For Stocks, the Good Times Came Back. But for How Long?

Fees are dropping. Take advantage of bargains, but be careful.

In some ways, it’s a wonderful time to be an investor. Fees on funds, especially those that track indexes, have been cut, in some cases to zero. (I recently found that fees may be about to fall below that.) Careful investors can save a great deal of money, though, as always, there’s no free lunch.

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• Falling Fees Give Investors More Choices. Just Be Careful Using Them.

• A Price War Has Driven Fund Fees to Zero. They May Be Set to Drop Further.

Our columnist’s dream: Start an I.P.O., create a crisis, make a fortune.

A spate of initial public offerings, and a series of crises, have given our essayist, John Schwartz, another brilliant idea on his long trek toward wealth or, at least, solvency.

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• Create a Crisis, Capture a Unicorn

Smaller companies gave you an edge, if you held these funds.

As the markets ebb and flow, different investments have their moment. For several managers of top-performing funds, small-and-mid-capitalization companies bolstered returns in the first quarter. One manager, Nancy A. Zevenbergen, says she favors companies run by their founders.

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• These Funds Rode Small Companies to Big Returns

Risk abounds, in ways you may never have considered.

An intriguing new book by an economist who writes a column for Quartz, the news website, discusses ways of reducing risk in many walks of life, our reviewer says.

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• Which Is Riskier, Prostitution or Investing?

Focus on dividends, but not to the exclusion of everything else.

Interest rates are fairly low and high-yielding shares are relatively expensive. Investors searching for income have therefore been turning to companies that steadily increase their payouts.

That makes sense, but only up to a point. For some stocks, dividends are high because their share prices have been battered in the marketplace. For others, those dividends are based on businesses that aren’t entirely solid.

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• Don’t Pay Too Much for Stocks That Pay Dividends

Value stocks keep losing the race with growth.

Investing is often divided into two styles: value, which favors stocks that have been overlooked by the market, and growth, which emphasizes rapidly expanding companies.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/your-money/how-to-think-about-the-stock-market-and-investing.html?partner=rss&emc=rss