All Articles Tagged "investment"
Is Your Adviser Pumping Up His Credentials?
(Wall Street Journal) — Just when Americans seem more desperate than ever for trustworthy investment advice, financial advisers are brandishing a baffling array of new credentials—some of which can be earned with minimal or no study and a few hundred dollars. Increasingly, say regulators, financial advisers are using these dubious designations as marketing tools to win the trust of older, wealthier clients, in hopes of selling high-fee investments that aren’t appropriate for them. “State securities regulators have been very worried about this,” says Denise Voigt Crawford, securities commissioner for the state of Texas and past president of the North American Securities Administrators Association. “We are taking a growing number of administrative actions against people using designations as part and parcel of fraudulent securities activities, especially with older people.”
Venture Funding Shrinks Leaving Scores of `Walking Dead’ Firms
(Bloomberg) — Stung by a drought in technology initial public offerings, venture capital investing plunged in 2010, with the number of active firms dropping 47 percent in the first half from last year, according to Ernst & Young LLP. The number of U.S. venture firms making at least one investment a quarter sank to 167 through June from 313 in all of 2009, the accounting firm said this month in a report: “The Limited Partner Venture Capital Sentiment Survey.”
Why More Black Celebs Should Become VC’s
(Black Web 2.0) –Black Web 2.0 has discussed at length some of the unique challenges that African-American tech entrepreneurs face in an increasingly overwhelmed marketplace. One of the most frequently mentioned hurdles is a (suspicious) lack of funding from traditional sources such as angel and other investors. Commenters on our site (and other sites) often discuss how to go about receiving startup capital in an industry where the odds aren’t stacked in our favor. Some say get a loan. Others say talk to friends and family then try to make it work from there.
5 Funds Betting on Blue Chip Growth
(Smart Money) — For all the recent talk about a bump in the recovery, some companies with a hefty stake in the global economy seem to be doing just fine. Intel’s (INTC: 21.02, -0.49, -2.27%) record-setting quarterly earnings report and better-than-expected results from JPMorgan Chase (JPM: 39.00, -1.46, -3.60%) last week illustrate how some large-cap names have been able to maintain growth throughout a volatile stretch of the recovery.
Absolute-Return Funds: Not Always What They Seem
(Wall Street Journal) – So-called absolute-return funds—portfolios that purport to deliver gains in any market environment—are hot. But many aren’t living up to their billing. Through May, funds with “absolute return” in their names saw net inflows of roughly $5 billion, up from $2.7 billion last year and $322 million in 2008, according to Morningstar Inc. Absolute-return funds don’t seek to track the stock market. Instead, they use a variety of sophisticated strategies, and dabble in a host of asset classes, to eke out gains even when the stock market is swooning.
More Smiles, Wary on Growth
(Wall Street Journal) – Money managers world-wide are optimistic about prospects for the U.S. and Asian stock markets over the next 12 months, but they nevertheless project a slow recovery in global economic growth, according to a new survey. The impact of inflation is a fear, indicated the 102 global mutual-fund, hedge-fund and private-equity managers who responded to the survey, commissioned by RBC Capital Markets, the corporate and investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada, and released Monday. The respondents, who manage about $4.1 trillion in combined assets, also expressed skepticism about commercial real estate.
Mutual Funds in the News
(USA Today) — Earning their money by managing yours? If you suspect that your mutual fund manager might just be tracking an index instead of, you know, actively managing, a new site, www.fundanalyze.com, will help confirm your suspicions. Created by fund expert Max Rottersman, the site takes advantage of a statistical measure calledr-squared, which shows how closely correlated a fund is to a benchmark index, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500. It also shows how much you might save if you simply bought an index fund that tracks the one most similar to your actively managed fund.
Tobacco, Phone Stocks Climb
(Wall Street Journal) – U.S. stocks edged up, boosted by tobacco companies after the Supreme Court declined to review a landmark tobacco-industry ruling as well as by telecommunications stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10157. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% to 2229. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.3% to 1080, with tobacco companies leading the consumer staples sector higher. Reynolds American gained 4.2%, Altria Group rose 3.2% andLorillard gained 2.7% after the high court refused to revisit a case that found the tobacco industry violated federal racketeering laws by engaging in a decades-long scheme to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking.
Tobacco, Phone Stocks Climb
(Wall Street Journal) – U.S. stocks edged up, boosted by tobacco companies after the Supreme Court declined to review a landmark tobacco-industry ruling as well as by telecommunications stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10157. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% to 2229. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.3% to 1080, with tobacco companies leading the consumer staples sector higher. Reynolds American gained 4.2%, Altria Group rose 3.2% andLorillard gained 2.7% after the high court refused to revisit a case that found the tobacco industry violated federal racketeering laws by engaging in a decades-long scheme to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking.
10 Things 401(k) Providers Won’t Tell You
(Smart Money) — 1. “We’re making money on your 401(k) — even if you’re not.” With a growing awareness of the importance of preparing for retirement, the number of 401(k) investors has soared in recent years, peaking at 60.6 million in 2007, according to Cerulli Associates, an asset management research firm. But that torrid growth also left millions of investors in the lurch when the market crashed in 2008 and the value of their plans sank, in some cases dramatically. In fact, following the market downturn, the number of 401(k) investors dropped, settling at an estimated 50.5 million this year.
