The Journal
Blog
Market insights and trading education from the Alpha Sentinel team.
Understanding a Partnership K-1: What High-Earning Partners Should Know
A partnership K-1 reports your share of income, not the cash you received. Learn what the form shows, why it arrives late and how it affects your planning.
Concentration in the S&P 500: What Top-Heavy Indexes Mean for You
A broad index can lean on a few giants. Learn what top-heavy means, how it reaches your accounts and how to check your own exposure to it.
Cap-Weighted Versus Equal-Weighted Indexes: Why the Difference Matters
Two index funds can hold the same companies and behave differently. See how cap weighting and equal weighting change concentration, cost and results.
Elections and the Stock Market: What History Does and Does Not Show
Election-year market patterns rest on a small sample and wide swings. Here is what the history actually shows and why it rarely works as a rule.
What the SEC Does and How Investor Protections Work
What the SEC does and how investor protections work: disclosure, oversight and enforcement, and the limits that leave decisions with you.
Reading a Shareholder Letter Without Being Sold a Story
Six habits for reading a shareholder letter critically: numbers first, year-over-year comparison, specifics, setbacks, capital use and definitions.
Accounting Red Flags: Warning Signs Investors Can Spot in Filings
Seven accounting red flags in company filings, from diverging cash flow to shifting policies, and how to check each before drawing conclusions.
Hidden Costs of Investing: Spreads, Fund Fees and Tax Drag Added Together
Hidden costs of investing explained: how spreads, fund fees and tax drag work, and how adding them together shows what you actually keep.
Rights Offerings and Secondary Offerings: What They Mean for Shareholders
Rights offerings and secondary offerings explained in five stages: how each works, what dilution means and how to read the terms.
Reading Efficiency Ratios: Inventory Turnover and Receivables
How inventory turnover and receivables turnover work, how to turn them into days, and how to compare them across years and similar companies.
Convertible Bonds: A Hybrid Security Explained
Convertible bonds explained: how this hybrid of a bond and a stock option works, why issuers use it, and the risks holders face.
Corporate Credit Ratings: What They Mean for Stock and Bond Holders
Six points on what corporate credit ratings mean, from the investment-grade line to outlooks, and how stock and bond holders can read them.