Roger L. Merrill

Computerized Trading - Market Volatility Wall Street's recent wild ride wasn’t driven by nervous portfolio managers or any other human traders. Instead, machines are making the trading decisions.  On a typical trading day, computers account for 50% to 60% of market...

Timing a Correction The stock market is on a tear. The S&P 500 rose 19.4% in 2017 excluding dividends, and is already up over 4% in 2018. Is it a bubble or a sugar high?  Or undervalued? Or the aftermath of the Trump Tax Cut? For most of us it is better to be a...

BITCOIN Warren Buffett said he doesn’t own a single bitcoin and has no plans of investing in it.  “In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending. When it happens or how or anything else, I don't know. I...

REVOLUTION One word could describe Donald Trump's presidency: Revolution: Revolution against the "establishment" and "status quo."  Here are a couple of examples Corporate Tax Rate.  Since 1993, the top corporate tax rate has been 35%, one of the highest in the world....

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017: What Taxpayers Need to Know On December 20, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the act or TCJA). The legislation makes significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC),...

2018 Outlook TAX CUTS/REGULATIONS/SPENDING:  The Trump Administration/Congress has pushed through a major corporate tax cut, is cutting regulation, but has not reigned in government spending. Forecast: Real GDP growth of 3.0% rate in 2018, the fastest annual growth...

Social Security at age 66 or 70? When to claim your Social Security benefits is one of the most complex, and important choices you'll face leading up to retirement. It is an issue we discuss with clients almost on a daily basis. The Basics.  Social Security benefits...

Dow at a Million? The Dow at 1,000,000 by the end of the century is exactly what Warren Buffett predicted at the Forbes 100 Party recently.  Is that possible? Not only is it possible but it is more than likely. Consider the 1900s. Buffett: “In the 20th century, the...

PEAK to PEAK  - 10 Years Since the Crash October 9th is exactly ten years from the day that the stock market peaked prior to the Financial Panic of 2008.  It was quite a decade; but what if you had known beforehand that the following events were going to occur: That...

Over the past few days, Hurricane Harvey has left physical destruction and human tragedy in its wake. This record-setting storm will certainly take its place with other major hurricanes, including Katrina and Sandy, in American history. Both Texas and Louisiana have...