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3 Healthcare Funds To Buy On Biotech Rebound

After being beaten down during the first three months of the year, biotech stocks made a remarkable rebound over the past few days. Though the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ: IBB ) is still down 17% in the year-to-date frame, it posted an increase of 5.9% on Wednesday, witnessing the best percentage gain since March 12, 2009. In fact, the 7.9% rise in IBB over the past one-month period also propelled healthcare mutual funds, which gained 2.9% during the same period. Mutual funds from this category may be profitable for investors, who are looking to gain from this encouraging trend. Reasons for the Recent Surge Strong gains of 5% and 3.5% respectively in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE ) and Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN ) played an important role in lifting biotech stocks on Wednesday. The increase was prompted when the companies mutually called off their merger after tougher tax inversion rules were imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service. Leaving the deal behind, Allergan CEO Brent Saunders said that the company, “could act immediately if” it gets “the right opportunity with the right growth profile and the right strategic logic.” Meanwhile, it is now speculated that names of other UK-based firms like GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK ) are on Pfizer’s radar. Moreover, a surge of nearly 17% in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW ) gave a boost to this sector. According to the company, data from the trial revealed that a procedure which uses its SAPIEN 3 valve shows better results than open heart procedures for certain patients. What’s Ahead? In spite of the recent surge, some of the concerns that affected the performance of biotech stocks at the start of 2016 may continue to impact the sector in the near future. Calls for reducing the prices of several drugs had played an important role in dragging down the sector. Hillary Clinton’s comments on the prohibitive pricing of certain medications drew much attention last year, weighing down on the sector’s stocks. Moreover, the U.S. Treasury Department’s adaptation of new rules to contain inversion-related deals may lower the volume of overseas merger and acquisition deals in the near term. Moreover, mixed earnings results during the fourth quarter affected the sector to quite an extent. Also, continued decline in the first-quarter earnings forecast is likely to hurt the sector’s performance in the days ahead. First-quarter earnings from the healthcare sector are anticipated to grow only 0.6% from the year-ago level compared with 9.3% growth witnessed in the previous quarter. Moreover, the year-on-year revenue growth rate is projected to decline to 8.8%, lower than the fourth quarter’s growth pace of 9.7%. However, an innovative product pipeline, product approvals and impressive performances by key products may act as growth catalysts and help the sector to overcome the above-mentioned concerns. Moreover, favorable valuation can make smaller companies within the sector attractive bets for acquisition. Separately, positive results from clinical trials also lift the sector’s stocks. They are difficult to predict, but come as welcome surprises for investors. 3 Healthcare Funds Picks Given this strong recovery, we have highlighted three healthcare mutual funds that either have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy). We expect these funds to outperform their peers in the future. Remember, the goal of the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank is to guide investors to identify potential winners and losers. Unlike most of the fund-rating systems, the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank is not just focused on past performance, but also on the likely future success of the fund. These funds have encouraging one-month and three-year annualized returns. The minimum initial investment is within $5000. Also, these funds have a low expense ratio and no sales load. Delaware Healthcare Fund I (MUTF: DLHIX ) invests a large chunk of its assets in equity securities of companies that are engaged in operations such as production, development and of products and services related to healthcare sector. DLHIX is a non-diversified fund. Along with a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1, DLHIX has one-month and three-year annualized returns of 5.9% and 16.8%, respectively. Annual expense ratio of 1.11% is lower than the category average of 1.35%. Fidelity Select Biotechnology Portfolio (MUTF: FBIOX ) seeks growth of capital. FBIOX invests the lion’s share of its assets in companies primarily involved in the research, development, manufacture, and distribution of various biotechnological products. The fund invests in securities of companies throughout the globe. Along with a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2, FBIOX has one-month and three-year annualized returns of 5.1% and 16.8%, respectively. Annual expense ratio of 0.72% is lower than the category average of 1.35%. Live Oak Health Sciences Fund (MUTF: LOGSX ) invests the majority of its assets in common stocks of healthcare companies or those related to medicine and life sciences. Though LOGSX primarily focuses on acquiring domestic securities, it may allocate a small portion of its assets in securities of foreign firms and ADRs. Along with a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2, LOGSX has one-month and three-year annualized returns of 3.9% and 15.9%, respectively. Annual expense ratio of 1.08% is lower than the category average of 1.35%. Link to the original post on Zacks.com

How To Be A Long-Term Investor In A High Frequency World

Wall Street so far in 2016 has had some insane swings both up and down that have been breaking all historical records, as the inmates are truly running the asylum this year and are totally off their meds while doing it. The main culprit causing this madness are the high-frequency algorithms that are just trading off the bid and ask spreads and now account for 90% of the volume on a daily basis. Thus, it is insanity to try to follow the daily movements of the markets as there is no way you can compete on a daily basis with these machines as they don’t care if stocks go up or go down and have no idea what the underlying companies do that they are trading 1,000 times a second. All they care about is if they can make a penny a trade profit for each of those 1,000 trades they make a second. By doing so, they make $10 a second in profit (1,000 trades), $600 a minute, $36,000 an hour and that comes out to $270,000 a day in profit. So as you can see, these algorithms in total are trading about $90 billion in volume a day so each firm can make around $270,000 profit a day. That’s a pretty penny but the damage it causes to the markets are intense as we get these wild swings. Anyways, these algorithms operate in milliseconds and there is no way to compete against them. The average day trader who tries, on average ends up losing 90% of their assets within three years of starting operations, as there is no way a human can compete against this madness. To combat this, though, you have to become a long-term buy and hold investor and pretty much pay little attention to what the markets are doing on any given day or week. All you need to do is just read the news on your holdings and that’s about it. But you must firstly have a tool that allows you to get the best analysis possible on Main Street. We don’t compete with high frequency algorithms on a daily basis, but instead have our own algorithm, Friedrich, that high frequency computer algorithms can’t compete against, as all they concentrate is on the bid and ask spread, while Friedrich concentrates 99.9% on Main Street. Thus, while high frequency algorithms are buying and selling 1,000 times a second, we are buying and holding until Friedrich tells us to sell, which could be 5 years from now or never. Thus, Friedrich emulates the strategy of Warren Buffett in a sense as that is how I designed him but is extremely high tech. How do I know that high frequency traders are controlling the direction of the market and have it do what they want? Well, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT ) came out with a report the other day and said it would miss estimates by a ton next quarter, which should have crashed the stock by -20%, as analysts need to reduce their numbers dramatically. Well, the exact opposite happened as high frequency traders decided to crush the short sellers and force them to cover, and Caterpillar actually is doing amazing on Wall Street even though it is getting crushed on Main Street. Click to enlarge How do I know that Friedrich works so well? Well, I designed it to take advantage of the moon craters that these high frequency traders leave in their wake. So instead of getting rid of high frequency traders, I now welcome them as their destructive behavior actually creates bargains for us like we saw with our recent purchase, Ryman Hospitality (NYSE: RHP ), which we bought cheap after it was hammered and now is skyrocketing because its management is elite and the company is a virtual monopoly. Click to enlarge About a month ago, I tested a Chinese ADR to see if Friedrich works just as well internationally as it does in the USA. Click to enlarge As you can see, it is a Chinese auto dealership and the stock was $67.73 and fell to $16.09, but it actually scored a “6” on Friedrich in early February and was selling at $18.23. Thus, Friedrich recommended it to be a strong buy and just a month later it is now up +53.54% . Click to enlarge The Friedrich Datafile for Bitauto Holdings (NYSE: BITA ) that I created today; as you can see, it is no longer a “6” but is a “4” now, but still has a long way to run. In that Datafile, you will also see that we added a new row called “Super Three Sell Criteria” right under the Super Six rows. We are still in beta testing, which I will spend the weekend doing, but come Monday all future lists will also tell everyone when to “SELL” . How well does it work? Well, just look at the Datafile for BITA in your attachment folder and you will see that in 2014, it triggered an automatic sell at $88.18. Thus, that sell trigger would have had you sell when the Wall Street price was $89.11 and you would have not only got out at the top but would have avoided seeing the stock price of BITA being attacked by high frequency traders, who brought it down to $16.09. Thus, you would have avoided losing -81.94% in just a year and then would have gotten a Super Six buy signal at $18.23 and been up +53.54% in just a month. So just as Donald Trump says that he loves his protesters, we now love high frequency traders as they complement our own more powerful algorithm, Friedrich, as they create opportunities for him. Such results cannot be expected to happen every time, but in backtesting it, I could see some wonderful results. Hopefully, after beta testing the Super Three Sell Criteria, we will be able to launch on Monday and have all Datafiles include it from now on. Thus, in our constant effort to make Friedrich as user friendly for the pro as well as the novice investor alike, we have Friedrich basically giving you an opinion on when to BUY and then when to SELL, and when we expand internationally and are fully automated on that end as well, Friedrich will be an all seeing monster, with the ability to tell investors from all over the world when to buy and when to sell, and more importantly, when to stay in cash when markets are overvalued. Thus, we have “Extreme Capital Appreciation through Extreme Capital Preservation”. Thus, as you can see, having Friedrich in my hands, I no longer try to predict what the market will do but just concentrate all my attention on Main Street and in waiting for buy signals from Friedrich. It is my belief that if Main Street is in serious trouble, eventually it will show up on Wall Street. I find that the Federal Reserve, the bureaucrats and corporate CEOs are all lying all the time and are cooking the books. Want proof? This is what came out from the SEC this week. Click to enlarge For those of you who have been with me for some time, you know that I have been screaming from the rooftops about how non-GAAP reporting results in very bad behavior by management, analysts and the press as the Pro-Forma reporting is actually fiction and even Warren Buffett wrote about it in his latest Annual Letter to Shareholders as his biggest concern. “Wall Street analysts often play their part in this charade, too, parroting the phony, compensation-ignoring ‘earnings’ figures fed them by managements,” Buffett said. “Maybe the offending analysts don’t know any better. Or maybe they fear losing ‘access’ to management. Or maybe they are cynical, telling themselves that since everyone else is playing the game, why shouldn’t they go along with it. Whatever their reasoning, these analysts are guilty of propagating misleading numbers that can deceive investors.” ~ Warren Buffett Thus, I am happy that the SEC will finally address this corruption. Friedrich is already GAAP ready, so you will actually see what a company is actually doing on Main Street when you use any of our Friedrich Datafiles as it is “AS IS” reporting. The markets have come back in the last couple of weeks as the following game is being played by management and by hedge funds taking advantage of the following phenomenon: There is such a thing on Wall Street called a “black out period” where for 5 weeks during earnings season companies and management cannot buy their stock back, so the crash of January was caused by this black out. Well, when the black out was lifted CEOs went hand over fist to buy back stock, borrowing at extreme levels to do so. This forced the shorters to cover and the rest is history as even oil shorters covered as well and that is why oil has rocketed as well. So for about 20 weeks of the year, companies cannot buy back their stock and for 32 weeks they can. This, of course, causes the wild market swings that we saw this year, as in January, there was the black out going on, and thus, there was no backstop to stop the selling. Then when the black out stopped in February, every CEO and their mother went and bought their stocks, borrowing insane levels of money and putting each firm’s balance sheets in serious trouble. The reason Friedrich cannot find anything to buy is because the debt on Main Street is insane and the prices on Wall Street are so overvalued as no one does any research anymore and people are just buying and selling without any clue what they are doing. With the Federal Reserve lying to us that Main Street is doing great a few months back, Friedrich knew they were lying as he sees what results each company is reporting on Main Street and was not believing a word of it. Well, just this week the Federal Reserve came out and said that the economy was not doing as well as they previously thought, so they did not raise rates. Now when someone tells you that things are bad, do you rush out and buy stocks or do you logically hold off and use caution? Well, hedge funds took the “bad news as good news” and bought anything that was not tied down. Unfortunately, this bad behavior is starting to catch up with the hedge fund industry, as 979 hedge funds closed operations in 2015 and 864 closed in 2014. This is all because these hedge fund portfolio managers basically do zero analysis as a group and just take massive risks with their clients’ money. Bill Ackman, who is the poster boy for terrible analysis and high risk, is down -26.4% this year on top of the -20.5% that he lost in 2015. When his main holding Valeant (NYSE: VRX ) fell -56% in one day earlier in the week, he lost -$764 million of his clients’ money in just one day! So as you can see, hedge funds are closing down as their clients are losing tons of money due to their doing little, if any, analysis and being totally reckless with their clients’ assets. In just two years 1,843 hedge funds closed down operations and those were flat years. Imagine what will happen when the trap door opens and the markets finally get hit? As for the government, the numbers by the Fed are cooked as well, and this is mainly because of ObamaCare, as many people cannot work more than 29 hours at one job otherwise the business owner will need to pay into the system. For example, if I were to decide to go work 5 jobs at 8 hours a week in each, I would be counted five times in the government’s jobs report. So those forced to work two to three jobs so their employers don’t pay ObamaCare tax are the reason the unemployment rate is only 5%. So as you can see, with everyone cooking the books at extreme levels, you can see that this will end badly one day. But investors have no clue what they were doing because you would imagine with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton looking like they will compete against each other for the Presidency, both are going to cause massive changes to the international business environment by using tariffs and going after the drug industry. But instead of being concerned about all this and selling stocks, investors are just piling in because their neighbor is and thus we have HERD MENTALITY! DISCLAIMER: This analysis is not advice to buy or sell this or any stock; it is just pointing out an objective observation of unique patterns that developed from our research. Factual material is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but the poster is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results of actions taken based on information contained herein. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer to buy or sell securities or to give individual investment advice.

5 Real Estate Fund Picks On Record Construction Outlay

The real estate industry is off to a solid start this year ignoring the winter weather, which always acts as a resistance. Construction outlay touched a record high in January, while building permits remained unchanged. Existing home sales also posted record gains in January indicating that the housing industry is firmer than what most believed. In February, the NAHB/Wells Fargo housing market index that reflects home builders’ sentiment continued to remain above the 50 mark, indicating improvement. Moreover, historically low mortgage rates and a rise in wages is expected to give the real estate industry a boost. Hence, it will be prudent to invest in real estate mutual funds for solid returns. Construction Spending Rises in January Outlays on construction rose 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.41 trillion in January from the upwardly revised estimate of $1.12 trillion in December, according to the Commerce Department. Construction spending touched the highest level in January since Oct. 2007. Spending also rose a whopping 10.4% year over year. Money was spent on both private and public infrastructure. In the private sector, spending increased 0.5% to $831.41 billion in January from December’s figure of $827.35 billion. Single family residential construction and multifamily construction soared 7.7% and 30.4% from year-ago levels, respectively. Private non-residential construction too surged 11.5% year over year. Coming to the public sector, total spending increased 4.5% in January following a 3.3% monthly gain in December, with spending on educational facilities gaining a solid 11.7% year over year. This sharp rise in spending in January came in after outlays gained momentum last year. In 2015, construction spending was up 10.5% to $1.097 trillion from $993.4 billion in 2014. This steady rise in spending toward new construction is a telltale sign of the health of the real estate industry. Moreover, construction spending as a percentage of GDP rose 6.2% in the quarter ending Dec. 31. This is a commendable rise from the year-ago increase of 5.8%. However, if we consider the last 50 years average during this period, spending gained 8.4%. This shows that the rise is still below the historical average, which in many ways represents pent-up demand. Building Permits Remain Steady There is also good news on the construction permit front. Building permits are a precursor to construction activity. It indicates the future growth of housing activities. Building permits were revised to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.204 million in January, unchanged from December’s figure, according to the Commerce Department. Earlier, it was reported that permits were down 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.202 million in January. Meanwhile, the other part of the report that shows the number of privately owned new houses on which construction has started was not so encouraging. In January, housing starts declined 3.8% to a 1.1 million annualized rate from 1.14 million in December. A crippling east coast winter storm was cited to be the reason behind this drop in housing starts. If this be so, it is a seasonal factor, which in the long run won’t leave any impact. Moreover, with the job market strengthening, it is expected that demand for more construction will increase. Average hourly earnings gained almost 0.5% in January from the previous month’s figure to $25.39. Average hourly earnings also rose 2.5% year over year. And this happened while the unemployment rate declined from 5% in December to 4.9% in January, the lowest since 2008. Record Home Sales Existing home sales for January hit the highest level since July last year. This indicates that the housing industry is in better shape than earlier estimated. Existing home sales increased 0.4% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 5.47 million. This is contrary to the consensus estimate of sales of homes owned earlier dropping to 5.33 million from December’s revised pace of 5.45 million. Additionally, existing home sales registered an annual increase of 11% in January, the largest yearly increase registered since Jul 2013. Pending home sales mostly track existing home sales. Pending home sales also advanced 1.4% in January from year-ago levels, its 17 straight month of year-on-year gains. However, purchase of new-single family homes decreased 5.2% in January from a year earlier. Nevertheless, home loan rates are drifting downward, which is expected to boost home sales in the near term. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate is about 3.8%, while the 15-year fixed loan rate is down to around 3.2%. Rates are currently hovering at historically low levels. 5 Real Estate Funds to Invest In Investors continue to remain optimistic about the outlook of the real estate industry in the U.S. According to KPMG’s 2016 Real Estate Industry Outlook Survey, 91% of real estate investors and executives surveyed said that real estate fundamentals will improve this year. Almost 74% of them believe foreign investment in the U.S. real estate will increase over the next 12 months. Record rise in construction activities, steady permits for building activities and healthy surge in home sales at a time when weather plays a spoilsport have boosted their sentiment. Add to this, low mortgage rates and you know why they sound so confident. Moreover, there are hints that spending plans on infrastructure may rise in the future. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have already promised to increase infrastructure investment. While Clinton plans to spend $275 billion on infrastructure, Sanders wants to deploy $1 trillion. Banking on these positive trends in the real estate industry, it will be prudent to invest in funds related to the housing space. Here we have selected five such real estate funds that boast a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy), have positive 3-year and 5-year annualized returns, offer minimum initial investment within $5000 and carry a low expense ratio. Franklin Real Estate Securities A (MUTF: FREEX ) seeks to maximize total return. FREEX invests a large portion of its assets in equity securities of companies operating in the real estate industry. FREEX’s 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 8.2% and 9.1%, respectively. Annual expense ratio of 0.99% is lower than the category average of 1.29%. FREEX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2. Neuberger Berman Real Estate A (MUTF: NREAX ) seeks total return. NREAX invests a major portion of its assets in equity securities issued by real estate investment trusts and other securities issued by other real estate companies. NREAX’s 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 6% and 7.4%, respectively. Annual expense ratio of 1.21% is lower than the category average of 1.29%. NREAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2. PIMCO Real Estate Real Return Strategy A (MUTF: PETAX ) seeks maximum real return. PETAX seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in real estate-linked derivative instruments. PETAX’s 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 4.3% and 11.6%, respectively. Annual expense ratio of 1.14% is lower than the category average of 1.29%. PETAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2. Davis Real Estate A (MUTF: RPFRX ) seeks total return. RPFRX invests the majority of its assets in securities issued by companies principally engaged in the real estate industry. RPFRX’s 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 6.6% and 7.9%, respectively. Annual expense ratio of 0.96% is lower than the category average of 1.29%. RPFRX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1. T. Rowe Price Real Estate (MUTF: TRREX ) seeks long-term growth. TRREX invests a large portion of its assets including borrowings for investment purposes in the equity securities of real estate companies. TRREX’s 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 9.1% and 9.4%, respectively. Annual expense ratio of 0.76% is lower than the category average of 1.29%. TRREX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1. Original Post