U.S. News: When Should I Sell Stocks?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

When is it a good time to sell stocks? There is certainly a case to do so now.

The major indexes have surged these past two years. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 25.3 percent in the 24 months, while the Dow Jones industrial average grew 33.3 percent. That equates to annualized returns of approximately 12 and 15 percent, respectively. None of the figures include dividends. Read more here.

Middle East Eye: Investor love affair with Turkey may end in tears

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The recent war of words between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shows there’s no love lost between the two leaders. 

But the same cannot be said about investors who have become increasingly captivated by Turkish stocks over the past year. The vast sums of money flowing into the market are a sign of a solid economy, but there are growing concerns that things are becoming unbalanced, analysts say. Read more here.

U.S. News: Bonds Are Ideal For Balancing a Portfolio

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Even people who understand the stock market sometimes slip when it comes to bonds.

It makes sense because to most people fixed-income investing equates to math, which can be scary. Still, it doesn't have to be hard, and such securities are usually a vital part of a portfolio. Read more here.

Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash

Forbes: Why Do We Worship Nasty Bosses?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Mean Men: The Perversions of America's Self-made Man by Mark Lipton, published Tuesday, is a long overdue book. How long overdue? I'd say at least a quarter century.

As the title suggests, the topic is the character of the entrepreneur and how unpleasant such individuals can be in the work place. Perhaps more than that, its topic is the dichotomy between the hero status given to the most successful entrepreneurs and the diabolical behavior that some such individuals exhibit. Read more here.

Forbes: Twelve Reasons Why Gold is Better Than Bitcoin

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The world has gone wild for the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin.

One Bitcoin would set you back $4,425 at the time of writing. That's up from less than $600 a year ago, according to CoinBase.

But a word of caution. Gold is still a better bet for anyone who wants to own a time-tested asset.

Here's why:

WSJ: What is GARP?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

In a recent report—“The Death of Value?”—Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs poses an important question about an out-of-favor investing style.

Its conclusion seems to be that value investing isn’t dead. Rather, it has morphed into a stock-picking strategy known as GARP, or “growth at a reasonable price.” Read more here.

WSJ: Could Some VIX-Related Funds Go ‘Poof’ in a Day?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Some exchange-traded funds related to the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, could vanish just when traders might want them most.

The VIX, also known as the fear gauge, measures the cost of buying insurance against a drop in the broad market. At issue are funds that seek to profit when short-term VIX futures contracts fall in value. The VIX itself isn’t an investible product and the VIX futures don’t exactly track the VIX, but they are closely correlated. Read more here.

Tigerzeng, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons