Sell in May and Go Away? Not so Fast.
By Jon Aldrich Well May is here and spring is its normal unpredictable self here in Northern Illinois, with one day in the 80’s and the next in the 40’s. It is also strange this year, because the Blackhawks aren’t playing anymore and the Cubs and White Sox are both in first place. Strange days…
Read MoreSaved by Zero, or Less Than Zero?
By Jon Aldrich Back in 1983, the British New Wave Band, “The Fixx” released a popular song titled “Saved by Zero“. The song was about a Buddhist mantra that life is not so much about amassing material possessions, but of experiences along the way, and that the goal is how great it is to get…
Read MoreHave You Checked Your Credit Recently?
By Jon Aldrich Almost daily we hear reports of hackers stealing personal information either from large data breaches at places like Target or Home Depot or via e-mail scams and even with old fashioned phone calls to unsuspecting victims with someone claiming to be from the IRS demanding money or credit card information. More recently,…
Read MoreTHE SKY IS FALLING!
By Jon Aldrich European banks are having problems again! China’s economy is headed for a hard landing! Central Bankers have lost control of their control of the markets by resorting to negative interest rates! Oil and commodity prices keep crashing signaling global recession! The U.S. is headed for a recession as well! Presidential candidate Bernie…
Read MoreDoes A Bad January Mean A Bad Year in 2016?
By Jon Aldrich I probably don’t need to remind you that January was not a real good month for the stock market. The S&P 500 was off 5.07%, the Dow was off 5.5%, and other areas such as Small Company U.S. stocks and Foreign stocks were off anywhere from 6% to 10% as concerns about…
Read MoreRecessions, The Stock Market & Inverted Yield Curve, Oh My!
By Jon Aldrich Stock markets around the world continue to struggle and many are in panic mode right now. The chart of the stock markets looks eerily similar to the image above. The S & P 500 index is down almost 10% since the start of the year which signals a “correction”. Remember, 10% is…
Read MoreChina Redux
By: Jon Aldrich It was just a few months ago, back in August, when the world was ending because the Chinese stock market was spiraling downward, with the government clumsily intervening to no avail. The crash in the Chinese market and the worries about the Chinese economy slowing down and bringing the rest of the…
Read MoreEpisode VII – The Fed Awakens
By: Jon Aldrich The big event that millions of people have been waiting for months and even years to occur and which has not happened in almost a decade happened this week. The new Star Wars movie, “The Force Awakens” was released in theaters across the world this week to the delight of many who…
Read MoreHas Gold Reached a Bottom Yet?
By: Jon Aldrich I always get a chuckle when I hear an ad on the radio or TV that says that now is the time to sell your gold jewelry, as the price has never been higher. Or the commercials on CNBC that keep trying to peddle gold coins because the price of gold keeps…
Read More3-2-1-No Lift Off
By: Jon Aldrich After several weeks of anticipation by market participants, many thought that Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve would raise short term interest rates from near 0% to 0.25%. However, they decided to hold off on raising rates until possibly, October, December, 2016, never? With the recent market turmoil not only here in…
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