Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.
International Beer Day
Beer has its own international day and it’s on August 5. International Beer Day was started back in 2007 as a way to celebrate with friends and give back to the brewers and bartenders around the world supplying beer lovers with hoppy goodness.
With 334 celebrations in 46 countries this seems to have built a following. Plus, it’s a great excuse to open your backyard and celebrate all things beer. It’s also a good reason to make Monday, August 6, International Hangover Day.
High Frequency Trading Gone Bad
It’s back in the news in a big way this week. That’s HFT or high frequency trading. Knight Capital Group, a publicly traded company, lost $440 million in 45 minutes thanks to a “computer glitch.” I like how Wall Street and the press throws around “computer glitch” like their Windows OS locked up again and it just needs to be restarted. Continue Reading…
All index funds are created equal. That’s what many fund families want you to believe. But it can’t be further from the truth. The difference is big enough, it could force some passive investors to actually do some work.
The last few years we’ve seen historically low-interest rates and a rising concern over interest rate risk. These low rates have been great for borrows looking for low-cost loans. On the other side, it’s been tough on savers forced into short-term fixed income assets while they wait for rates to rise.
One of the most popular investments in the past few years have been REITs, or real estate investment trusts. If you’ve ever been to an outlet mall, it was probably owned by a real estate investment trust. It’s just one way for investors to get into real estate without buying property.