I was quick to espouse the merits of alternative strategies when I first started writing on Seeking Alpha, back in late 2023. I employ them in my own investment strategies, and have long pushed their use in portfolios as a great way to diversify sources of return, add in uncorrelated assets, and potentially generating alpha over a portfolio of just stocks and bonds.

So it makes perfect sense that I published buy ratings on the Simplify Volatility Premium ETF (NYSEARCA:SVOL) shortly after I began writing on this platform back in 2023; this strategy rose quickly to become the king of alternative strategies. That's also why it may be a surprise to folks to see a sell rating on the fund now from me, and to hear that I am exiting my SVOL position entirely.

Regular readers of mine know that I share in America's morbid fascination of our richest citizen, Elon Musk. Most recently, when covering a TSLA covered call fund, TSLY, I wrote about Musk becoming the "Efficiency Czar" — now one of two sharing the crown with Vivek Ramaswamy…

Where does a Single Premium Immediate Annuity (“SPIA”) fit in a retiree’s portfolio? I have found that these products are widely misunderstood and underutilized, as they can fit well in a retiree’s portfolio when applied suitably.

I was introduced to Fidelity’s Contrafund (FCNTX) by my grandmother (shoutout to Nana!) when I first started investing. I asked her what she was invested in, and I was very confused when I saw her portfolio. What the heck is a Contrafund? She swore by it, had held it for twenty years, and would never divest if she didn’t have to.

The best way I’ve heard Contrafund described is in an interview with its long-time manager, Will Danoff…

For the last decade, Chinese stocks have been stagnant, mostly because of prolonged bear markets in 2015, 2019, and 2022. Going back to the iShares MSCI China ETF's (MCHI) inception, investors from launch are underwater 19.70%.

This has been a lost decade for the Chinese stock market, despite at one point being up over 80%. The question is, where will it go from here?