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Income investing has long been popular because many investors value the cash streams thrown off by such portfolios while others cherish the lesser volatility we usually associate with them. Most income strategies, though, require users to suppress natural tendencies to reach for the highest yields they can find. The reasons for this are sensible: The highest-yielding stocks are often too-risky and wind up performing badly as business deteriorates and dividends get cut. But perhaps we go further than we must in the interest of safety. Maybe there is a way to chase yield without stumbling over the edge of a cliff. Full Article »
Wed Mar 02, 2011 By Marc Gerstein 19 comments
The just-introduced Portfolio123 Country function opens up an interesting new set of screening opportunities. You can now easily find, or eliminate one of the most interesting or dangerous (depending on your point of view) groups of companies in the market today: the reverse takeover (RTO) firms. Full Article »
Wed Feb 02, 2011 By Marc Gerstein 3 comments
In this context, K-I-S-S does not refer to the rock band, but to the adage "Keep it simple stupid." The phrase was coined as part of a plea to military aircraft designers to build in such a way as to facilitate repair by a typical combat field mechanic with no more than a very basic set of tools. Beyond that, the phrase seems to have found another home in internet-era Wall Street, where data and tools are so ubiquitous as to make it seem that anybody could analyze stocks as well as any guru. Full Article »
Tue Sep 28, 2010 By Marc Gerstein 3 comments
In backtesting and simulation, it seems an article of faith that we need to include an assumption for slippage. But I'm not so sure. For holding periods of a week or more, we may want to give serious consideration to testing with a minimal, or even zero, slippage assumption. Full Article »
Mon Aug 23, 2010 By Marc Gerstein 2 comments
It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the large number of ETFs that are now available; too many too many choices spread among too many styles, too many sectors, too many asset classes, too many countries, etc. If you have particular preferences, such as a desire for growth stocks, fixed income, developing country investing, etc., that will considerably narrow the choices. But if your goal is simply to find ETFs likely to perform well, whatever type they may be, you face a challenge. Different asset classes and different markets have different trading dynamics (compare commodities with fixed income, for example), so even technical models that work well with U.S. stocks may not be quite so effective with ETFs. Full Article »
Thu Jul 22, 2010 By Marc Gerstein 5 comments
