Bullish on Russia!

Today, I ran across an article in Market Watch, which argues a 'contrarian point of view' towards investing in Russia. An example of longer-term investment thinking based 'buy when there is blood in the streets', but the question is 'will there be blood or should we buy now?' Russia's protests will create buying opportunity By Matthew Lynn LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Even in the chill of a Moscow winter, it now looks unlikely the Russian protests will end any time soon. Last weekend, some 3,000 people gathered in the capital's Bolotnaya Square...

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Европейским инвесторам не хватает денег на достойную пенсию

Несмотря на то, что многие европейские инвесторы желают сохранить или увеличить свой уровень жизни на пенсии, они будут получать меньше половины от своего текущего заработка.Согласно Schroders European Wealth Index средний европейский пенсионный доход составляет 46% от текущего дохода, а то время как 42% инвесторов придают большую значимость поддержанию или увеличению своего дохода по выходу на пенсию.Исследователи опросили 1400 состоятельных инвесторов в девяти европейских странах, и выявили, что несмотря на желание выйти на пенсию и сохранить...

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Asset Allocation in a Volatile Market

A recent Asset Allocation Survey conducted be the American Association of Individual Ivestors recently signaled an increased aversion to equities, with stock/stock fund allocations falling to 53% last month. Many investors, both individual and institutional, are frustrated by the market’s headline-driven volatility, and some are just plain scared by it. In order to protect...

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Внесет ли свою лепту Европа?

Два события на прошлой неделе оказались весьма позитивными новостями для рынков, особенно после прошедших непростых месяцев. По крайней мере, сейчас мы, наконец, наблюдаем глобальные меры, о которых так давно просили рынки.Сначала Китай весьма неожиданно сократил резервные требования к банкам на 0.5%, что знаменует начало смягчения монетарной политики КНР. Рынки отреагировали на эту новость бурным ростом. Возможно, решение было обусловлено озабоченностью КНР событиями в Европе и их вероятным негативным влиянием на экономику Китая и всего региона...

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EUROPE - LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL OR AN ONCOMING TGV?

This week sees the most critical meetings of the key personnel in the Eurozone since the launch of the physical currency almost 10 years ago. Arguably it is the most important meeting regarding currencies since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971. Without over-dramatising, we could be staring into the abyss of the entire collapse of the Eurozone by this time next week. Having canvassed our contacts at European fund managers, asking the question uppermost in our clients’ minds “what happens IF the Eurozone disintegrates”, the response...

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Will the wild ride continue in December?

After an apparently restful US holiday hiatus, the bulls were back in rare form last week. Last week marked the biggest weekly gain in the S&P 500 Index (SPX) since March 2009. Of course, the index was down big during the two weeks prior to this massive gain, and the SPX still hasn't recouped what it lost over those two bearish weeks. In fact, most of the losses from...

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Morningstar: Советы Инвесторам на 2012 год

Недавно я посетила конференцию рейтингового агентства Morningstar «Лушие идеи и советы инвесторам на 2012» в Лос Анджелесе. Спикер Кристина Бенц - Директор по Личным Финансам Morningstar Inc. и автор книг о личных финансах, говорила о том:· Какие рынки сегодня перегреты и какие недооценены· Как использовать исследования для поиска свежих решений для инвестирования в фонды·...

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Are we going lower?

Last week the US market showed some signs of cracking its bullish momentum. The SP500 and NASDAQ fell out of their positive bullish consolidations (pennant patterns everyone is talking about) and broke back down into the August and October trading range. More bullishly, meanwhile, the DJ30 was actually holding above that trading range and continuing its pattern, also holding above the 50 day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), a line generally watched by large institutions. Looking at the SP600 (small cap stocks), it is pretty much doing the same...

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SHIP OF FOOLS?

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Viaticals, Life Settlements and STOLIs... sound Russian but they are not!

Over the years, many clients have brought investments in life insurance policies to our attention as these have become popular as alternative investment funds. We have always been skeptical of the payouts and liquidity issues, but now two new court rulings show additional risks are involved. Investor beware! In light of two recent rulings by the Delaware Supreme Court, hedge funds and other investors will need to do their diligence to ensure that their investments abide by certain US state laws. And in any event, they should be prepared for insurance...

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В чем опасность "сложных" фондов ETF?

Готовлю статью для www.investcafe.ru под названием "В чем опасность фондов ETF?". В статье планирую обсудить следующие моменты: Основную озабоченность представляют "сложные" фонды ETF, использующие кредитное плечо, деривативы и долговые обязательства для увеличения своей доходности. Инвестор должен обязательно изучать КУДА и КАК инвестирует выбранный фонд. При выборе ETF обязательно необходимо обратить внимание на ликвидность. Высокий спрэд может дорого обойтись инвестору. Инвестирование в "сложные" ETF может повысить как волатильность, так...

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Put Buyers Betting On Decline In Volatility

According to an article in Bloomberg recently, the put to call ratio on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is the highest it has been since January 2009. Currently, there are around 101 puts to every 100 calls on the VIX as traders bet that volatility will fall and the recent rally in stocks will continue. The bullish bets on the stock market come on the heels of a massive rally in the S&P 500 over the last week which has caused the VIX to fall to 30.56. This is signalling a return to some semblance of normality. The option activity is bullish...

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Our basic advice for everyone

Financial Planners are constantly picked on and even ridiculed, mostly by people who never worked with a financial advisor and don't think they need one. Advisors are thick-skinned and quick-thinking group though, so this is no big deal. However, a couple years ago I was caught off guard. I was dining with a close friend and (unexpectedly) his colleagues from work. They were all executives at a big Aluminum producer and couldn't get their heads around the idea that I wasn't a 'corporate soul'. They thought anyone can be a financial advisor and...

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EU Euphoria turns into market rally!

U.S. equity futures (/ES) soared this morning as the result of deals that were reached among Greek bondholders and European leaders. The bondholders agreed to a 50% haircut, and the rescue fund's capacity was increased to $1.4T. In The US, investors continue to cheer the third quarter earnings reports and the recent string of stable economic data. Today investors will be watching the Weekly Jobless Claims data, GDP report, pending home sales data and natural gas inventory report. The U.S. Dollar (/DX) is sharply lower as equities take off higher....

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Just warming up...

We will start with bit of humor about the industry we are in.... Some (Western) Financial Advisers have always focused on the not so easy job of providing common sense to their clients. Recently, we found a post that took this activity to a new high (or low, depending on how you look at it!). When discussing which documents (in this case, credit card offers)  to dispose of in order to minimize identity theft, a dilemma arose: "Whether you need to shred or simply rip up the offer is a matter of disagreement among advisers though. The priority...

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