A 67-year-old with a $1.2 million nest egg sits across from an insurance agent who pitches a clean trade: hand over $300,000 today, collect $1,900 a month for the rest of his…
Growth investors picking a large-cap vehicle in 2026 face a real choice: pay nothing for a passive index, or pay a few basis points for an active manager who claims to add…
Few sector ETFs have rewarded patience like semiconductors. VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA:SMH) trades near $510 after returning roughly 141% over the past year against the S&P 500’s 29%. That gap is the…
The communication services sector is a concentration bet dressed up as diversification. After the 2018 GICS reshuffle pulled Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, and Disney out of technology and consumer discretionary, the sector became…
Consumer discretionary names live or die on whether households feel comfortable opening their wallets, and right now those signals are flashing in opposite directions. Right now those signals are crossing in unusual…
Ray Dalio is compressing his timeline. On a recent Prof G Markets episode with Ed Elson titled "Ray Dalio: The World Order Has Unraveled," the Bridgewater founder said "We're on the brink…
Joel South On a recent NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast segment, the host worked through a scenario any retirement-minded homeowner has considered. Take a $1,000 mortgage payment. Throw it at principal and you save interest.…
Omor Ibne Ehsan The PHLX Gold/Silver Sector Index (^XAU) is edging lower this Friday morning by 1% even as gold spot prices tick higher to $4,644/ounce, a split tape that captures how investors are processing…
The CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX) has slipped below 17 to 16.55, settling comfortably into the 15 to 20 range that markets consider business as usual, a remarkable turnaround after a bruising stretch…
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) clinched 7,200 for the first time ever yesterday, capping its best month since November 2020, and the index is set to open May trading on a high note.…
The SPY closed Wednesday near $711.58, and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index just printed 48, the lowest reading in history. Those two numbers do not usually share a sentence. On…
Omor Ibne Ehsan Live Updates Bank of America Reiterates Buy Rating on Amazon9:16am ETAnalysts at Bank of America just raised their price target on AMZN to $310 from $298 following earnings. “Amazon is an e-commerce…
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) is off to the races this morning, up 0.50% thanks to tailwinds from mega-cap earnings beats and a sharp pullback in oil prices, even as the Fed’s preferred…
On a recent Animal Spirits Podcast episode, co-host Ben Carlson summed up the AI capex worry plainly: “If there’s one obvious risk that’s going to cause excesses to happen in a big…
The math looks fine on paper. A 65-year-old retires with $95,000 a year in income: $36,000 from Social Security, a $30,000 pension, and $29,000 pulled from a $725,000 portfolio at the standard…
Drew Wood 
