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Bullish momentum returned on Wall Street today, pushing equities to the highest levels in almost three weeks as the Federal Reserve kicked off their two-day meeting to discuss its bond-buying program. In economic news, the consumer price index for May rose 0.1%, slightly below expectations. On the housing front, building permits fell in May, while housing starts rose 6.8% to 914,000 units, missing analysts’ expectations of a 950,000 figure [see The Cheapest ETF for Every Investment Objective]. Global Market Overview: XLI Rallies Alongside Industrials, VOX Pops As investors turned their attention to the Fed, all three major U.S. equity indexes rallied to close in positive territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF rose 0.87%, after its underlying index rallied 138.38 points. The S&P 500 ETF gained 0.79%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ETF rose 0.81%. In Europe, markets were mixed ahead of the Fed’s press conference; the Stoxx Europe 600 slipped 0.1%. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell [...]Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.Related Posts:Daily ETF Roundup: Stocks End Week On A Strong Note, XLI RalliesDaily ETF Roundup: Dow Closes Above 15,000, VOX Rallies Alongside Telecom StocksDaily ETF Roundup: Stocks Close Lower On First Day Of Q2Daily ETF Roundup: Stocks End Lower After Fed MinutesDaily ETF Roundup: XHB Pops On Homebuilder Data, EWG Jumps On Bundesbank Outlook

I laugh when I see mainstream headlines spouting off about what macroeconomic data reports purportedly show. Reuters thinks stabilizing inflation will be a comfort to the Fed. Let's leave aside for the moment the fact that the Fed will continue its unlimited bond-buying programs to prop the valuations of the stock, bond, and housing markets. The BLS CPI has major flaws, as noted in Shadow Government Statistics' deconstruction of the chained methodology. SGS's annual inflation estimate is about 4-7% higher than the official CPI, depending on the base year. Most mainstream analysts aren't interested in checking this discrepancy. So-called worry about a "downward wage-price spiral" seems to me like a straw man. Fed economists probably know about the government's flawed reporting. The Fed members most worried about deflationary price moves are the members of Bernanke's pro-inflation faction who want to continue the bond-buying program. Concern about igniting inflation is actually driving more reticence inside the Fed, according to FOMC meeting minutes in April. It's important to note that the purpose of indefinite QE, as Fed members have admitted, is more about supporting asset markets that will generate a hoped-for "wealth effect" on consumer spending.

Adam Weiss and James Crichton's hedge fund firm Scout Capital has filed a 13D with the SEC regarding shares of Tim Hortons (THI). Per the filing, Scout has revealed a 5.5% ownership stake in with 8.4 million shares. This marks a 271% increase in their position size since the end of the first quarter as they only owned 2.26 million shares then. The 13D was filed due to portfolio activity on June 6th. The fine print of the filing also outlines what Scout is trying to accomplish with their new activist position: Scout has "engaged and expect to continue to engage in discussions with senior management of the Issuer with respect to the Issuer’s optimal capital structure, capital expenditures, timing and magnitude of share repurchases, management compensation metrics, and technology investments, among other matters." Per Google Finance, Tim Hortons is "a quick service restaurant in North America. The Company’s menu includes premium coffee, espresso-based hot and cold specialty drinks, including lattes, cappuccinos and espresso shots, specialty teas, fruit smoothies, home-style soups, grilled Panini and classic sandwiches, wraps, hot breakfast sandwiches and fresh baked goods, including donuts." For more on this hedge fund, we highlighted a new stock Scout has been buying recently.

Sarcasm isn't just for Mondays. It's for any day of the week. The Port of Los Angeles says its container volume is way down from a year ago. I think Americans are too broke to buy imported stuff and our Asian pals are too broke to buy our stuff. This indicator will of course have to be aggregated with other port traffic from around the country to mean anything. Maybe it means little if Great Lakes shipping traffic is picking up. The US and Europe are starting to explore a free trade deal. No way is such a deal going to be consummated before the next financial crisis hits. Why policy elites would spend their precious time on this rather than financial reform is beyond me. This policy effort has a surprising amount of inertia given that the US has been without a Secretary of Commerce for a year. Don't look now, but China is bailing out its commercial banks. I have had nothing to do with Chinese stocks for some time because I knew something like this was coming. Did someone in Beijing open a fortune cookie with a message about having busted banks in their future? Chinese pensioners and annuity owners are going to experience a revolutionary level of anger when these forced investments don't pan out. The Administration now reveals it's time for Ben to leave the Fed. Helicopter Ben's enthusiasm for fulfilling his hyperinflationary PhD thesis is cooling faster than the Chinese economy. This hint has been choreographed with other hints to reassure the markets that the heir apparent, Janet Yellen, will continue present policy. The designated patsy will reap the final fruit of the Bernanke Fed's monetary stimulus policy. Iran's election results will not change Iran. Ignore lip service to internal reform and re-engagement with the world. The ayatollahs set policy for the elected figureheads. The world price of oil can still be held hostage by an Iranian miscalculation in the Strait of Hormuz. I still think Persian women are hot provided they don't wear burqas.

Alternative energy has been a hot button issue for the last 50 year,s and investors have always found a way to play this heated market. In the last decade, there has been the launch of a number of ETFs that offer a specialized basket of products for alternative energy exposure, with 12 of these funds still in operation today. Below we outline two green energy ETFs that have been battling for investor attention since inception: Powershares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio and Guggenheim Solar ETF   [Download How To Pick The Right ETF Every Time]. Meet the Competitors Holding between $172 million and $107 million in total assets under management each, these funds are easily the largest green energy funds currently on the market. PBW holds a mix of companies that are focused on greener and generally renewable sources of energy, as well as technologies that facilitate cleaner energy. TAN, on the other hand, [...]Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.Related Posts:Head-To-Head: Alternative Energy ETF SurprisesEarth Day Special: Definitive Guide To Clean Energy ETFsTen Of The Worst Performing ETFs Of The First QuarterSolar ETFs Off To A Not-So-Bright StartETF Plays Ahead Of G-20 Summit

With more information available and the ability to quickly trade options online, investors are becoming savvier with using options to speculate, hedge and create their own financial strategies using a combination of ETFs, options and other assets. Options are financial products that fluctuate based on an underlying asset, such as an ETF. The value of the option is determined by multiple factors, including the amount of time until the option expires, volatility in the underlying asset and the proximity of the option’s strike price to the underlying asset’s price. Option pricing models also give us “Greeks”- values used to determine how the underlying asset and option price are related. Learning to read an options table will provide more insight into these concepts and how they relate to option value. Be sure to also read What Every ETF Investor Needs To Know About Options for an introduction to options. Information Sources The [...]Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.Related Posts:Daily ETF Roundup: XHB Pops On Homebuilder Data, EWG Jumps On Bundesbank OutlookDaily ETF Roundup: Stocks End Week In The Red, IXC Slumps Alongside Energy SharesDaily ETF Roundup: FXG Pops On Safeway Acquisition, XLF Rallies7 Articles ETF Investors Must Read: 6/13Daily ETF Roundup: Dow Falls Below 15,000, XLY Slumps, TUR Jumps

Crowdfund real estate Locally own small projects Big parcels later

The crowdfunding phenomenon is now taking on real estate investing. Sites like RealtyShares and iFunding are enabling small-time retail investors to become silent partners in projects they could not otherwise afford. Passive investments in real estate have been around forever in the form of limited partnerships. Crowdfunding things like trust deeds just lowers the entry barrier. It does not change the threshold for due diligence. The key to success in real estate has always been location, location, location. A crowdfunding investor can only perform a minimal assessment of a property's value without physically visiting the property. Anyone can log on to Zillow and view the most recent valuations of neighboring properties, or check a parcel's assessed value at the county assessor-recorder's office. Those are beginning steps. The next steps involve property appraisals, traffic analysis, and other checks on the track record of property managers. Those things can be crowdsourced to some extent but there's no complete substitute for traditional on-site legwork. Investing in residential property since the housing bust poses additional challenges. Getting clear title is a problem if a home mortgage was bundled and changed hands several times. I can't know whether a given trust deed on a crowdfunding portal has title problems without checking with a title search company first. I am concerned that novice investors could be hurt by a severe downturn in the housing market just as they were hurt in the housing crash that started in 2006. Buying a share of a note secured by a trust deed is like becoming a hard money lender rather than a title owner. The investor owns a share of a syndicated loan, denominated in dollars as a fixed-income instrument that pays a predetermined yield. If the US economy experiences high inflation, those note owners will see the value of their note evaporate as the dollar loses its value. Meanwhile, the actual property owner (either through an LLP, private REIT, or whatever) laughs all the way to the bank at the stupidity of those crowdfunding note holders. That doesn't happen in normal times but these aren't normal times. I think crowdfunding would work best for small projects that members of a community can see firsthand. Urban farmers could form a land trust, for example, and crowdfund it to establish community gardens in a blighted urban neighborhood. Charities like Habitat for Humanity could crowdfund a housing project for a low-income buyer and hand them title when the project is done. The valuation for such projects would have fewer variables to calculate because they're brand new and presumably unencumbered with the problems of previous owners. Crowdfunding portals can eventually be useful for conventional real estate investors once the housing market stabilizes, with the median property value for a given metropolitan area at somewhere between 2x and 3x of the area's median income. I am looking forward to seeing miscellaneous real estate investments like liens and rights-of-way traded on crowdfunding portals. Investors who have neither the time nor skill to evaluate a crowdfunded real estate project can always choose a publicly traded REIT or real estate index fund (or ETF) instead. A widely held fund has two advantages over a single property. It has no entry barriers or limitations for non-accredited investors and it arbitrages away the location problem by holding a large number of properties. Maybe some sharp investment manager will crowdfund a private REIT.

U.S. equities got off to a relatively strong start as investors turned their attention to the Federal Reserve meeting later this week. In economic news, the New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing index rose to 7.84 in June, indicating an expansion; analysts had expected a reading of zero. In a separate report, the NAHB/Wells Fargo homebuilder sentiment index soared to 52 in June, marking the first reading above 50 since April 2006 and the biggest jump since 2002 [see The Cheapest ETF for Every Investment Objective]. Global Market Overview: XHB Pops On Homebuilder Data, EWG Jumps On Bundesbank Outlook Recovering from earlier lows, all three major U.S. equity indexes rallied to close in positive territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF rose 0.74%, after its underlying index logged in its fifth-consecutive triple-digit move. The S&P 500 ETF gained 0.78%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ETF rose 0.94%. In Europe, markets were broadly higher after Germany’s central bank reported [...]Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.Related Posts:Daily ETF Roundup: Buy The Rumor, Sell The TweetDaily ETF Roundup: Stocks Rebound From Worst One-Day Drop In 2013Daily ETF Roundup: Housing Data Brings Back The BullsDaily ETF Roundup: Bargain Shopping Euphoria Sparks Rally Daily ETF Roundup: Housing Soars, Earnings Miss

The Wolf of Wall Street movie trailer was just released. The movie is directed by Martin Scorsese and the screenplay is by Terence Winter (of Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire fame). It features Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, and Jonah Hill as the main actors. We often like to highlight finance related movie trailers, but most of those films are dramas and serious in nature. The Wolf on Wall Street looks to be comedic to a degree and full of antics, as it is based on Jordan Belfort's book, The Wolf of Wall Street. In it, he writes about manipulating stocks in the 1990's at a brokerage firm. If you like Lamborghini Countaches, Ferrari Testarossas, a new song from Kanye West, and suits from the 90's, then this trailer is for you. In essence, this film is somewhat like the movie Boiler Room and should certainly enhance the great reputation Wall Street has with the rest of America /sarcasm. The Wolf on Wall Street movie trailer is embedded below: No release date yet, it just says "coming soon."