The Journal
Blog
Market insights and trading education from the Alpha Sentinel team.
Moving States and Investment Taxes: What Changes for Residents
Moving states can change how investment income and gains are taxed. Follow a step-by-step checklist from residency date to updated documents.
Combining Finances After Marriage: Accounts, Goals and Ground Rules
Combining finances after marriage: how to inventory accounts, choose a structure, rank shared goals and set ground rules you can both live with.
Why Financial Media Headlines Are Written the Way They Are
Why financial headlines sound so dramatic: who pays for the news, how short headlines distort context, and how to read past the packaging calmly.
Reading a Fund Factsheet: Holdings, Fees and Turnover
A fund factsheet packs a lot into two pages. Learn how to read the holdings, fees and turnover sections and what each one tells you about a fund.
Why Market Forecasts Are Usually Wrong and How to Use Them Anyway
Forecasts miss because markets respond to events nobody can see coming. Here is a five-step method for reading them as context without leaning on them.
Herd Behavior and Market Bubbles: Why Crowds Misjudge Prices
Why investors follow crowds, how herding feeds bubbles, and how written reasons and a plan help you keep an independent view.
What Slippage Is and Why Your Execution Price Can Differ From the Quote
What slippage means, why an order can fill away from the quote, and how order types, liquidity and timing shape the difference.
Solo 401(k) and Cash Balance Plans for Self-Employed Professionals
How a solo 401(k) and a cash balance plan differ in contributions, cost and commitment, and what self-employed professionals should ask before choosing.
How to Read Financial News Critically Without Reacting to Every Headline
Learn to separate facts from framing in financial headlines, with a short set of questions that keeps one alarming story from driving your decisions.
Information Overload: How to Build a Short, Trusted Reading List for Investing
Too much financial news leads to freezing or reacting. Build a short reading list from primary sources, a fixed schedule and a simple test.
Using an HSA as a Long-Term Investment Account
Using a health savings account as a long-term investment account: eligibility, funding, investing the balance and the records you will need later.
Overconfidence in Investing: How Success Can Quietly Raise Your Risk
How a run of good results can inflate confidence, push portfolios toward concentration, and what habits help keep your judgment honest.