6 (More) Bitcoin Myths Debunked

Tom Sharkey (@tom_sharkey) | Published on January 4, 2015 at 17:11 GMT

We've all heard them before.

As a groundbreaking innovation, bitcoin naturally attracts skeptics just as strongly as it attracts supporters, and the technical and theoretical complexity of the digital currency can cause a considerable amount of confusion with those who are not 'in the know'.

The result is that critics of bitcoin oftentimes fall back on one or two euphemisms to express why they think it will never succeed – simplified statements like "bitcoin is a ponzi scheme" that higlight often misunderstood characteristics of the digital currency but rarely fully address the situation.

One of the first articles published on CoinDesk was dedicated to debunking these "bitcoin myths", and because they still pervade the industry, we're revisiting the topic.

Here are six (more) bitcoin myths, debunked.

1. It's just a speculative investment opportunity

Many people first hear about bitcoin in the context of its price. Whether it was the bubble of late 2013 or the recent dip below $300, a good chunk of the general public thinks of bitcoin only in terms of how volatile the price is and how good (or bad) of an investment it could be.

The truth is, of course, that bitcoin goes far beyond its classification as a commodity. The decentralized peer-to-peer payment network made possible by bitcoin is only one example of how bitcoin is breaking down doors. If the price of bitcoin were theoretically to stay the same forever, it would still have utility in many other areas other than as a speculative investment.

2. The blockchain is the real breakthrough and bitcoins are unnecessary

It's true – the blockchain is arguably the real genius of Satoshi Nakamoto's invention. The distributed ledger and trustless security of the blockchain is what gives bitcoin its magic, but oftentimes when people first realize this, they discount bitcoin as just one use case of the blockchain.

In reality, mining is the bread-and-butter of the bitcoin protocol, and without miners there would be no blockchain. Consequently, miners need to be rewarded for their work, otherwise they would have no incentive to contribute their time and computing power to maintain the blockchain. As its native reward token, bitcoin is essential to the functionality of the blockchain.

3. The government could/will shut it down

While governments around the world may still be figuring out how to approach digital currencies, many misinformed people fall into the trap of thinking that, like almost anything else we're used to, bitcoin could be shut down by governments if one or more of them hoped to do so.

Yes, governments have the power to make it very difficult for their citizens to use bitcoin andsome form government regulation is inevitable as bitcoin matures. Even so, because of its infrastructure, it would take considerable time, money and energy for any government to pose a serious threat to the global bitcoin network, if they even could at all.

4. You can't buy anything practical with bitcoin

Perhaps as a follow up to myth number one, a lot of people are surprised to hear that bitcoin is more than a speculative investment and that it can actually be used to pay for everyday goods and services.

Source: CoinDesk State of Bitcoin Q3 2014 Report

In addition to the retailers above, PayPal has announced partnerships with bitcoin companies and Microsoft recently began accepting bitcoin for a host of digital content like games and videos. Add in the countless small businesses that accept bitcoin either online or in their brick-and-mortar locations, and it's safe to say there are options when it comes to spending your bitcoin.

5. There are no advantages of bitcoin over cash or credit cards

Once people realize that bitcoin can, indeed, be used to buy real things, they may not see what the digital currency has to offer that their incumbent payment methods like cash and credit cards don't. Luckily it doesn't take long to debunk this myth.

Some of bitcoin's most obvious benefits are its low transaction fees. Typically, transacting bitcoin saves merchants 1-3% compared to transacting credit cards, and when compared to services like Western Union, bitcoin is clearly superior – especially for sending money abroad.

6. The only people who would ever use bitcoin are tech nerds and criminals

Some of the earliest adapters of bitcoin may be techies and dark market shoppers, but the same could arguably be said about the Internet – and look who uses that now. Regardless of how esoteric the bitcoin community may be right now (and it's pretty esoteric), adoption takes time.

As entrepreneurs in the space continue to build consumer-friendly apps with bitcoin and awareness of the digital currency spreads, a more diverse crowd will come to use it in their everyday lives. There's also another important demographic that many forget about: the millions of unbanked people throughout the developing world who rely on mobile phones as their computer, bank and communication device all in one.

Whether it's any of the above myths or perhaps one of the 10 we previously debunked, bitcoin is ripe with misunderstanding. For bitcoin to reach its full potential, this knowledge gap needs to be bridged so that the myths and misinformation come to an end.

Images via CoinDesk

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German Gold Repatriation Is Most Probably Continuing

BY THE DAILY COIN · JANUARY 4, 2015

from Gold Switzerland

Lars Schall, on behalf of Matterhorn Asset Management, spoke with gold market expert Dimitri Speck about the state of affairs of the German gold repatriation from the New York Fed

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12-year-old blasts Canada's banks(Video)

Victoria Grant's critique of financial system goes viral

The Canadian Press Posted: May 16, 2012 10:08 AM ET Last Updated: May 16, 2012 1:41 PM ET

Canada's banking system has been the subject of international praise from economists grappling with global turmoil, but one 12-year-old girl begs to differ.

Victoria Grant of Cambridge, Ont. is earning a reputation as a financial pundit after her tirade against her homeland's borrowing practices went viral on YouTube.

Grant is already a veteran of the financial lecture circuit, but her appearance on April 27 is garnering unusual attention. A video of her address, shot at the Public Banking in America Conference in Philadelphia, has already attracted nearly 65,000 views since being posted a week ago.

For six minutes, the casually clad youngster holds forth to conference attendees on the reasons why so many of the world's countries are facing staggering debt.

'The banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada.'—Victoria Grant, 12-year-old lecturer

Her well-rehearsed speech, delivered in a clear, youthful voice, takes aim at Canada's modern day financial system and champions a greater role for the country's central bank.

"The banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada," she says.

Grant lays out a brief history of the Canadian banking system, referencing obscure historical figures such as former Vancouver mayor Gerald McGeer and explaining that the Bank of Canada held primary control over government lending until the 1970s.

Starting then, she says, governments began borrowing from private banks instead at considerably higher interest rates than those available through the central bank.

The result, Grant argues, is a rapidly increasing national debt.

The pint-sized pundit is quick to offer a solution.

"If the Canadian Government needs money, they can borrow it directly from the Bank of Canada," she says. " ... Canadians would again prosper with real money as the foundation of our economic structure."

Calls to Grant's home were not immediately returned.

Child's speech attracts supporters, critics

Her arguments have been championed in more orthodox financial circles.

Last June, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives published a plea from retired finance professor George Crowell, who now works on behalf of the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform.

Victoria Grant of Cambridge, Ont. has become an internet sensation after her April 27 address at the Public Banking in America Conference. (YouTube)

Crowell echoes all of Grant's assertions, arguing borrowing from the Bank of Canada would shore up depleted government resources and usher in an era of prosperity for Canada.

Such a change in monetary policy, combined with crucial changes in tax policy, would make available tens of billions of dollars that are urgently needed to rebuild our public infrastructure, protect our environment, and strengthen Medicare and other social programs so vital in meeting human needs," Crowell said.

Critics of Crowell's arguments contend inflation rates would soar if the central bank was able to lend money below commercial interest rates.

Reaction to Grant's video was largely positive, with U.S. financial media outlet Bloomberg featuring a link to her speech on its web page.

YouTube commentators bubbled over with praise, saluting her for explaining complex concepts in comparatively simple terms.

"Good for you Victoria, if you even understand half of what you are saying, you are doing better than half the Canadian public," wrote one YouTube user. "I have for years tried to explain this very simple fact to people around me, and they think I am crazy. Maybe if they saw it from a 12 yr old they would be shamed into paying attention."

One Twitter user offered more concise praise: "Victoria Grant For Prime Minister!"

Others, however, were skeptical that Grant's words were truly her own.

"If you believe that she wrote it and it was impromptu, you are nuts," wrote one commenter on the Huffington Post Canada website.

"It was a put up job by Toddlers and Tiaras parents."

• 

• Craig Kielburger, seen with Jean and Aline Chrétien in 1996, founded Free The Children, an international charity that empowers youth, when he was 12. Now 29, he also co-founded social enterprise Me to We with his brother Marc. Here are five other children who took a stand and made a difference. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

1 of 6

© The Canadian Press, 2012

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Report Ty

• State of Bitcoin: Recapping Bitcoin Chief Scientist Gavin Andresen’s fantastic Reddit AMA

  BY MICHAEL CARNEY
  ON OCTOBER 22, 2014

  

  Gavin Andresen doesn’t want to be the “spokesmodel” for bitcoin, telling an audience of admirers as much during a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) yesterday. But as the Chief Scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation and the last known person to communicate with Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin’s eponymous inventor with whom he worked closely (remotely) during the protocol’s early days, Andresen is unavoidably one of the most influential figures within this growing industry.

  Andresen began the AMA session by detailing his early career, his first encounters with bitcoin, and his contributions to the community since that time, including the fact that he’s “added 62,000 and removed 76,000 lines of code from Bitcoin Core” and “written nine BIPS [Bitcoin Improvement Proposals], including multi-signature transaction support and the Payment Protocol.”

  Today, Andresen spends less time today writing code that makes it into the bitcoin core, the official software build that powers bitcoin blockchain, than once was the case. Rather, he spends his days thinking big picture about where bitcoin is headed as a technology and what changes and upgrades to the existing protocol to prioritize along the way.

  Given his increasing role as chief evangelist, educator, and authority for all things bitcoin, it’s not a stretch to call him bitcoin’s unofficial CEO. Andresen says he’s “starting to get tired of the title [of Chief scientist], maybe it should become ‘Head Cheese (Technology).'”

  Asked if bitcoin was still an experiment and when, if ever, it would move past that stage, Andresen pointed out that the protocol is still labeled as Version 0.9.3 five years into its existence, effectively a pre-1.0 beta product. As for when that would cease to be the case, he said, “we need regulatory clarity, ease of use, and no-single-point-of-failure security. I think we’re very close on all of those things.” He later added that bitcoin will move beyond beta “[when] it feels like it is stable and won’t need to change (besides minor bug fixes) for two or three years.”

  Despite bitcoin’s potential as an alternate, or even default currency, Andresen noted that he’s “most excited about all of the non-currency uses of the blockchain’s ledger-ordering ability,” adding, “I have no idea which ones will turn out to be successful, but I’m glad all of that experimenting is happening. I’m most worried about scalability.” Expanding further on the non-financial applications of the bitcoin blockchain, Andresen says:

  I think a lot of projects unnecessarily mix up the various services the block chain provides, and try to make it do things it is not good at doing (like storing data). I think the best projects understand that they don’t need to invent a new currency. They don’t need to use the block chain as their long-term data storage solution. And they don’t need to use the peer-to-peer (p2p) network as their communication mechanism. They should use the block chain as the world’s most secure distributed ledger.

  Speaking to the need for scalability, Andresen supports the idea of a hard fork in bitcoin’s future, saying:

  There is still at least a month or two of work before I’d be willing to write a patch to increase the maximum block size, and then probably a month or two more of arguing. So, early next year at the earliest before even starting the hard-fork process (which must roll out to miners – they will control when the fork actually happens).

  As for how the pace of development on the Bitcoin protocol will change over time, Andressen says, “My guess is that protocol change will speed up again when some of the startups grow up a bit and have the time and resources to participate in a more formal standards-making, protocol-evolving process. And then a few years later it will slow down again.”

  In Andresen’s view, the biggest obstacle facing bitcoin today is the friction in obtaining the currency, saying “[the biggest] obstacle/factor [in bringing bitcoin to the masses is] getting to where people are earning bitcoin directly, instead of having to jump through some hoop to trade the currency that they earn for BTC.” Asked what projects he’s watching closely, he added, “I’m watching the spread of bitcoin ATMs, because getting BTC is still a bottleneck for ordinary people.”

  One of the simplest things that people can do to improve bitcoin’s ease of use, in Andresen’s opinion, is to “switch to talking in “bits” (millionths of a bitcoin),” a sum that today is worth just $0.00038393. What he didn’t say, but seemingly implied, is that the notion of owning a fraction of a bitcoin is psychologically less appealing than owning hundreds or thousands of “bits,” a fact that may be hampering mainstream adoption. Then again, hyperinflation in Zimbabwe gives us the example of near valueless 100 billion dollar notes, so the idea of spending “millions of bits” to buy something simple like a pair of shoes presents its own obstacles. Should bitcoin appreciate, however, bits may one day be closer in value to US cents or even dollars, making their usage more appropriate.

  Contrary to popular belief within pro-bitcoin circles, bitcoin will not topple governments, Andresen says. “Governments will do what they always do — they will adapt (well, the worst ones will fail, causing misery and suffering; maybe Bitcoin will speed that up a little, and mitigate the misery a little),” he says.

  Asked about the technical state of bitcoin and the possibility that the protocol has any major flaws, Andressen says, “I’m pretty confident there are not any really serious, you-might-lose-your-bitcoins bugs in the protocol. There will always be bugs in Bitcoin implementations. The best way to mitigate those bugs is with multisignature transactions secured by two different ‘software stacks.’”

  Much of the discussion was focused on the technical state of bitcoin or on growing its adoption. But Andresen did touch on some more casual or personal topics. For example, we’ve all heard horror stories about millions in bitcoin wealth lost due to forgotten wallet keys and misplaced hard drives, not to mention the infamous story of the first-ever bitcoin purchase, two pizzas for 10,000 BTC, which at their peak were worth more than $12 million ($3.85 million, today). But Andresen’s story of fleeting bitcoin riches is far more mundane and voluntary. For example, he’s given away a staggering 10,000 BTC through the Bitcoin Faucet, a free service meant to evangelize the crypto-currency. As for his first ever bitcoin purchase, he’s unsure whether it was alpaca socks from a nearby farmer or Red Sox tickets from a friend.

  Gavin Andresen may be the reluctant face of bitcoin, but his thoughts on the state are among the most respected and valuable of anyone in the ecosystem. Andresen points to Andreas Antonopoulos as another top thinker in the bitcoin community, praising his work recently in speaking to Canada’s Senate Committee on Banking and suggesting that Antonopoulos should be the bitcoin spokesmodel who eventually does the TED talk.

  Andresen joined notable public figures including President Obama, Bill Gates, Julian Assange, SIr David Attenborough, and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones) in conducting popular Reddit AMAs. As of this moment, Andresen’s session has 986 comments and 1,354 upvotes, a respectable tally for anyone who’s never graced the cover of a mainstream magazine. More importantly, this conversation will serve as a valuable digital record of this still-early moment in bitcoin’s development.

  Many people have compared bitcoin to the Internet (or more aptly, HTTP) in the 1990s. In the same way, it’s likely that the technology and the ecosystem of businesses and consumers adopting it will mature significantly in the years to come. When we get to that point, Andresen’s AMA will be like a time capsule to this earlier, more naive point in history. Maybe by then we’ll know who the real Satoshi Nakamoto is.

  [Image via Andresen]

  
  

  Michael Carney

  Michael Carney is a West Coast Editor at PandoDaily, covering venture capital, financial technologies, ecommerce, on-demand services, and the future of television, among other subjects. He has spent his career exploring the world of early stage technology as an entrepreneur and early-stage investor, working in multiple countries within North and South America and Asia. He is an enthusiast of all things shiny and electronic and is inspired by those who build businesses and regularly tackle difficult problems. You can follow Michael on Twitter @mcarney.

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Interview with Joe Lee, BTC.sx Co-Founder & CEO

Interview with Joe Lee, BTC.sx Co-Founder & CEO

How did you first hear about Bitcoin?

I first heard about Bitcoin in late 2011 when working in Sydney, Australia. My role back then was Regulatory Reporting Technical Developer for an Investment Bank called Macquarie. This role combined an avid personal interest in both technology and finance. Two of my colleagues asked me what my opinion of Bitcoin was. Knowing they valued a personal opinion based on my interests, I started to research the digital currency. After just a few hours of reading about Bitcoin, I was hugely impressed with the Blockchain’s approach to eventual consistency in a public ledger.

When you left your job at Macquire Bank in 2013, there must have been some skepticism about Bitcoin. Was this the case? What do/did banks think of Bitcoin?

Banks, as a whole, cannot touch unregulated financial products. Given that their banking licence is at stake, it is safer for them to observe now and act later. When we look at the recent history of the banking industry, this does not come as a surprise and this serves to protect the end-consumer.

When I left Macquarie Bank, my decision was met more by intrigue than skepticism. Since the global financial crisis, I felt the sentiment was that banking, as an entire industry, is expecting massive disruption in the years to come.

During your time in investment banking, what was the most important thing you learnt?

Fiduciary duty. This is a duty that should underpin the entire financial system. At its core, it essentially states that, with all moral obligations declared, you should act with the highest level of care with funds that belong to your clients.

Knowing how an investment bank operates was a valuable lesson in fiduciary responsibility: when done right it helps economies flourish and companies grow.

Have you done any bitcoin trading yourself? And what results did you get?

After buying my first bitcoin at $2 each, I asked myself what I could do with them. At the time there was not much, so I focused on buying and selling them across different exchanges. At first, the ability to trade and send bitcoin around between exchanges seamlessly was novel.

During this period, I noticed that pricing differences were significant allowing me to apply my first trading strategy of arbitrage between exchanges. What I found was that newer exchanges sold bitcoins for a higher price due to a lack of supply. Anybody willing to have accounts at two exchanges could buy bitcoin on the cheaper exchange to then sell at the smaller exchanges, profiting from the difference.

What grew out of casual interest in my free time soon became an obsession as I watched the Bitcoin ecosystem grow and grow.

Can you share any trading strategies that worked well for you?

My first trading scripts were written to perform simple arbitrage but my interest at this point dominated my free time. I learnt about ‘triangular arbitrage’ and started to trade against USD and AUD simultaneously.

Fueling my fascination in finance, I learnt about market theory from a famous book on trading called ‘Reminiscences of a Stock Operator’. The lessons I learnt are to identify the cyclical behavior of the markets. Ultimately markets are driven by the two predominant human emotions: fear and greed. Knowing this, I used technical analysis to come up with a trading strategy dependent on market price, and not emotion. My strategy was to trade small amounts of bitcoin, using the basic premise of buying when the price was low (when people were selling in fear), and selling when the price was high (when people bought in greed). This strategy, based-off the very simple moving averages, helped turn an initial $100 investment into $200,000.

As CEO of BTC.sx, how would you describe your main roles and responsibilities?

On a day-to-day basis, my biggest responsibility is ensuring the full accountability of all client funds every minute of every day. This may come in the form of ensuring every trade we receive is placed out to market successfully, to ensuring that profits are paid in full for every single trade.

What do you love most about your job?

What inspires me the most is seeing the brightest minds I have ever known dedicate their working lives to building a financial services sector for Bitcoin. The people I meet on a day-to-day basis give me a sense that an incredible influx of talent is being attracted to Bitcoin and its accompanying startups.

Do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs in the Bitcoin industry?

Place fiduciary duty as your number one priority. MtGox is one of many businesses that have gone bust due to immoral business practices. Remembering that you are dealing with other people’s funds, above all, will put you in a good position to act responsibly.

As we approach 2015, do you have any predictions for Bitcoin next year?

Regardless of price, what we do know is that adoption is continuing. I’ll be looking out for a critical mass to be reached and consequently a huge explosion in the growth of crypto-related projects. My prediction? By Q4 of 2015, we will see more mainstream use-cases and wider adoption.

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Breaking Inequality (Video)

Breaking Inequality

2013Home  »  Economics  -  28 min

Breaking Inequality is a documentary film about the corruption between Washington and Wall Street that has resulted in the largest inequality gap in the history of America.

It is a film that exposes the truth behind the single event that occurred back in the early 70's that set us off on this perilous journey that we are currently on.

The inequality gap is presently the worst that it has ever been and there is no solution in place to repair this crippling problem.

No country in the history of the world has ever remained a super power without a middle class and the road we are currently traveling doesn't include this all-important segment of the population. The old saying "As goes the middle class... so goes the nation" holds true even more today than ever.

We live in a world where governments can create as much money as they want in order to fund all kinds of wasteful projects, wars, handouts, and banker bailouts. The current system by design has transferred the wealth from average everyday Americans to an elite few who care not about the majority.

Watch the full documentary now

Share this film.

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2014 Financial Market Year in Review - Alan Gula,CFA, Chief Income Analyst

2014 Financial Market Year in Review

Published Fri, Jan 2, 2015  |  Alan Gula, Chief Income Analyst

 

Imagine if I’d told you, one year ago, that 2014 would include all of the following: soaring Treasury bond prices, a collapse in global commodity prices, a rise in civil unrest, the largest Ebola outbreak in history, and the viral transmission of Kim Kardashian’s hideously massive derriere.

At the least, you would’ve guessed that the stock market was going to crash. More likely, you would’ve thought the end of the world was upon us.

But you would’ve been wrong.

Impending doom was deferred by major stimulative forces, including the legalization of marijuana in several states, the unveiling of the Apple Watch, and the appointment of Janet Yellen as Chair of the Federal Reserve.

But all joking aside, 2014 reminded many of the period preceding World War II, when Germany won the Olympics held in Berlin and later went on to annex Czechoslovakia.

Last year, Russia won the medal count in the Sochi Winter Olympics and annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea soon after. The Ukrainian hryvnia also lost the most value of any paper currency in 2014, falling nearly 50% (relative to the U.S. dollar).

Amazingly, though, the hryvnia wasn’t the worst-performing currency in 2014. That dubious distinction belongs to digital currency Bitcoin, which collapsed by nearly 60%.

With 2014 in the history books, let’s take a look at how various financial assets and investments performed last year…

Equities

Despite rising geopolitical risk, the S&P 500 posted a solid year. TheSPDR S&P 500 Trust (SPY) gained 13.5% on a total return basis, aided by Apple’s (AAPL) 41% romping.

The best-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year was Southwest Airlines (LUV), with a 126% advance. Meanwhile, the worst performer was deepwater driller Transocean (RIG), with a 60% decline, including dividends.

Utilities proved to be the best-performing U.S. sector and, unsurprisingly, energy was the worst sector.

Small-cap stocks trailed their large-cap brethren since the end of the first quarter. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) returned 5%for the full year.

International stocks as a whole didn’t fare as well as U.S. equities. TheiShares MSCI EAFE (EFA), a proxy for stock markets in developed nations, returned -6%.

Emerging markets, meanwhile, were a mixed bag in 2014. China’s Shanghai Composite rocketed 50% higher, posting the best performance of any global equity index. India’s Sensex also surged around 30%.

On the other hand, Greece’s Athex Composite fell 38%, and Russia’s RTS Index was the worst-performing global equity index, plummeting over 40%.

Due to the bifurcation of emerging market returns, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) returned just -4%.

Commodities

Most commodities came under pressure in 2014, with the CRB Commodity Index falling to its lowest level in over five years.

It was certainly a painful year for oil bulls as the massive, net-long speculative futures position in crude oil continues to unwind. TheUnited States Oil ETF (USO) fell 42%.

It wasn’t all bad, though, as a few commodities, such as live cattle and palladium, rose. Coffee was the best-performing commodity, after a brutal bear market lasting from 2011 through 2013. The iPath DJ-UBS Coffee Sub-Index ETN (JO) rose 40% in 2014.

Gold was relatively unchanged, which was surprising considering the carnage in much of the commodity complex. The popular SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) declined 2.2% for the full year.

Fixed Income

As with commodities, fixed-income securities had an interesting year.

The iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) declined on a price basis, but eked out a 1.9% gain on a total return basis.

Investment-grade corporate bonds had a stronger showing in 2014 than high-yield bonds. The iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) produced an 8.2% total return.

However, bonds without credit risk were the big fixed-income winners in 2014. Using the Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury ETF (EDV) as a proxy, Treasury bonds soared 45% last year.

The performance of 30-year Treasuries was certainly a surprise for me, even though I was one of the few to advocate a position in intermediate-term Treasuries in 2014.

From a risk-adjusted return perspective, 10-year Treasuries were perhaps the best-performing major financial asset in 2014.

Going forward, I think the so-called “belly” of the Treasury curve – maturities around five years – offers a more-attractive risk-reward relationship. But remember, I’m a big believer of investing in the underlying Treasury securities rather than Treasury ETFs.

Oh, and if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to rebalance your entire portfolio.

For most, this will entail taking profits in domestic stocks and adding exposure to foreign stocks.

A properly diversified portfolio is always going to have holdings that you feel uncomfortable about or wish you hadn’t owned, and international equities certainly fall into this category heading into 2015.

Safe (and high-yield) investing,

Alan Gula, CFA

As Wall Street Daily's Chief Income Analyst, Alan is continually and fervently analyzing the financial markets. He draws upon a wide range of finance experience, including investment banking, research and trading. Learn More >>

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