Chart: Historical Investment Returns from 1995 to 2009

The chart below shows the historical investment returns for various indices from 1995 thru 2009: Click to enlarge Some observations: Since 2003, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has yielded double-digit returns except in 2008 when it fell 53%. On 15-year annualized returns basis, the small-cap Russell 2000 Index and the REIT Index have performed better …

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South Africa FTSE/JSE All Share Index: Historical Total Returns Chart

The chart below shows the year total return of the South Africa FTSE/JSE All Share Index from 1926 to 2009: Click to enlarge Source: Alphen Asset Management, South Africa In 2008, the index was down over 30% but up over 40% last year. Since 2000, the index made gains in all years except 2002 and …

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America’s Growing Debt is Worse Than Europe’s Debt Levels

When the global financial crisis began much of the world’s attention was directed towards the U.S. since the country was the main source of triggering the worldwide crisis in financial markets. However recently Europe has been attracting the focus of investors worldwide due to the Euro debt crisis. First it was the tiny economy of …

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One Disadvantage of Investing in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF

Individual small investors have traditionally avoided investing in commodities since they are extremely volatile. However in recent years Wall Street has made investing them pretty easy via ETFs and other products. Heavy marketing and the crash of equities in the past few years have only attracted more ordinary investors into this sector.One of the commodities …

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