This Week in Stock Market History

“There is no better teacher than history in determining the future... There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.”

― Charles T. Munger, in Poor Charlie’s Almanack

July 17th, 1998 – Mark Cuban's Broadcast.com IPOs

A lot of investors believe we are experiencing another stock market bubble, particularly in tech stocks. One of this week's historical anniversaries served as a good reminder of just how crazy things can get.

In 1998, Mark Cuban's company broadcast.com had its initial public offering. Shares would rise 250% on their first day of trading, making it the best performing IPO in history.

Our July 17th history page shares more about this memorable day in the late 90's tech bubble. It even received some love from Mark Cuban himself!

July 15th,1916 – William Boeing begins building planes

On this day in 1916, William Boeing incorporates a company named the Pacific Aero Products Company, with $100,000 in initial investment A year later the company would change its name to Boeing and launch its first product – The Boeing 1.

Just over 100 years later, Boeing is the dominant airline builder in the world. At one point, the company was worth over $200 billion! Visit our July 15th page to see what Boeing's first plan looked like.

Weekly Wisdom

How to Determine if Your Stock’s Dividend is Sustainable

Wells Fargo bank made headlines this week with the news that they would be slashing their dividend by 80%. Wells Fargo's dividend yield, which was over 7% recently, will now be about 1.6%.

Were there any clues that would have warned investors of Wells Fargo's trouble?

Absolutely - And our blog post takes a look at how you can use the numbers from a company's quarterly reports to determine how likely a dividend cut is.

What We Are Reading This Week

The S&P 500 is Getting Much Less Cyclical - WisdomTree

Many investors think of the S&P 500 as a boring, steady collection of stocks. But the makeup of the index has been changing, and is now much different than it has been in the past. Today, growth, stability, and defense sectors have never had a greater weight—now more than three-quarters of the Index!

An ETF That Pays You? - Investors Didn't Want It - Yahoo Finance

Expense ratios for ETFs and mutual funds have been falling for years. Last year, a new fund company took things a step further, by paying investors to invest in its fund. The fund paid investors 50 cents per year for every $1,000 invested.

However, surprising to me at least, it didn't catch on. After a year, the fund raised just $12 million, almost nothing in the ETF world. Is the ETF fee war over?

Thank you, have a great weekend!

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