Personal Money Management 101 Blog

by Steve Selengut

The Investment Grade Value Stock Index “Bargain Stock Monitor” clearly reflects the profit taking that hit the market late in January— you and I have been harvesting our gains all along though. Right? Read the rest of this entry »

by Steve Selengut

The IGVSI Bargain Stock Monitor clearly reflects the strength of this eleven-month-rallying stock market. In fact, the bargain monitor is sporting the best numbers ever recorded. No, this is not a “buy” signal. Read the rest of this entry »

by Steve Selengut

From the end of 1999 through the end of 2009, all of the popular Wall Street market performance measurement tools were in the red. The average bloodletting level of the DJIA, the S & P 500, and the NASDAQ was a disturbing-to-some minus nineteen percent.

The Media has dubbed it “The Dismal Decade”. Read the rest of this entry »

by Steve Selengut

During the past sixty years, most economic, market, and interest rate cycles have lasted from two to five years, peak-to-peak. Rarely have any of the cycle-tracking market indices moved in tandem, and none of the cycles are considered to be particularly predictable.

Individual securities (the stuff that indices are made of) complicate things significantly by having even less predictable cycles of their own. This generally uncertain atmosphere is the very nature of the financial markets. If investors could come to grips with the non-calendar, cyclical, nature of markets, it is likely that they could improve their investment performance considerably. Read the rest of this entry »

by Steve Selengut

A participant in the morning Working Capital Model (WCM) investment workshop observed: I’ve noticed that my account balances are returning to their (June 2007) levels. People are talking down the economy and the dollar. Is there any preemptive action I need to take? Read the rest of this entry »