CNN/Money: 15 Dumbest money moves

A great list of decisions to avoid; click through the list to view each (and see alternatives to the poor decisions).

Performance chasing -- avoiding the latest "hot idea"

We periodically publish Information Bulletins for our clients which provide thoughts on current market affairs, smarter financial planning, etc. We hear every day how much people are making "flipping" condos at the beach, and it reminds us a little of the late '90's when everyone seemed to have clairvoyance about the stock market (not that we are calling our present state a "real estate bubble" by any means). But, the idea of "easy money" or "there's no risk in this b/c it keeps going up" led us to draft Performance Chasing, and we wanted to share it with our readers.
If you're interested in receiving our commentary (about every other month or so), sign up for the "Newsletter" in the bottom right of our homepage.

Not so fast!

The headline number for Advance Durable goods looked like a solid sign that the "soft patch" had past. Not so fast! The ex aircraft number was still weak.

At this point in the business cycle, aircraft should be picking up, growth may have slowed but it is still humming around the world. The airlines are getting shelled by high jet fuel prices, but they are passing the price increases along and people are still flying.

Boeing and Airbus are slugging it out for customers, but the demand is there.

I still think we are giving too much credit to this industrial/manufacturing numbers, the USA is all about services and we have painfully few good service economy indicators that have enough history to address the past couple of business cycles.

The Pros and Cons of ETFs

A concise ETF primer. One quick and easy way to gain international exposure, which was the topic of my prior post.

Investing Internationally...the forgone opportunity!

We speculate that one reason the US Dollar remains so strong in the face of the poor fundamentals of the Federal and Trade deficit is lack of knowledge of international investments.

One can only imagine if there was a money market fund investing in short term Mexican instruments with a yield of say 7-8% they might change their tune.

Who knows?

Weekly Market Returns

As fears of higher interest rates driven by inflation have dissipated, the equity markets have rallied.

For the week the markets have posted solid gains with the S&P 500 advancing 1.6%, the Nasdaq 1.3% and the DJIA 1.1%.

What's going on in Birmingham?

I thought this was an interesting article about interest rate swaps being used by municipalities. The irony to me is that these are being employed by the same county where (I fear) Richard Scrushy will not be found guilty, and the discussion of swaps was confined to a defense of the people as "not being rednecks". If the WSJ called me to ask about a complex investment or hedging strategy, that is the last thing I would mention far after detailing the complicated stress-test I would put the instruments through... Good luck, Birmingham; I just hope the rest of the state doesn't pay the price for your experiment.

Will Market Notice Full Petroleum Reserve?

Real Conundrum isn't Long Term

Why are long-term interest rates declining?

Weekly Market Returns

This week the markets gave back a little ground as the markets digest the rally that has taken place since late April.

For the week the DJIA was down -.8% and the S&P and the NASDAQ where both off -.2%.

The bond market is predicting economic weakness and the stock market is pricing in continued growth in the economy. In the coming weeks we will find out which one is correct.

Free Credit Reports now Available in the South

Many of our clients and readers are based in the South, and one of the questions we always ask clients is whether or not they check their credit reports. As of today, residents in this part of the country have the ability to review their credit report for free through the site www.annualcreditreport.com. We believe it is wise for everyone to view their credit report for potential fraud activity at least one time per year, and if you see transactions you are not familiar with, you should do some further investigation.
Also, this may be an opportunity to "clean up" your report by closing old lines of credit that may still be reported yet are not in use. This can be damaging to your credit score (which is the second reason you should evaluate these reports). The link to our Information Bulletin offers more specific detail on managing your credit score and why you should do so. Alternatively, you can go straight to www.myfico.com and pay $14.95 to receive your credit score and one of the reports from the credit agencies.