“These markets are making me dizzy,” exclaimed one retired investor who, against my advice, insists on watching CNBC all day.

My regular readers know how much I despise 12b-1 fees. Those are the fees that mutual fund companies kickback to your broker or investment advisor for putting you into their funds. You never see the charge in your statements but it can be as much as one percent annually if you own a certain class [...]

Two years in the making, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is 2,319 pages long. It will cost upwards of $30 billion to implement and under the legislation, a minimum of 12 new government reports, 44 studies and more than 243 new rulemakings will be required. Depending upon your political philosophy, this [...]

It was beautiful to behold. Stocks could do no wrong for seven straight days. The markets soared with the S&P 500 gaining 7% and the NASDAQ rising even more. That is until Friday.

It was a good week for investors as global markets bounced to the tune of 3-4% overall. Of course, don’t look for an underlying reason for such a big move. It was simply a technical exercise that one can normally expect after a prolonged decline.

You may have heard the term or even read the book “Black Swan” by Nassin Taleb sometime over the last few years. Most people mistakenly believe that a so-called “Black Swan Event” was all about the inability of Wall Street to manage risk leading up to the financial crisis of 2008 but that’s only partially [...]

The stock market is down 10% over the last nine days from peak to trough. That kind of move can rattle investors and trigger a bearish psychology that can play havoc with your emotions. It’s time to keep this market in perspective.

The next time you run out of ideas for that perfect gift, save this column. I am about to give you over 200 one of a kind gift ideas that will cost you only as much as you want to spend and at the same time make anyone happy. Global Giving beats the heck out [...]