Don't Quit Your Day Job…

A collection of carnivals and links from the week of September 28.

No way. According to this Wall Street Journal article, individual investors are responsible for $120 billion in currency trades per day. Sure, the total volume of currency trades is somewhere around $4 trillion, but individual participation in Foreign Exchange (or FX, or ForEx) markets has definitely climbed. Let me just say: Caveat Emptor.

Welcome back to the table, emerging markets! As a recent Wall street Journal article points out, emerging markets are back. Emerging markets, defined as rapidly growing economies coming from a smaller base (but notoriously hard to list!), have bounced back from their lows this year. Are emerging markets re-emerging?

Carnivals and awesome links for the week starting September 21.

A few years back my cousin visited me while I was still in school. Since he had never been to Vegas, my roommate and I decided to take him there… as soon as he landed in Los Angeles. Hilarity ensued… and nothing was learned at all about retirement saving except how not to approach it.

Here’s a shocker… Housing in 2008 was less affordable than in 2007, by one important measure. The government defines affordable housing (either renting or owning) as paying less than 30% of your pre-tax income for shelter. In 2008, 600,000 additional people (from 2007) met this criteria of paying more for housing. Unexpected.

Let the good times roll! As I write this article, the S&P 500 is at 1068.22, up 55.91% in absolute terms since the trough on March 9, 2009. Investor and consumer sentiment seems to be climbing according to polls and news headlines. In fact, if you somehow avoided the news since last October 7th, your S&P 500 investments would be even. However, signs abound that we could be in the midst of a “sucker’s” rally- universally defined as unsustainable…

From a new report by KPMG: Tax Rates worldwide have fallen every year since 2003. Real Clear Markets posted a graph summarizing the study in their By The Numbers section. In 2003, the average top tax rate was 31.2%. In 2009, the average rate has fallen to 28.9%.

Do psychological barriers matter to you in investing?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is poised to climb, once again, to the psychologically important level of 10,000. 10,000 has been a memory since last October. As Brett Arends of the Wall Street Journal points out, we first crossed the 10,000 barrier over 10 years ago, and the dollar has lost 23% of its purchasing power in that time. What does Dow 10,000 mean?

Here’s your thoughts for the day, not from me but from a new survey of economists. The American Economic Association was polled in the September edition of Econ Journal Watch. Find the raw numbers at Real Clear Markets.