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10 Reasons Brokers Don’t Like Index Funds | Paul Merriman

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10 Reasons Brokers Don’t Like Index Funds | Paul Merriman

As more investors turn to index funds, brokers and other fund salespeople continue to invent arguments favoring non-index funds, the kind they want you to buy. An index fund attempts to replicate the investment results of a target index by investing in all the securities in that index or in a portfolio that closely approximates it. An actively managed fund tries to beat the market by selecting stocks the manager hopes will outperform the index.

Recession Ahead? – Seeking Alpha

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U.S. Stock Market: Recession Ahead? – Seeking Alpha

"On Friday something happened, maybe something big: For the first time since the Financial Crisis, the yield curve inverted. One can argue about the point in time when the yield curve can be described as inverted, but for most experts, the yield curve is inverted when the 10-year treasury yield is lower than the three-month Treasury yield. Last Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield was 2.44% and the three-month Treasury yield was 2.46%. For those who might ask why that is such a big issue, the answer is very simple: Aside from the dark clouds that have already been on the horizon in the last months, we now have one of the clearest warning signs of a recession in the United States."

What’s up (or down) with the yield curve? | FRED Blog

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What’s up (or down) with the yield curve? | FRED Blog

"For as long as we can remember, the most popular series in FRED has been the consumer price index (CPI). Well, not anymore. Recently, the series describing the difference between the 10-year and 2-year Treasury constant maturity rates became the most popular. Why this sudden interest? It has to do with the concept of the yield curve: Under normal circumstances, long-term interest rates are higher than short-term interest rates (when annualized), principally because the long term is usually perceived as riskier and so long-term debt demands a higher return. Again, normally, if you plot the interest rates at different maturities, you get an upward-sloping (yield) curve. But if for some reason the short term becomes unusually risky, the curve (or portions of it) may become downward sloping. And why is that important? The graph makes it clear that this kind of yield curve inversion has been associated with impending recessions."