Archive
Everything we have published, newest first.
Opening a brokerage account takes about fifteen minutes, but the choices you make along the way, from account type to cash sweep to order type, shape what you pay and how protected you are. Here is the whole process, from picking a firm to placing a first trade.
Americans can own gold as coins and bars, through exchange-traded funds, with futures on COMEX or indirectly through mining stocks. Each route has different costs, storage questions and tax treatment. This guide compares them side by side and explains what moves the gold price.
When you tap buy in a brokerage app, your order passes through a chain of exchanges, market makers, clearinghouses and regulators before the shares are yours. This guide explains how the NYSE and Nasdaq work, who sets the rules, how an order is filled and settled, and what protects your account.
The oil price on the evening news is a futures price for a specific grade delivered to a specific place. This guide explains WTI and Brent, how futures markets set the price, the forces behind supply and demand, and how a barrel of crude turns into the price Americans pay at the gas pump.
Inflation is reported as a single number, but the US government publishes several measures that answer slightly different questions. This guide explains how the CPI and PCE price indexes are built, why they differ, what core inflation leaves out, why shelter matters so much, and how to read the monthly releases.
The IRS treats crypto as property, so selling it, swapping one coin for another or spending it can create a taxable gain, while staking and mining rewards count as income. This guide covers taxable events, cost basis, the new Form 1099-DA, NFTs and the records every crypto holder should keep.
Futures are how wheat, corn, copper and cattle are priced in the US, and they sit inside many commodity ETFs. This guide explains contracts, margin and daily settlement, why rolling can quietly erode returns, who regulates the market, and how commodity funds are structured and taxed.
Fees are the one part of investing you can control with certainty, and small percentages compound into large dollar amounts over decades. This guide explains every layer of cost in a US fund portfolio, where each one is disclosed, and a simple way to add up what you really pay each year.
Dollar-cost averaging means investing a fixed amount on a regular schedule, whatever the market is doing. It is how most 401(k) savers already invest. Here is how the math works, how it compares with investing a lump sum, and the trade-offs worth understanding before you automate it.
Whoever controls the private keys controls the crypto. This guide explains custodial and self-custody options, hot and cold wallets, seed phrases, the scams that target American crypto holders most often, and practical steps to protect digital assets and make sure heirs can find them.
Selling an investment for more than you paid creates a capital gain, and how long you held it decides the tax rate. This guide explains cost basis, short- and long-term rates, the net investment income tax, how losses offset gains, qualified dividends, and the forms the IRS expects.
Bonds are sold as the steady part of a portfolio, yet bond funds can lose money in a hurry when interest rates jump. This guide explains the seesaw between bond prices and yields, what duration tells you, how credit risk and spreads work, and how individual bonds differ from bond funds.
A 10% fall is called a correction and a 20% fall a bear market, but the labels say little about what happens next. This guide explains the definitions, how US market declines have differed in cause, depth and length, the safeguards that kick in on volatile days, and how investors plan for drawdowns.
How a portfolio is split between stocks, bonds and cash usually matters more than which individual investments fill each slot. This guide explains asset allocation, what real diversification looks like, how time horizon and risk tolerance shape the mix, and how rebalancing keeps it on track.
The 401(k), traditional IRA and Roth IRA all offer tax breaks for retirement saving, but they differ on who can open them, when the tax benefit arrives, how much you can put in and how flexible withdrawals are. This guide lays out the rules side by side and explains the trade-offs between pre-tax and Roth saving.
