Precious Metal & Rare Coin Market News

Are you making your Super Bowl plans now? While the clock is running down until game time, market historians remind us that the winner of the Super Bowl could offer clues on how the stock market will perform in 2022. Really? New York Times sportswriter Leonard Koppett developed the Super Bowl Indicator back in 1978. While at first this was a cheeky little theory, it has surprisingly shown teeth over the past 44 years, with ... >> Read More        

Inflation at 39-year highs. Stocks in correction territory. Fears about Russian military action into Ukraine. Federal Reserve rate hikes. Pick your poison. Financial markets are unraveling fast and there is panic and fear running wild on Wall Street. After three years of S&P 500 gains in the 18-31% area (historically abnormal, by the way), the stock market is returning to reality.  The worst performing stocks in 2022 are already down almost 90%. Here's a list ... >> Read More        

Investors are being tested. Equities are down significantly for the year and 2022 has only just begun. High-risk speculative assets like crypto have performed even worse. Meanwhile, inflation threatens “side line” money that investors are holding, as they wait to see how far the market will drop. As interest rate hikes loom there seem to be fewer places to invest. For most the goal has shifted from earning a decent return to merely preserving capital ... >> Read More        

Investors increasingly face an unseen opponent: technology. Often investors believe that technology empowers them. It enables mobile trading. It delivers endless data. What few realize is that technology works against them in many ways. Consider that high-frequency trading (HFT) accounts for 70 percent of all equities trading, and that, “fundamental discretionary traders” - people who log in and make a trade like an ordinary human - only account for about 10 percent of all trades ... >> Read More        

You may have seen the inflation news this week. The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) climbed to 7% in December, its highest level since 1982. That marks the third month in a row with inflation above 6%. This is a direct contradiction to the Federal Reserve's prediction that "inflation would be transitory." The inflation we are seeing today is the worst in 39 years. But it's not hyperinflation. At least, not yet anyway. When we ... >> Read More        

Everyone wants silver these days. That includes investors just like you who want to diversify their portfolios and manufacturers of everything from health care items to lithium batteries to solar panels and more. In 2021, every key area of silver demand rose – including the total for overall demand at 1.029 billion ounces, according to the Silver Institute. Investors, including family offices who want to buy silver bars for their wealthy clients, high-net worth individuals ... >> Read More        

Investors face a diminishing list of places to park money in the low-rate environment of today. Holding cash is a losing strategy over the long-term as inflation reduces purchasing power. Bonds have little to offer as rates have remained low for a long time. Equities have soared in valuations leading to a cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio (CAPE) that is at its second highest level since 1880. This elevated figure suggests that the stock market is ... >> Read More        

Diversification is not what it used to be. Investors have long understood the safety of a diversified portfolio. Over the decades, more investors have opted for low-cost mutual funds and exchange traded funds which give them exposure to hundreds of stocks in a single share. But is this strategy truly diversified? Some measurements suggest the answer is no. In recent years, a greater portion of the S&P 500’s performance has been due to a shrinking ... >> Read More        

As snow begins to blanket northern parts of our nation and holiday lights twinkle on city streets, Wall Street firms begin rolling out their forecasts, projections and economic outlooks for the next year. As the nation continues to grapple with political polarization in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, the uncertainty of a new COVID variant, Omicron, and unsettling high levels of consumer inflation, what could lie ahead? Let's take a look at a ... >> Read More        

If two separate investments deliver the exact same return over the same period which is better? The concept of risk-adjusted returns helps answer this question. An investment’s risk-adjusted return reflects the amount of risk an asset presents to deliver a particular return, or possible return. In other words, the risk-adjusted return reflects not only the assets earning power but also the potential for loss. Here is another way to think about risk-adjusted returns. Consider two ... >> Read More