Stock market chart on LCD screen. Selective focus.

Is market level relevant? If you’re an investor, not a speculator, market predictions are futile

Investing for Fun and Profit with Herman VanGenderen

I am about to question one of the sacred beliefs of market pundits. It is my belief that market level isn’t very important to our investing success. What? Does that make sense? First, let’s look at how accurate market predictions tend to be. Reading about the topic leads me to believe the prediction success rate […] Read more

Guarding Wealth: Buying risk, paying for liquidity

Guarding Wealth: Buying risk, paying for liquidity

Price-earnings ratios are a useful way to analyze your investment decisions

What do you get when you invest in capital markets? You might say stocks or bonds, mutual funds or units in real estate investment trusts. That answer is both true and false. You do get ownership of those things, but in a more analytical sense, what you are really getting is risk — any stock […] Read more


Stock risks after year of gains

After a good run in the stock market, investors have decisions to make

It is a dilemma unique to the times, specifically to January and February 2014. After a remarkable run from 2011 or, for that matter, from the beginning of the recovery in March, 2009, stock markets in Canada, the U.S. and in much of the world are breaking through former highs. The broad U.S. market measured […] Read more