Dr. H. Nejat Seyhun, contributing writer to The BusinessThinker magazine, is the Jerome B. & Eilene M. York Professor of Business Administration and professor of finance, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. He is an internationally recognized authority on financial issues and Derivatives.

All I read these days is how much Treasuries are overpriced.  At the beginning of 2011, Bill Gross, the famous bond fund manager at Pimco, predicted serious losses for Treasury investors and he publicly announced that Pimco had sold its massive Treasury positions.  In addition to fund managers and

Dr. H. Nejat Seyhun, contributing writer to The BusinessThinker magazine, is the Jerome B. & Eilene M. York Professor of Business Administration and professor of finance, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. He is an internationally recognized authority on financial issues and Derivatives.

As we welcome 2012, it is a good idea to take stock of the lessons of the roller-coaster stock market of 2011. The year ended on a mixed note.  The Dow Jones Industrial Index was up about 6%, S&P 500 index pretty much flat and Russell 2000 down about 4% for the year. Overseas, European and Asian stocks fared worse.   MSCI Europe ETF and iShares S&P Asia 50 Index ETF were both down about 15%.

Investors’ concerns in 2011 were about existential issues.  They worried about a possible collapse of

Dr. H. Nejat Seyhun, contributing writer to The BusinessThinker magazine, is the Jerome B. & Eilene M. York Professor of Business Administration and professor of finance, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. He is an internationally recognized authority on financial issues and Derivatives.

As we enter a New Year, it is a good idea to review our stock selections and risk exposures. It is well known that legal insider trading by top level corporate executives in their own firms can help provide useful investment signals (Seyhun 2000, Investment Intelligence from Insider Trading, MIT Press.) Sustained insider buying in their own

H. Nejat Seyhun, contributing writer to The BusinessThinker magazine, is the Jerome B. & Eilene M. York Professor of Business Administration and professor of finance, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. He is an internationally recognized authority on financial issues and Derivatives.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced last Friday that on a seasonally adjusted basis, total private employment increased by 154,000 while the overall total nonfarm employment increased by 117,000 in July (expectations were for an increase of 75,000).   Similarly, the overall unemployment rate went down to 9.1% from 9.2%.  Expectations were for no change from June.  Since both figures were better than expected, the stock market increased by about 150 points inreaction prior to