One academic study appears to confirm the view that the apparent preponderance of bad news is as much due to demand as to supply, with participants more likely to select negative content regardless of their stated preferences for upbeat news.

Have you ever made yourself suffer through a bad movie because, having paid for the ticket, you felt you had to get your money’s worth? Some people treat investment the same way.

Global markets are providing investors a rough ride at the moment, as the focus turns to China’s economic outlook. But while falling markets can be worrisome, maintaining a longer term perspective makes the volatility easier to handle.

In recent weeks, the world’s markets and media financial pages have focused intensely on the standoff between debt-laden Greece and its international lenders over the conditions of any further bailout. Is this Grecian financial crisis a cause for serious concern?

Owners of all-purpose motor vehicles often appreciate their cars most when they leave smooth city freeways for rough gravel country roads. In investments, highly diversified portfolios can provide similar reassurance.

What is a financial advisor for? One view is that advisors have unique insights into market direction that give their clients an advantage. But of the many roles a professional advisor should play, soothsayer is not one of them. 

What can’t Google do? Free email, customized searches, maps, apps, browsers, video—the list goes on. Now researchers claim to have found a link between Google searches and future stock market movements.

Volatility has returned. Just as many people were starting to think markets only ever move in one direction, the pendulum has swung the other way. Anxiety is a completely natural response to these events. Acting on those emotions, though, can end up doing us more harm than good.

There's a school of thought that says the best way to manage a fixed income portfolio is to base your investment decisions on where you think interest rates are headed. But what if expectations are changing all the time?

A recent press article said that with major risk assets looking "fully valued," it was time to seek out alternative investments such as hedge funds. But those thinking of making that shift might want to look before they leap.

Much financial news purports to be about the future but is really just an account of the past. As a result, many investors project what has already happened onto an imagined future. It’s understandable that investors, with the help of a necessarily short-term-focused media, will tend to focus most of their attention on what has happened in financial markets in the past month, week, day, or even hour.

A frequent complaint from would-be investors is that “uncertainty” is what keeps them out of the financial markets. “I’ll stay in cash until the direction becomes clearer,” they will say. So when has there ever been total clarity?

In a popular children’s story, the young hero pins all his hopes on finding one of a handful of “golden tickets” hidden among millions of candy bars. It seems many people approach investing the same way.