Our Man Goes Undercover and Tells All

He spent days sitting through free seminars to become a super trader. Lesson number one: It’ll cost you.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Admit it: You’ve been tempted. You’ve seen the infomercials for trading systems that will teach you how to master the markets. Sign up for a free seminar in your area and you’re on your way to wealth and freedom. Ordinary people just like you are earning thousands each month. Why not join the club?

Read more here.

February 11th, 2010 Category Reviews, Stocks

Discount Brokers Lower Fees in Battle Over ETFs

Fidelity lowers its commissions, raises the stakes in its rivalry with Charles Schwab.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

The slugfest between the two heavyweights of discount brokerage, Fidelity and Charles Schwab, is intensifying. That’s great news for investors, particularly those who favor exchange-traded funds.

Read more here.

February 3rd, 2010 Category Brokers, Exchange-Traded Funds

ETFs Go After Hedge Funds

New exchange-traded funds sell short, invest in foreign currencies and engage in other esoteric strategies.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

It was only a matter of time. Exchange-traded funds, which offer products for almost every conceivable investment niche, are now competing with hedge funds. This could be welcome news if you don’t have the big bucks normally required to invest in hedge funds and don’t want to pay their outrageous fees.

Read more here.

January 27th, 2010 Category Exchange-Traded Funds

Bigger Berkshire, Trimmer Price

These committed savers ask how best to invest after they’ve fully funded their tax-deferred accounts.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Berkshire Hathaway is about to expand just as its share price is about to slim down (although slimmer does not necessarily mean cheaper). It is a convergence of events that investors may find hard to resist.

Read more here.

January 27th, 2010 Category Stocks

Best Ways to Invest After Maxing Out Retirement Accounts

These committed savers ask how best to invest after they’ve fully funded their tax-deferred accounts.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Scott and Amber Rowson are such ardent savers that they’re faced with an enviable problem. They contribute the maximum amounts to their tax-deferred retirement accounts, and they stash additional savings in 529 college-savings plans for Beckett, 5, and Ayla, 2. Now they’re stumped about how and where to invest still more without incurring tax headaches or excessive risk.

Read more here.

January 27th, 2010 Category Retirement

An Overseas Fund Comes on Strong

After two lousy years, Quant Foreign Value is tearing up the performance charts.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

With a name like Quant Foreign Value (symbol QFVOX), you’d think that this hot fund lets computers do all the stock picking. Quant (short for quantitative) does use computers to thin the universe of 24,000 foreign stocks to about 1,000 candidates that appear cheap based on estimates of how much cash the businesses generate. At that point, however, manager Bernard Horn and his four analysts turn to good old-fashioned company analysis, traveling the globe to find about 50 stocks they think have the best prospects over the next three to five years. Horn does not hedge the fund’s currency exposure or restrict how many stocks the fund can own in a particular country or industry.

Read more here.

January 27th, 2010 Category Mutual Funds

Target-Date Funds Reset Their Sights

Fund companies are tinkering with these one-stop retirement plans after their bear-market beating.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

From U.S. senators to government regulators to shell-shocked investors, everyone, it seems, is drawing a bead on target-date funds for producing such rotten results during the 2007-09 bear market. These funds were supposed to be simple solutions for retirement saving: You picked a fund with a date close to your anticipated retirement. As the date approached, the fund would adjust the bond portion of its portfolio to become more conservative and protect returns.

Read more here.

December 13th, 2009 Category Mutual Funds, Target-Date Funds

IPOs Are Back

Now is a good time to consider initial stock offerings.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

The 2008 financial crisis put initial public offerings into a seven-month coma. But IPOs started to perk up in the second quarter of 2009. Barring more shocks to the financial sector, the 2010 market could be positively robust.

Read more here.

December 13th, 2009 Category Stocks

What’s in Store for the Next Decade

Wild cards: Three to watch

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Anyone who’s ever played Uno knows that wild cards change the game. The next decade could be transformed in unexpected ways if we experience a global drought or a miraculous breakthrough in technology. To stay one step ahead, tweak your portfolio to anticipate these scenarios:

Read more here.

December 13th, 2009 Category Exchange-Traded Funds

Bank Roulette

If your bank fails, you probably won’t lose any deposits or face hassles getting to your money.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

At 98 and counting, the number of bank failures this year is beginning to rival the number of institutions shuttered in 1992, at the finale of the savings-and-loan crisis. Fortunately, when a bank goes belly up, most customers have a seamless transition to a new bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. currently covers $250,000 per depositor per bank. And most often, a failed bank is bought by another bank, assets are transferred immediately, and customers have uninterrupted access to funds in their accounts.

Read more here.

November 11th, 2009 Category Banking

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