InvestorMind

Performance and Trading You heard the saying, but what does it really mean? We live in a world where performance is stressed. Hedge funds can be measured on a monthly basis. Twenty percent charges on profits are levied by fund making their view short-term. Daily assessments are made, comparing one sector to another giving the impression that short-term performance is what it’s all about. But is it? No it is not. Just look at where real wealth resides and why it’s there. Old Money means wealth held for many generations. How can wealth be held in this way, and how was it made up? While that’s a huge subject and one we cannot cover here, it’s important for you to realize that this was not made on a monthly, trading basis. It certainly was not made through day or week or month trading. Many traders do well several times and then on a “certainty”, go into an investment that costs them their past profits, and more –this is more akin to gambling. Looking at a mo...

I've been posting a lot of links here about news and articles about gold and silver so you may be thinking, what's the best way to invest in gold and silver? There are a lot of options out there when it comes to gold or silver investments. There's the popular Exchange Traded Funds or ETF like GLD and SLV. You can go to the Futures Market, you can also invest in precious metals mutual funds. The best way to invest in gold and silver in my opinion is to buy the actual physical gold or silver bullion or coin. Here's why. When you buy the ETF, futures contract or mutual fund. There is what we call a "counterparty risk". A counterparty is the other side of the trade or contract. For example, when you enter into a contract negotiation, the counterparty is the other person or entity you are dealing with. Counterparty risk means there is a risk that the other person/entity will not honor the contract you entered into. If you been following this blog, I posted ...

In an interview with WSJ's Simon Constable, famed investor Jim Rogers weighs in on what it will take to solve the U.S. debt crisis, why he's shorting U.S. tech companies, why the stimulus package was a bad idea, and the looming energy crisis.

This was on the Financial Post on Wednesday. According to the paper, there's two scenarios, one with limited impact and another could be devastating. So what can this mean to an investment portfolio? If we look at the worst case scenario. It talks of debt default which could hurt your bond holdings. Not only that, stocks would probably plummet as well. You can look at this as the sky is falling or an unprecedented opportunity to buy cheap assets again. U.S. companies are currently awash with cash. You can see how investors are buying up U.S. stocks now by just looking at the S&P500 chart. S&P 500 - 6 months ending April 7, 2011 Aside from a small dip in late March, probably due to the reaction in what happened to Japan. The S&P500 continues to go up. I has been going up since March 9, 2009. You've heard of bad news during this time like the double dip in the U.S. housing market and unemployment. But why does the market still go up? It's because w...