Natural Gas May Keep on Rising
(September 2020)
Natural gas is red hot and rising (no pun intended ha), and just completed its largest ever monthly gain. August saw natural gas prices rise an eye-opening 51%. Despite inventories being 81% higher than last year, natural gas has been gaining because of increased demand. California, which is facing wildfires and blackouts, has had very high natural gas needs, driving up prices. The Energy Information Administration says that natural gas demand for power generation has been surging, with July seeing is largest ever single month increase for that purpose. That said, overall national demand in July was down because of decreased economic activity. Total supply has been cut significantly since pre-COVID, but inventories remain high.
The Difference Between Small-Cap and Mid-Cap Funds and ETFs
Before we can understand the difference between various types of funds, we must first understand market capitalization.
The Election is Now the Worst Volatility Risk in VIX History
(September 2020)
It is blatantly obvious that the nation is experiencing a great deal of tension about the forthcoming presidential election on November 3rd. However, what is starting to emerge is that investors' anxiety has turned the election into the single largest risk event in the history of the VIX volatility index. Hedging against election market volatility has grown so intense that it has breached a record for the highest ever event risk. Let that sink in for a moment. According to Bloomberg "In the history of the VIX futures contracts, we've never had an event risk command this sort of premium into forward-dated vol at a specific tenor ... That obviously suggests that markets anticipate some pretty incredible fireworks".
The New Fiduciary Rule May Be Much Tougher Than Expected
(August 2020)
Since the new version of the DOL's fiduciary rule was announced, the general attitude of the wealth management industry has been ambivalence. No one really wants a new regulation, but this one was created in coordination with the new SEC Best Interest rule and is much less stringent than the dreaded iteration that was defeated in court many months ago. That said, a new development has occurred in the last week which might mean the rule comes in tougher than expected. Critics of the rule have been ardent about its failings, and in particular, that the DOL seems to be rushing to implement it. The public comment period for the rule closed on August 6th—a period Democrats said was far too short—and now that it has ended, the DOL has surprisingly announced that it will hold a public hearing on the new rule on September 3, where individual commenters will be able to give ten minute video presentations about their objections to the rule.
The Real Difference Between ETFs and Mutual Funds
With all the volatility of the stock market, it may be comforting to remember that past trauma in the market has led to benefits for today's investors. One such benefit: The exchange traded fund, or ETF, which was spawned from the ashes of the 1987 stock market crash.
The Rise of the Thematic Investor
The world is changing fast, and so are the ways that investors are spending their money.
Trading TVIX. What Investors Need to Know
Paul Tudor Jones is legendary among traders for a lot of reasons, but the foundation of his myth was set in 1987, when he raked in a massive profit by effectively predicting Black Monday, the largest ever one-day drop in the stock market.
Using Magnifi to Automate an ETF Portfolio
Portfolio automation (also known as automated investing) is a service offered by online platforms that builds and manages investment portfolios automatically through sophisticated computer algorithms.
What Does COVID Mean for Energy Investors?
COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented drop in demand for natural gas, according to a the Gas 2020 report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) released in June. In some ways, the slump presents an opportunity to pursue a new energy paradigm. Work-from-home has flattened the need for non-renewable back-up energy sources, for example.
What is ESG Investing?
While the bottom line matters a lot in the corporate world, especially in the current corporate climate, it is not all that matters to investors. And companies are taking note of this trend.
More and more, investors are putting their money in companies for reasons beyond simply financial performance. Increasingly, investors want to promote sustainability and social equity with their financial power, and they're doing it through so-called ESG investing (aka taking environmental, social, and governance factors into account).