FINRA Alert:Leveraged and Inverse ETFs: Specialized Products with Extra Risks for Buy-and-Hold Investors

FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has issued an investor alert regarding leveraged ETFs.  The alert can be found at :http://www.finra.org/Investors/ProtectYourself/InvestorAlerts/MutualFunds/P119778
For those of you who have your money managed by someone other than yourself or me, you may want to check your statements to see if you own any of this type of investment.  They are really meant to be used for short term trading strategies (never recommended for the average investor) and are not meant for the long term, buy-and-hold investor.

August Returns

I realized I never posted the August returns, so here they are. The market continues to rally, with much scepticism. It is really remarkable that a scant year ago, we seemed to be at the end of the world and now, the market is almost 50% higher than it's March lows. Technically, the market seems a little tired, maybe we get a near term correction of some kind (I have been thinking this for over a month and have been wrong!) The long term trend still points to higher prices, regardless of logic. The great deals in the bond market, particularly high yield have all but evaporated. The best place in the bond market now is with relatively higher quality credits. Mortgage rates are higher than their Spring lows--kudos to all who locked in at a rate starting with a 4%!!!!! HELOC owners, though it shouldn't happen any time soon, beware as your very low rates will be higher by next year. Start to make some extra payments if you can to pay that debt down. I'll be checking in soon with this month's numbers:

The Monthly Index Report for August 2009

S&P 500 Index*	3.4%	11.1%	13.0%	Large-cap stocks
DJIA*	3.5%	12.4%	8.2%	Large-cap stocks
Nasdaq Comp.*	1.5%	9.4%	27.4%	Large-cap tech stocks
Russell 1000 Growth	2.1%	9.3%	21.9%	Large-cap growth stocks
Russell 1000 Value	5.2%	13.8%	10.6%	Large-cap value stocks
Russell 2000 Growth	1.0%	8.8%	21.2%	Small-cap growth stocks
Russell 2000 Value	4.7%	16.8%	10.8%	Small-cap value stocks
EAFE	5.5%	15.1%	24.8%	Europe, Australasia & Far East Index
Lehman Aggregate	1.0%	2.7%	4.6%	U.S. Government Bonds
Lehman High Yield	1.9%	8.1%	41.0%	High Yield Corporate Bonds
Calyon Financial Barclay Index**	0.7%	-0.5%	-4.2%	Managed Futures
3-mo. Treasury Bill***	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
All returns are estimates as of August 31, 2009. *Return numbers do not include dividends. ** Returns are estimates as of August 28, 2009.