WSJ: Why Currency Wars Are So Destructive

By SIMON CONSTABLE

When economies start to flag, governments will occasionally start what is known as a currency war. It is important that investors understand what the term means and why it can be so destructive to the countries involved.

Such conflicts start when one country decides to lower the value of its currency to increase its exports. Exports become cheaper for foreign buyers whose currency doesn’t deflate. Read more here.

Paasikivi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes Video: Steer Clear Of U.S. Stocks

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Since the early part of 2009 U.S. stocks have rallied, and that success may lead some investors to cast away their concerns about the market and fully invest. While staying invested over a long period of time is usually a good thing, buying at the top and selling at the bottom are often exactly what small investors do, very much to their detriment.

Charlie Bilello, director of research at Pension Partners, says there may be better alternatives to U.S. stocks. He explains his thoughts in this video.

One of the things to consider for any investor is to maintain a balanced portfolio of domestic and foreign stocks as well as fixed income, alternative assets and a small amount of cash.

Forbes Video: How 'Organic Meat' Might Really Mean Something Soon

By SIMON CONSTABLE

What does ‘organic meat’ really mean? It might give you a warm glow to buy such food at the grocery, but it's not really well defined. That is something that the ASPCA have been working on changing.

Specifically, the organization, which has a long history of promoting animal welfare, wants more standards introduced which define how animals being bred for food are raised and treated. Ultimately the definition will be determined in the United States by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

I recently spoke with Daisy Freund, ASPCA Director of Farm Animal Welfare, who explains her thoughts on what changes may be coming in this video.

Forbes Video: Why Investors Should Be Choosy

By SIMON CONSTABLE

There are times when just buying a broad basket of stocks is enough for many investors. But there are times, like now, when investors need to be a bit picky. As many observers have noted the overall market is looking a bit highly priced.

Does that mean you should avoid the market? Probably not. Stocks have a good long term track record of beating inflation. They have done far better than cash and have outperformed bonds over periods of many decades.

Instead, investors should look carefully at which stocks to buy, says Adam Johnson, founder and author of the Bullseye Brief newsletter. It's worth knowing  his depth of knowledge is very impressive and based on practical investing experience, which is why it's really worth listening to what he says.

He explains his thoughts on what and how you should invest in this video.

Forbes Video: Learn This Mind Trick For Better Investing

By SIMON CONSTABLE

When you start learning to invest, your mind works against you in ways you might not expect. For instance, when you look at the performance of an asset class recent activity will weigh more heavily on your mind.

So if stocks have done badly in the recent past then its more likely that you'll be persuaded that stocks are a losing bet. It works vice versa as well.

That wouldn't matter if investors, especially newbies, didn't take action based on that inherent bias. Unfortunately, they do. When stocks do well, small investors tend to pile in at exactly the wrong moment. When stocks do badly they tend to cash in their positions at precisely the wrong moment as well.

Charlie Bilello, director of research at Pension Partners, says understanding this bias is crucial to smart investing. He explains his thoughts in this video.

Forbes: Is GDP Outmoded? Maybe, Maybe Not

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It’s sometimes hard to remember that economics is a young discipline, especially when it’s compared to other areas of study such as philosophy and mathematics. Economics really only got going when Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776. It’s still a classic.

From then until the first half of the twentieth century there remained no accepted measure of economic output that could easily compare the wealth that different countries were producing with even a modicum of accuracy.

Then came Gross Domestic Product or GDP. That was the invention that Ehsan Masood refers to in his book The Great Invention which is scheduled to be published this month. Indeed, it was a great invention, but as Masood points out in some detail, it wasn’t perfect and also it remains imperfect.

Read more here.

Forbes Video: Why I'm Worried About U.S. Stocks, Catalano

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The trick with investing is always to buy assets that are undervalued and then patiently wait until their true value is appreciated by other investors. You buy low and then sell high. That’s the theory, anyway.

The question at the moment for many small investors is whether to jump headlong into stocks now that the economy is looking at least somewhat steadier. Maybe not, says Vinny Catalano, global investment strategist at Blue Marble Research.

He thinks that U.S. stocks look expensive by a number of different measures. Those measures include looking at the ratio of the stock prices to the earnings of the companies, as well as similar valuation methods. Catalan explains himself in this video. Watch, listen, and learn here.