It would be hard to imagine a stranger year in the U.S. investment markets, or one that did a better job of defying logic, than the year just passed. After the dramatic market collapse that began on February 20 and saw a 13% drop in the month of March, the U.S....

The investment results in September were certainly nothing to brag about, but overall the markets have done something interesting: large cap indices are up while small and midcap stocks have posted modest losses.  Given the persistent decline in the U.S. economy and...

This year, investors have been treated to a rare real-world lesson in the mathematics of investing—namely, the fact that after a market decline, it takes a greater market recovery to get back to even.  The first quarter saw a frightening downturn that delivered 20%...