A moving average is a statistical tool that smooths out the ups and downs of a given indicator over time. Investment analysts and economists often look at the changing value … Read more →

Saving money is a discipline, much like dieting to lose weight or keeping up with an exercise plan. Investing can be too, unless you automate it. In fact, automation is … Read more →

Mark to market is an accounting standard that requires a company to state the value of its assets in immediate, daily terms. Most investors are used to thinking about their … Read more →

After years of steady climbing, the U.S. stock market seems to have hit a temporary peak. Stocks on the major indices have fallen by hundreds of points and recently erased … Read more →

Interest rate risk is an idea that many investors find mystifying. Bonds pay an interest rate, or yield. It’s often fairly low but the money is typically considered safer than … Read more →

After many years of a steady upward climb stock investors in October finally got a taste of stock market volatility — rapid moves up and down in valuation. Some took it … Read more →

Leverage is an investing term that describes the strategy of borrowing money to make an investment. Typically, this is done through a stock brokerage using what’s known as a margin … Read more →

It has been hard over the past few months to avoid news about the Federal Reserve and interest rates going up. Rates have not gone up by much at a … Read more →

Alpha is a finance term which means how much an investment returns in excess of the market as a whole. There are many ways to think about the market as … Read more →

You might be forgiven for worrying about why stocks go up, or down, in the past few months. After all, we’re well into the longest bull market in history, an … Read more →