By Jason Zweig | 7:12 pm ET Nov. 8, 2013Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet The stock market is near record highs. More money came into U.S. stock mutual funds the week of Oct. 23 than during any other week since 2007. Initial public offerings like Twitter are booming. So have you considered keeping more of your assets in cash? At first, the question sounds...
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By Jason Zweig | 6:05 pm ET Nov. 1, 2013Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet Will investors ever stop underperforming their own investments? Consider Pimco Total Return, the giant bond mutual fund run by the renowned investor Bill Gross. In the year ended Sept. 30, its largest share class lost 0.74% — a respectable result, considering that the bond benchmark...
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By Jason Zweig | 6:13 pm ET Oct. 25, 2013Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet Finding out whether your broker has a conflict of interest can make the difference between a successful investment and a disastrous one. A new report by securities regulators suggests how brokerage firms can mitigate their many conflicts. At the same time, the report’s findings could...
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Image credit: Carl van Vechten, “Norman Mailer” (1948), Library of Congress By Jason Zweig 5:00 pm ET Oct. 23, 2013 The recent publication of J. Michael Lennon’s biography, Norman Mailer, has reminded readers just how talented — and repugnant — the late novelist was. Mailer also had a surprisingly soft side, as I can attest. In...
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By Jason Zweig | 6:20 pm ET Oct. 18, 2013Image Credit: Wikipedia Creative Commons For investors, the main lesson from this week’s announcement of the Nobel Prize in economics should be humility about anyone’s market-forecasting ability—especially your own. This past Monday, the economics prize went to three researchers whose work seems to have little in...
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