Blog Posts

Inflation dynamics aren’t likely to hold the trends that were prevalent in the 2010s, which has implications for bonds and other types of assets.  Why inflation is important and the impact on the bond market To understand how inflation is relevant to the investor or trader we must first understand what inflation means and its […]

In commodity markets, you often hear of what’s called a commodities supercycle. What is a supercycle? A commodities supercycle is considered to be a sustained period of increasing commodity demand, often for more than a decade. During this time commodities prices tend to rise, which can boost economic growth and development, especially among commodity exporters. […]

Financial markets come with lots of risks. Whether it’s debt crises or acts of nature, wars, and other events, traders are always thrown curveballs in one way or another. Many of these things come as a surprise because they haven’t happened during the time we’ve been trading and investing in the markets or because they haven’t […]

A currency defense is an economic policy implemented by a government in order to protect its currency’s value from speculators in the foreign exchange market. A currency defense can take many different forms, but typically involves intervention in the foreign exchange market to buy or sell the currency in order to keep its value within […]

Commodities are nowhere near as popular as stocks and bonds as an asset class. Pension funds largely concentrate their holdings in stocks, bonds, and other forms of equity like real estate and alternatives. Retail traders and investors have very little exposure to commodities. The main players in commodities are those who need to physically transact […]

What Is Operating Leverage? Operating leverage is a financial ratio that measures the percentage of fixed costs in relation to variable and overall total costs. It is commonly used to calculate the break-even point, and is a key metric in determining a company’s profitability. The operating leverage ratio can be expressed as:   Operating Leverage […]

In this article, we cover the basics of cash flow analysis. In trading and investing, cash flow is what gives businesses value. The value of a business is the amount of cash you can take from it over its life discounted back to the present. So, understanding cash flow gets at the heart of where […]

Companies buy back shares for a number of reasons. One key reason is to return value to shareholders. By reducing the number of shares outstanding, each remaining share becomes more valuable as earnings are spread over fewer shares. By reducing the amount of outstanding common stock, companies can improve their return on equity (ROE), making […]

In this article, we’re going to look at cases of countries in the 20th century where there were full wipeouts, and near-wipeouts, of financial wealth. This is based on 60/40 portfolios (i.e., 60 percent stocks, 40 percent government bonds) and based on real (inflation-adjusted returns). A 60/40 stock-bond mix is often taken as a fairly […]

Emerging technologies are those which are new and haven’t yet been widely adopted among the public. But these trends and new markets that will be developed out of them can lead to outsized gains for traders and investors. Emerging Tech and Trading Many traders believe the future will be a slightly modified version of the […]