In Thomas Hardy's masterpiece of a novel written in the 1880s,  The Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge, the destinies of the two main characters, the tragic Michael Henchard and the triumphant Donald Farfrae, essentially rested on the outcome of their trading in commodities.

Here is the second part of the post on the ETF vs. mutual fund debate ….

The failure rate for persons who try to make a living from active trading strategies is said to be 80%. But if you are a newbie interested in taking a shot at becoming one of the successful 20%, a first step might be to read Ken Little's The Complete Idiot’s ...

Conventional wisdom says actively managed mutual funds beat the index during bear markets (and are thus better to hold than index funds). Not so says a recent study from Standard & Poor’s Index Services.