Below are our latest blog posts for the week of April 6th.  Click on the links below to view the full article.

When managing a portfolio of closed-end funds (CEFs), sometimes the valuation of funds you own are less important to consistently evaluate than the funds you don’t own.  This is a key reason why every CEF investor should maintain a watch list of familiar funds.

But unlike watching a list of equity ETFs, where nearly every move is relatively correlated with the daily fluctuations of S&P 500 index, and small divergences happen over time.  In CEFs you can actually view dislocations happen in real time, since there is no guarantee of any meaningful correlation with fixed income or equity prices.

It has been incredibly slow out there in the financial markets and gains have been tough to come by. Over the last four months the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) has gained less than 2%. However, the frequent 1% daily price swings in the major indices have made it seem like we are just rambling sideways with no apparent direction. Depending on what day you look, the market may be up 4% on the year or totally flat.

Investors that are in their prime earning and compounding years have much different needs than those who are seeking income and capital preservation in retirement. You also have one of the single greatest assets on your side – time. Every additional year of saving and compounding is a precious commodity that is critical to long-term success when growing your wealth.

Published on NASDAQ.com

Emerging market ETFs are once again giving us a reason to pause and take notice of their price momentum relative to the opportunities in the developed investment world.  Despite multiple years of sub-par returns, these countries have a variety of attractive characteristics that make them worthy of your attention.  Whether you are a value seeker, trend follower, or asset allocator – the wealth of available opportunities in this market makes for a compelling investment case.

In our monthly ETF chart roundup video, we analyze the current trends of the market. The important themes to watch this month are large cap stocks, small caps, dividend etfs, emerging markets, gold, investment grade corporates, and EM debt. Recorded after the market close on April 1, 2015.

P.S. Did you know our core actively managed ETF portfolio minimums start at just $100,000?

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