Gold Miner Stock Prices are Back to Where They were in the Winter of 2008!
Interesting, after the Fed increases it’s balance sheet hugely, and the US dollar drops 25% from where it was during that 2008 crash, that Gold Mining Stocks are back to where they were then! So, in spite of the fact we have excluded Gold and Gold mining stocks from our allocation as they fell, I am re-opening positions in GDX in our portfolios, based on the volatility driven asset allocation methodology we use (this means a very small position). I’m not trying to have perfect timing… but it doesn’t make sense that these stocks should be at prices as low as they were...
Read MorePBS Documentary – The Retirement Gamble Facing Us All
Take a good look at this PBS program. While listening, please be aware that, at Portfolio Wisdom: We are a fiduciary, legally required to put your interests first. Your broker, insurance agent, and 401k advisor are probably not held to that high legal standard. Industry lobbyists have defeated every attempt to hold the big financial firms accountable in this way; As a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) we can, and do, actually actively manage client 401k’s for them on a fee-only (no-commission) basis. Your broker, insurance agent, or 401k provider do not. They are sometimes actually...
Read MorePutting a Little Cash Back to Work
Well, Gold and Silver have dropped about 7-8% since we sold. Stocks have fallen 2-3%, so, for the more aggressive clients, I put some cash back to work over the last two days. The markets do not look like they are going to completely break down right now. However, we are still holding a fair amount of cash for the Balanced accounts and the more conservative accounts. If we could just get a really nice 15% drop in stocks, I would gladly go back to the portfolio models Have a great...
Read MoreThis LIBOR Thing Bothers Me a Great Deal
I’m on vacation this week, but I spent the morning watching Ben Bernanke’s testimony on TV because I wanted to hear what he says about the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) manipulation by Barclays Bank (and others), ongoing since 2008. This thing reminds me of the initial news in 2007 that a couple of hedge funds in Europe had closed because they didn’t know what their holdings were worth. That news was apparently ignored by the markets, but was the first overt indication of the coming financial armageddon. I don’t like what he said, and I don’t like the...
Read MoreWhat is the Goal of Investing?
Seems like a silly question to ask, but bear with me for a moment. Any knucklehead mutual fund salesman or “advisor” can show you a hypothetical illustration with a better historical track record than the one you have (or the one his own clients have). All he has to do is go through the thousands of choices and pick one to show you that looks good. If you ever see an illustration like that from an “advisor”, ask if he recommended that investment to any of his clients five years ago. Then ask him to show you several proposals he made to clients several years ago....
Read MoreCurrent Model Portfolio Allocations
Here are the current 6 asset model portfolio allocations. They will be updated every 4 weeks or so, depending on market behavior. For the sake of consistency, this table will use the same ETF’s as the PortfolioWisdom Mobile App. Be aware that the PortfolioWisdom Mobile App may produce slightly different allocation calculations, because the data updates to the App may not occur at exactly the same time as the data update to this spreadsheet. If you always want the latest allocation calculations for 6, 9, or even 12 asset classes, feel free to subscribe to the PortfolioWisdom Mobile...
Read MoreAbout Dale P Beals
Dale Beals lives with his wife, Sue, and their two boys in Hendersonville, TN, the 'City by the Lake'.
He has been an avid student of the financial markets and a successful individual investor (but a terrible day trader :-)) since 1988 and now manages client investments. He likes to joke that he made most of the investing and trading mistakes you can make with his own money before he ever began to work with his clients, to their great benefit!