alpha

The Dow Jones Industrial remains within 100 points of reaching the Dow 20,000 milestone, but one analyst thinks this isn't necessarily reason to celebrate. Michael Purves is the chief global strategist and head of derivatives research for Weeden & Co. On Wednesday, he was a guest on CNBC's "...

Two terms often tossed around within the investing community are “alpha” and “beta.” While metrics such as price-to-earnings ratio and tangible book value per share are relatively self-explanatory, alpha and beta can seem very mysterious to new traders. In reality, the...

Generating alpha, or excess returns above a benchmark, is no easy task considering the level of consistency needed to prove a unique investment has merit. Most ETF investors have flocked to well-known benchmarks, such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY), as core equity holdings in...

After several long years of risk-on/risk-off markets -- during which everything acted like the S&P 500 and adding alpha was difficult -- it appears that stock-picking is back in a big way. The natural question, of course, is why? Before we get to the answer, it is first important to...