Alternative Investments – Often Tainted by Sales Practice Abuses
Investors in search of fixed income have poured money into a variety of alternative investments, including nontraded real estate investment trusts (REITs). Alternative investments encompass most...
View ArticleLow Yields Push Investors into Very Risky Alternatives
The financial world continues to beat the drum warning investors about the risk of bonds. When interest rates rise (or when the market believes a significant rise in interest rates is imminent) bond...
View ArticleBond Market –‘Irrational Exuberance?’
Recent warnings regarding dangers in the bond market were recently issued by bond maestro Bill Gross. These warnings are reminiscent of Alan Greenspan’s implicit warning in a 1996 speech when he asked:...
View ArticleAlternative Investments are no Panacea
Why do investors continue to be enamored with hedge funds and other alternative investments? The press recently reported that institutional investors are expected to increase allocations to hedge funs...
View ArticleStructured Products Pose Major Risks for Investors
Danger lies ahead for investors in structured products. Structured products were once used only by institutions and sophisticated investors that had the education, training and experience needed to...
View ArticleInvestors are Gorging on Junk Bonds
Prices of “junk” bonds keep rising as investors continue to buy the riskier debt. Yields on junk bonds, which move inversely to bond prices, settled at a record low of 5.56% recently. Demand for junk...
View ArticleRegulators Focus on Complex Alternatives
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), as well as the SEC and state regulators, have announced that they are concerned about broker/adviser sales practices involving alternative...
View ArticleAlternative Investments – Are They All They Are Cracked Up To Be?
Rising interest rates may be death to traditional bonds and bond funds, but a number of alternative investment strategies allegedly designed to protect principal in a rising interest rate environment...
View ArticleAlternative Investments – Big Problems
According to financial advisers, do not be fooled by the recent market in stocks into believing that we are in for a continuing period of sustained low volatility. Those advisers want you to expect...
View ArticleFront-End Bonus Payments May Need To Be Disclosed
If your broker or financial adviser told you he was moving to another brokerage firm and asked you to move your account there, would you want to know if he was being paid thousands or millions of...
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