Risk Rewarded Blog

July has a reputation for fireworks in the stock market, with positive returns most years.Fortunately this year is no exception so far. Bespoke tells us that through Monday, the S&UP 500 is up 1.5% for the month so far, and bulls have history on their side the rest of the month. Over the last ten years, the S&P 500 has seen a median gain of...

Let's say that we can all agree -- yes, I'm voting on your behalf -- that once this whole Greek thing is put to bed people will look around and realize that eurozone stocks are too cheap. Doesn't it make sense to start considering right here, right now, which ones or which countries should rebound best?When you think about it, once the Greek thing blows...

Stocks sank Monday but finished well off their lows as investors decided that Greek voters' decision to stiff their creditors might not be the life-threatening event of the century it was presumed to be. After all, everyone knows the country simply cannot pay its outstanding debt, and no amount of finger-wagging, name-calling, foot-stamping or threat-making...

Normally the release of minutes of the Federal Reserve's rate-setting committee are the lead headline, but they had to settle for third place Wednesday. Takeaways however were dovish. A lot of the focus was on Fed concerns about developments in Greece and China, where conditions have taken a turn for the worse in the few weeks since the meeting.While...

Say what you will about "green cred" -- the social brownie points awarded in certain areas of the country for driving a battery-powered Nissan Leaf or Toyota Prius plug-in -- but electric vehicles outside the Tesla Model S have a dowdy image. I mean, you can't imagine James Bond pulling up to a casino in a Chevy Volt.In an industry that is built on...

In a reminder that the world doesn't revolve around Federal Reserve dot plots or the machination of Greek bailout negotiations in Brussels, there has been a surge of merger news as companies quietly go on doing the good work of capitalism: Expanding, buying, selling, and trying everything possible to boost profits and maximize shareholder wealth.Homebuilders...

The labor force participation rate hit a new low of 62.6% in June, down from 62.9% previously. That was the lowest level since 1977, which is disheartening and frustrating.I was a sophomore in college in 1977, so I can't offer any first-hand insights on the job market of that era. I did emerge from graduate school three years later in 1980 into the...

Everybody in the world of finance has an opinion about when the Federal Reserve will start raising rates, and how swiftly rates will rise after that. But not all opinions are equally valuable. Indeed, there are very few that we should really heed.One person whose opinion deserves to be at the forefront of our thinking is a former Fed insider named Athanasios...