Article: here

Excerpt:  "Workers will be able to contribute more to their retirement accounts in 2019... The limit increased to $19,000, up $500 from 2018... The IRS is also lifting the contribution limit for individual retirement accounts... to $6,000 2018."

Gordon:  A few observations.
* 401k & IRA plans are not guaranteed investments.
* They are tax deferral schemes from Congress.
* Yes, markets do go UP. They go DOWN too.
* When the market goes DOWN, so will your plan.
* Congress will never allow plans to short stocks.
* Which is why your plans hold bullish funds only.
* Solution: Roll your plans into an IRA.
* Designate it a self-directed IRA.
* Do your own stock and mutual fund picking.
* Including buying inverse ETFs...
* That let you profit from a falling market.
* Or stay stuck northbound on a southbound bus.

Article: here

Excerpt:  "Less than a month ago  – Hungary’s Central Bank announced that they increased their gold holdings... 1,000%... Poland also added nearly 10 metric tons of gold... Russia’s adding 20 tons of gold on average each month to their vaults... After two decades of selling... central banks worldwide are... diversifying... dollar reserves... gold in a portfolio works well to protect against sudden market drops..."

Gordon:  Is your financial planner as smart as a central banker? If not, you might wish to revisit the subject of diversification.

Having your entire financial world (income, savings, investments...) priced 100% in dollars, which is to say in Federal Reserve Notes* (a/k/a 'dollars') does not represent diversification. It represents faith in the system. Do you have faith in the system? 

* The Federal Reserve Note (FRN) is not federal, there are no reserves, and it fails the legal definition of a note. Other than that, everything is perfectly fine!

The FRN is a fiat coupon issued as evidence of debt by a private banking cartel that lends its product to the U.S. government and charges interest for its use which "We The People" reimburse through taxation which, I regret to say, is unlawfully applied. 

Our entire money supply circulates as debt, the interest due on which does not exist at the time it is created and only comes into existence as further debt is issued.

Please do not refer to this as a Ponzi scheme or people will look at you sideways.

I would point out that, mathematically speaking, there is no possible ending for this system other than eventual failure and reset.

If any of this strikes you as potentially troublesome, diversification offers an alternative selection in personal wealth management.

Closing thought:  Do squirrels prepare for a harsh and bitter winter by saving up Guaranteed Squirrel Coupons with The Great Squirrel Leader displayed in the center and a picture of an acorn in each corner?

No, they do not. They save the real thing. That is how they survive the winter.

Are people as smart as a squirrel? I would not dream of offering that answer. Only the future of civilization will tell!

​Article: click here

Excerpt:  "...most hedge funds have sharply underperformed their investors' expectations... Unlike most of their peers, Citadel and Millennium... have a backlog of investors who want to invest with them... [having] averaged 19.1% and 14% annually, respectively..."

Gordon:  Keeping in mind that you need about $250K for a hedge fund to return your phone call, the universe of hedge funds has significantly under performed over the past decade, with just a few funds producing consistent profits. 

Yet these are supposed to be "the smartest people in the room," armed with artificial intelligence and high speed neural networks

As for top funds Citadel and Millennium averaging 19.1% and 14% annually, that works out to 1.2% - 1.6% per month.

Not particularly impressive. And this is the best the world has to offer?

Add to this the fact that the true rate of purchasing power destruction is currently running close to 6%. This amount of "inflation" must first be overcome before there is any real, net ROI.

Now when we subtract 6% from the returns above, we get 13.1% and 8% respectively. Dividing these net returns by 12 gives us .7% and 1.1% net monthly.

Our happy little team of WSU traders can outperform these kinds of returns drunk and blindfolded (not recommended for optimum performance ;-).