Investors who follow our approach can look back on 2013 with satisfaction as global equity markets provided calendar-year returns well above historical norms. But rather than ponder market outcomes, we once again remind our readers that it is far more productive to focus on those factors that are within their control.• I will understand my […]

In February 2010 the newly elected government of George Papandreou announced that Greece’s 2009 deficit was much larger than previously reported and revised it upward to an alarming 12.7 percent of GDP. This figure was more than double the previous government projection, and was later revised yet again, to 15.4 percent. This turned out to

Imagine sitting in a bar in which you are introduced to someone said to have an uncanny ability to predict whether the Yankees will win or lose their next game. Further suppose that you know for a fact that for the previous six games he has walked into this bar the day before each game

Since its founding, our parent organization, the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), has been dedicated to conducting independent, scientific, economic research to educate individuals, thereby advancing their personal interests and those of the Nation. American Investment Services, Inc. (AIS) was created in order to extend this mission specifically within the field of personal finance

Newly appointed SEC Chair Mary Jo White has been busy. During recent House Financial Services Committee oversight hearings she was grilled over high frequency trading (also known as“HFT”, or “flash trading”), a controversial practice that has dominated the financial news. On another front the Commission has been tasked under the Dodd-Frank Act with “harmonizing” the

College grads often wonder whether to pay down student debt first or to save for retirement. Financially savvy folks recognize the need to save for retirement sooner than later, but they also know the detriment of carrying a large debt burden. To answer this quantitatively, you must compare your expected rate of return on retirement

In a world of fiat currencies the threat of unexpected price inflation is always with us. While many articles and commentators decry inflation, they do so for the wrong reasons because they tell only a partial story. They frequently ignore the fact that while many suffer from rising price levels, others gain. Make no mistake:

Bill Gross rocked the mutual fund industry in late September by resigning from Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), the firm he founded in 1971, to join Janus Capital. Much of the ensuing media coverage has focused on the human drama surrounding his decision, rather than the important lesson this episode provides for investors. PIMCO describes

Volatility is back. Just as many people were starting to think markets only ever move in one direction, the pendulum has swung the other way. Anxiety is a completely natural response to these events. Acting on those emotions, though, can end up doing us more harm than good. There are a number of tidy-sounding theories

The field of finance is among the most successful branches of economics thanks largely to rapid advances in computer technology that began in the early 1960s. In particular the Fama-French three factor model, which has been tested exhaustively over many time periods and throughout global markets, has emerged as the pre-eminent standard for evaluating alternative