor
Dividend producing stocks are attractive and offer investors compelling values (subscription required) according to this AAII Journal article by John Buckingham, director of research and chief portfolio manager of AFAM…
Bond Market Volatility Likely to Continue in 2016
Short and long-dated Treasuries have nearly identical returns this year, with Barclays indices showing 0.71% returns for 1-3 year Treasuries and 0.68% returns on the 20-year-plus index. Expectations that the…