Dark Horse Wealth

In order to discern good from bad investment advice, investors should start by understanding their financial advisors legal obligations to you and how they compensated for providing you advice. Ask your adviser how they are compensated. This is one of the most important questions a financially literate person will ask.

Inflation stability and the trend in inflation rates matter more than the actual inflation rate itself. It is inflation stability that is a primary driver of the market performance says, Ed Easterling of Crestmont Research and author of Financial Physics. His research explains: Inflation stability correlates with secular bull markets* or above average returns. (*See […]

Inflation in Brazil is on a tear rising 1.8% to 6.8%. Brazil is famous for openly (usually declarations are implied but not stated) declaring a currency war back in March 2012 citing the typical narrative : “When the real appreciates, it reduces our competitiveness. Exports are more expensive, imports are cheaper and it creates unfair […]

Focusing in On Mutual Fund Fee’s This article was originally published in the Cazenovia Republican on June 25th, 2012 Getting investing “right” is no easy task. There is thing however; you can definitely get right every time! Your mutual fund costs. Let’s briefly review how paying a 1% higher fee can impact a portfolio ending […]

Prudent investors understand the necessity of owning precious metals such as gold. We agree that in the short term gold has entered a cyclical bear market, but the long term reasons for owning gold are intact. In fact, given the delayed nature of money printing policies and inflation, one could make the case that the […]

Currency Wars, which up to now have received only scant news coverage, have become a hotly reported on topic these days. This theme has been table chatter for professional investors since quantitative easing (money printing) got under way in 2009. Since the topic is becoming more widely covered by the media, I thought it would […]

The last two times the S&P 500 Index hovered within striking distance of a new high at year end was December 2001 and December 2007. Both times the index level went on to see double-digit declines of 47% and 58% respectively. Roughly speaking, both experiences required five years of 100% rallies for stock indices to […]

Last week the Federal Reserve (FED) ventured even deeper into “extraordinary” realm, and it is quite possible these policies could have some major impacts on the markets as well as day-to-day life in the near future. So listen up. Yet again, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) rolled out monetary policy artillery and fired […]

Despite Variable Annuities (VA) high fees and hefty commissions for insurance salesman, they can make sense in select cases. According to Mason Dinehart III, a national expert witness and consultant for litigation and arbitration involving securities, insurance and annuities, variable annuities should be viewed as strictly supplemental retirement investments. These VA’s are generally quite expensive […]

The S&P 500 rose 1.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 1.1% in July. 10-year US Treasury bonds returned 1.0%. 30- year US Treasury bonds returned 2.3%. Healthcare and Utility sectors led the way again returning 1.9%. Gold was up 1%. Crude oil prices rebounded 3.1%. These returns give the appearance of a low […]