Money Talks

November 2021

The Most Important Step in Your Bear-Market Plan

November 19, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

Last week, I shared some bad news… The next bear market could be one for the ages. I can’t tell you exactly when it will begin. But I believe it is likely to be more severe — and long-lasting — than any bear market we’ve experienced in decades. Unfortunately, I fear most investors are utterly unprepared for this possibility. Many folks could lose everything they’ve worked so hard to save. (If you missed my full explanation, be sure to catch

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Are You Ready for the Next Bear Market?

November 12, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

I don’t mean to alarm you… But I believe it’s time to prepare for a bear market in stocks. Now, let me be clear… I’m NOT predicting that a bear market is imminent. In fact, given the recent breakout in the major U.S. indexes, there’s a good chance the current bull market could extend well into 2022. So please understand there’s absolutely no reason to panic and sell otherwise healthy stocks today. But make no mistake… A bear market is

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I May Have Been Wrong About Real Estate, but I Was Right About This Stock!

November 5, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

I’ll never forget how certain I was that real estate would tank last year. I even told my wife we needed to sell our house immediately. And I told her “I’d rather be homeless than carry two homes!” She told me I was nuts. But she went with the flow. You see, we were under contract to buy a home later in 2020. But when we decided to buy the new home, there was no COVID-19 pandemic. The housing market

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October 2021

What You Need to Know About This ‘New’ Investment Strategy

October 29, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

This week I want to talk about one of the most popular trends in the world of investing and personal finance. I’m referring to the rise of so-called robo-advisers. If you’re not familiar, robo-advisers are similar to traditional investment advisers or money managers. However, as the name implies, they rely on computer algorithms, rather than humans, to make investment decisions on your behalf. As a result, robo-advisers promise to provide the benefits of working with a professional money manager without

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My (Surprising) Advice About Buying a Car

October 22, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

For those of us who’ve struggled with debt in the past, buying a new home or car can be nerve-racking. After all, spending too much money on the wrong things is how many of us got into trouble in the first place. And buying a new home or car is generally among the most significant purchases most folks ever make. It’s only natural that we’d feel a little uneasy. We worked hard to get our finances back on track and

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Don’t Even Think About Buying a Home Until You Read This

October 15, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

Regular Money Talks readers know I have strong feelings about debt. As I told you in one of my first columns back in January, taking on too much debt nearly ruined me. And I sincerely believe that getting out of debt is the single most important step most folks can take to dramatically improve their lives. Fortunately, becoming (and staying) debt-free isn’t as complicated as you might expect. As I explained in that column, in most cases all it really

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An Easy Way to Profit from Big Market Trends (Plus a FREE Portfolio You Can Use Today)

October 8, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

This week I want to give you a peek at one of my favorite TradeSmith tools. I’m referring to Pure Quant, our proprietary portfolio-building software. We designed Pure Quant to make building a professional-quality portfolio as easy as possible. With just a few clicks of a mouse, Pure Quant can take whatever sources you choose — from entire indexes to newsletter recommendations to your favorite individual stocks — and deliver you a complete, diversified, risk-balanced portfolio in seconds. If you’re

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How ‘Common Sense’ Fundamental Analysis Can Make You a Better Investor

October 1, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

Here at TradeSmith, we think about the markets differently from most investors. As I explained in a Money Talks series back in February (here and here), we’re big fans of a “factor-based” approach to investing. If you’re not familiar, factors are simply the various characteristics of an investment responsible for its potential risk and reward. You can think of them as the reasons why a particular investment does or doesn’t perform well. Just about any characteristic can be a factor.

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September 2021

Don’t Dismiss This Classic Market Wisdom

September 24, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

If you’ve been investing for long, you may be familiar with the old Wall Street adage “the trend is your friend.” But if you’re like most folks, you probably haven’t given much thought to what it means in practice. I think that’s a mistake. You see, hidden inside this simple phrase is one of the few real “secrets” of successful investing. And I can tell you from experience that taking this wisdom to heart can make a huge difference in

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The Easy Way to Do What You Love for Free

September 17, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

My family and I recently returned from a wonderful vacation. We visited my favorite place in the entire U.S.: Marco Island, Florida. And it was absolutely free. That’s right. We spent five nights at the JW Marriott at no cost to us. And we even flew down there from our home in Baltimore for free. No, my family didn’t tag along on my latest business trip. And we didn’t win the vacation in a sweepstakes or anything like that. You

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This Book Changed My Financial Future

September 10, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

I’ve read a ton of great books about finance and investing. But there are only a few that I can honestly say changed my financial life. “Money: Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom” is one of them. The book was written in the mid-2010s by famous self-help guru Tony Robbins. But don’t let the author’s name fool you… It’s based mainly on time-tested wisdom from some of the world’s wealthiest and most successful investors. These include legends

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How to Fix This Common Investing Mistake

September 3, 2021TradeSmith Editorial Staff

It’s sad but true… Most individual investors chronically underperform the market. That might not seem like a big deal. After all, making some money is better than making none, right? But over a lifetime, this can result in leaving hundreds of thousands — even millions — of dollars on the table. For many folks, that could mean the difference between financial freedom and merely getting by. Fortunately, here at TradeSmith, we’ve found that poor investment performance is often the result

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