Pacific Park Financial Inc.

Some bear markets feature dreadful price catastrophes that occur quickly. At the onset of last decade’s banking crisis, the S&P 500 plummeted close to the requisite 20% bear level in a five...

The case for the continuation of the U.S. bull market heavily rests on the shoulders of steady economic growth and low interest rates (on an absolute basis). Many believe that, as long as these...

During the previous bull market (10/02-10/07), financial media fawned over the critical importance of diversifying one’s equity exposure across the globe. And why not? Performance for foreign...

Weren’t lower oil prices supposed to act like a “tax cut” for U.S. households? If families spend less at the gas pump, then they will spend more of their dollars at the mall. At...

Everyone has a guilty pleasure or three. Mine? I am addicted to Seth MacFarlane’s “Family Guy.” I cannot get enough of outrageously random references on everything from a pizza...

Ibbotson Associates provides asset allocation guidelines that span the risk spectrum from conservative to aggressive. The moderate portfolio consists of roughly 42% in U.S. Stock, 18% in Non-U.S....

How confident should diversified investors be that U.S. stocks can power ahead without the extraordinary stimulus of quantitative easing (QE) and zero percent interest rate policy (ZIRP)? Not too...

According to Barry Ritholtz of Ritholtz Wealth Management, a frequent contributor to CNBC as well as Bloomberg, “the beauty of diversification is that it’s about as close as you can get to...

Some things go unnoticed. For example, the S&P 500 rallied 13% off its closing lows (1867) set in late August. Lost in the shuffle? The popular benchmark has yet to revisit its closing highs...

Say what you want about Bill Gross. He’s arrogant. He’s petty. He didn’t give his colleague El-Arian enough credit. He destroyed PIMCO Total Return (PTTDX) and now he is dragging...

Is the worst behind us? Maybe. Yet the appetite for risk is decidedly less vibrant than before the August-September meltdown.Consider high-quality bonds as represented by the Bank of America Merrill...

By July of 2012, a wide range of indicators suggested that the U.S. economy was flirting with trouble. Job growth was decelerating. Business investment was deteriorating. Meanwhile, manufacturing via...

About a year ago, I was meeting a client at a restaurant in Marina Del Rey, California. The traffic had been mild by Los Angeles County standards, so I arrived in the area early. I stopped in a local...

Three months ago, I served up a list of reasons for lowering one’s exposure to riskier assets. I discussed weakness in market internals where fewer and fewer corporate components of the Dow and...

Those who were caught off guard by the August-September correction ignored a deluge of fundamental, technical and economic data. (See August’s Market Top: 15 Warning Signs.) Median U.S. stock...

I raised my daughter in Orange County, California. Beaches, boats, palm trees, friends with fancy cars – life could have been a whole lot more difficult.Spoiled senseless? Not really. She worked...