Bob's Journal
Found 587 Articles.
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Bob’s Journal for 10/10
Medicare Advantage Plan Cutbacks for 2025 Become Clearer; Latest Policy Change Deals Another Blow Medicare Open Enrollment begins Oct. 15 and will fully reveal how much plans and their pricing will change for 2025. Preliminary data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) give us an early indication of how significant the changes will […]
Bob’s Journal for 10/3
The Big Moves in China Many investors have been fixated on China for the last week or so, and with good reason. Significant stimulus moves by the government had direct and substantial effects on the markets. China’s Shanghai CSI 300 Index went from a 52-week low to a 52-week high in less than two weeks. […]
Bob’s Journal for 9/26
An Irrevocable Trust Isn’t Always Irrevocable In another celebrity estate plan gone wrong, Rupert Murdoch and his children are in court this week arguing over whether a key family trust can be changed. Currently, an irrevocable family trust controls 40% of the voting power of Fox Corp. and News Corp., and Murdoch personally controls the […]
Bob’s Journal
Medicare Advantage Plans Will Shrink in 2025 In the last few months, I passed along warnings that big changes in Medicare Advantage plans were likely in 2025. The first details of the changes have emerged. Insurers who sponsor Advantage plans reported earlier this year that costs exceeded expectations in 2024, primarily because members needed more […]
Bob’s Journal 9/12
Good Luck and Bad Luck for Indexes Sometimes luck and timing, both good and bad, contribute to the returns of stock indexes. A good example is recent activity involving Super Micro Computer (SMCI). The technology hardware manufacturer was in the Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies when it became an investor favorite. While the large-company […]
Bob’s Journal
Another Recession Indicator Stumbles The yield curve is about to turn positive, and that could mean a widely followed recession indicator gave a false signal for most of the last two years. The yield curve is a plot of the yields on treasury debt of different durations. A normal yield curve is positively sloped. The […]
Bob’s Journal 8/29
A Potential Opportunity in Gold Mining Stocks Investors who follow the headlines know that gold has paced the markets in 2024, recently reaching record highs. But few investors realize that, unlike most periods in the past, stocks of gold mining companies haven’t kept pace with the price of the metal. Historically, stocks of gold miners […]
Bob’s Journal for 8/22
What’s the Yield on Your ‘Cash Sweep’ Account? At least five major financial services firms have been sued for allegedly taking advantage of their clients by paying low yields on cash sweep accounts. The SEC is investigating the cash sweep policies at two of those firms. Cash sweep accounts were a major innovation a few […]
