Investment insights

Investor demand improved, despite the continuation of outflows from municipal bond mutual funds for a 23rd consecutive week, at $503 million for the week of Oct. 30.

Can a different investment model create greater portfolio diversification than the traditional 60/40 asset allocation model?

The real estate market may have had its ups and downs in recent years, but REITs are holding their value and merit a place in client portfolios.

Gold is down from it's high of around $1890 in 2011, but some investors are still inquiring about including gold and other precious metals in their portfolios.

At its most basic, relative strength is a ratio of stock or index price-to-market average or other indices.

Clients tend to focus on the best investments they didn't invest in last year. Here's how to break them of the habit.

As advisors and investors look for more income, a slew of new high-yield products have come on the market.

As firms grow, metrics become increasingly important in gauging performance. But some things don't show up in the numbers.

There’s a major misperception of what a buy-and-hold investment strategy is, but it's what you buy and hold that makes all the difference.

Higher taxes on long-term capital gains may revive interest in like-kind exchanges of investment property.

Rebalancing is simple, but not easy to do. With automated rebalanicing, little or no action is required to achieve even more consistent investment allocation.

Here’s the argument for talking your clients into taking less risk today to get higher returns in the future.

The smallest stocks are rallying almost twice as fast as bigger companies in the U.S., a bullish economic signal from businesses whose profits are most dependent on domestic demand.

U.S. government bonds are acting more like equities than any time since before the credit crisis, makingTreasuries a hidden risk to investors becalmed by the prospect of the Federal Reserve prolonging stimulus into 2014.

Here’s why these questionnaires don’t work -- and a better way to assess how much risk a client should take on.

Nearly all advisors include international equities in portfolio construction so why would we exclude the even larger asset class of international bonds?

Job insecurity has focused attention on the need for emergency cash.

Pacific Investment Management Co. doesn’t hold Puerto Rico debt in its tax-free funds, and the company predicts that a lack of improvement in the island’s finances may increase volatility in other municipal securities.

Public pension funds have been moving huge amounts of money into alternative investments managed by Wall Street.

The firm’s advantage over its Wall Street peers is fading in the eyes of credit- derivatives traders as fines and regulator probes hobble profits while firms from Citigroup Inc. to Morgan Stanley rebound.