Bob's Journal

Bob’s Journal for 1/25/23

Happy 30th Birthday to the ETF The first exchanged-traded fund (ETF) began trading on January 22, 1993. The relatively low-profile event began a revolution in investing that continues. Before the ETF, individual investors had two choices. They could buy individual stocks (and pay brokers’ commissions or trading fees). Or they could buy shares in mutual […]

Bob’s Journal for 1/19/22

China’s Shrinking Population Affects the Global Economy and Markets IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: We are having our Eagle Virtual Trading Event on Thursday, Jan. 19. If you haven’t signed up for this yet, there’s still time. Just click here now to sign up for free. Believe me, you won’t want to miss this online event — as we bring together […]

Bob’s Journal for 1/12/22

Negative Yields Are Almost Gone IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: We are having our Eagle Virtual Trading Event on Thursday, Jan. 19. If you haven’t signed up for this yet, there’s still time. Just click here now to sign up for free. Believe me, you won’t want to miss this online event — as we bring together all of Eagle’s investment […]

Bob’s Journal for 1/5/22

The Year Cash Stopped Being Trash The Federal Reserve finally stopped supporting the prices of financial assets in 2022, and investors who didn’t recognize the policy change paid a price. Few investment assets had positive returns in 2022. Treasury bonds, often considered among the most conservative investments, had perhaps their worst year ever. The long-term […]

2022: A Brief Review It seems that every year is filled with numerous twists, turns and surprises. This year is no exception, as 2022 is just days from giving way to 2023. The biggest surprise of 2022 to many was inflation, and it influenced many things during the year. Investors and policymakers started 2022 with […]

Bob’s Journal for 12/22/22

The Holiday Conundrum Most years from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, my wife, Elaine, and I like to watch a lot of the classic holiday movies and shows. We watch something when we want to instead of when someone’s broadcasting it, so I used to record them and now mostly track which streaming services they’re […]

Bob’s Journal for 12/15/22

Some Notable Events That Grabbed My Attention This Week In the December issue of Retirement Watch I emailed you last month, I mentioned that a new digital version of the “To My Heirs” report would be available. I’m pleased to announce the links to this new estate organization spreadsheet are ready. If you’re interested in […]

Bob’s Journal for 12/8/22

How FTX’s Leader Telegraphed Its Fall There’s a lot we don’t know about cryptocurrency broker FTX and its collapse. But we do know a few key things and one, in particular, indicates failure was very likely at some point. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was an extreme risk taker. He took more risk than probably anyone […]