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Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) recent quarterly earnings report which delivered sensational numbers initially found the market a welcome listener as the stock surged on the news. Strangely, though, despite the numbers, much of the later commentary was muted. It’s as if many of the commentators have gotten used to the outsized growth and performance of the innovative technology company, and some treated it in print as if it’s just another Netflix Read the rest of this entry »

Just because I am usually an advocate for the myriad advantages ETFs offer compared to mutual funds doesn't mean I won't hold the ETF industry's feet to the fire when I come along what is in my opinion a bad idea. First, allow me to give you some background on the inspiration for this piece.

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to speak to Baton Rouge chapter of the Read the rest of this entry »

Read my columns enough and you'll realize two things. First, I am not ashamed to say the mutual fund industry has more than just a pesky little rivalry on its hands with ETFs. Second, I've said several times this rivalry is going to eventually shift in favor of ETFs. Hey, it's already going that way already. Don't just take my word for it. Here are some important from S&P Capital IQ analyst Tom Graves investors should take note of right now. Read the rest of this entry »

I'm willing to bet if you been following financial markets for the past year or two, you're acutely aware that investing in U.S.-government bonds really isn't worth the trouble. I'm not going to bore you with all the tired scare tactics that we've been seeing all too much lately. You know what I mean. Headlines like "Another U.S. Debt Downgrade Coming; Stash Your Money In A Mattress." Obviously, I made that up, but it's in the vein of some of the whacky stuff I've seen Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this year, I wrote about contango, the commodities market situation where longer-dated futures contracts are trading above the current spot price. This can happen with any commodity under the sun, but in most cases, I'd bet that investors know a little something about contango as it pertains to energy commodities, such as crude oil and natural gas.

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Watch enough C-SPAN or attend enough congressional hearings in person and you'll quickly realize one thing: Most are an egregious waste of time and by virtue taxpayer dollars. When I was a young reporter, I had the privilege of covering some of the Enron hearings on Capitol Hill. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of folks have been asking me lately what my thoughts are on the market. Not surprisingly, it seems like I get more of those questions the more chaotic the market gets. Even the the future Mrs. Shriber’s parents recently asked my thoughts on the current state Read the rest of this entry »

Just two trading days into October and silver is still having difficulty shaking out of a slump that started last month. Some will undoubtedly call me crazy, but I am still bullish on silver and I think investors should be, too. Yes, I liked silver in the high 30s, but I do not feel forced to love it $10 lower. I do love silver here and here’s why.

For starters, I am not a big believer in price suppression by margin hike and some Read the rest of this entry »

I wasn’t around when the movie “Cool Hand Luke” came out, but my mom loves old movies and she always had them on when I was a little kid. To this day, I remember her renting “Cool Hand Luke” not long after my family got its first VCR in 1985. And like many of you that have seen this classic film, one line stands out in my mind: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

No, today’s column will not be devoted to Read the rest of this entry »

Exchange traded products were in spotlight again last week – and not in a good way – on news that a UBS trader had committed $2.3 billion in unauthorized ETF trades. When the news broke, I knew exactly what the reaction was going to be: Blame the product, in this case ETFs, not the person committing the misdeed.

Unfortunately, I was right. Such is life in the world of ETFs these days. Going back to Read the rest of this entry »