Guide
The Psychological Benefits of Life Insurance
Life insurance may offer peace of mind before a claim is ever made, but only when the coverage matches a real financial need and remains affordable.
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MarketReview author profile
Ken Stephens
Editor-in-Chief
ActiveKen Stephens has spent decades following financial markets from both sides of the screen: as an individual investor and through work connected with the investment-banking industry. That breadth informs the way he approaches MarketReview’s coverage of investing, trading and the institutions that influence asset prices.
He is less interested in repeating the market’s conventional wisdom than in examining what supports it. When a familiar explanation is offered for a rally, a sell-off or a shift in policy, Ken looks for the assumptions underneath it, the evidence that confirms or weakens it and the risks that may be overlooked. His writing often connects the choices facing individual investors with the larger forces at work in financial institutions and markets.
As Editor-in-Chief, Ken sets editorial priorities and helps shape how MarketReview explains complex financial subjects. He also contributes directly to articles on investment strategy, market analysis and trading, with an emphasis on clear reasoning, honest uncertainty and conclusions that can withstand closer scrutiny.
Areas of coverage
- Investing
- Trading
- Financial markets
- Market analysis
- Federal Reserve
- Commodities
- ETFs
Published work
Latest work by Ken Stephens
News, analysis and evergreen financial guides credited to this author.
Guide
What Life Insurance Protects
Life insurance protects against the financial disruption a death can create, from lost income and unpaid care to housing costs, debts, estate needs and business continuity.
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Guide
Who Needs Life Insurance?
Life insurance is most useful when your death would leave someone else with a financial shortfall, from lost income or unpaid care to shared debts or business obligations.
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Guide
Why ETFs Will Remain in the Background
ETFs have become a major part of U.S. investing, but for many households they work quietly inside long-term portfolios rather than as instruments that require constant trading or hands-on management.
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Guide
Leveraging with ETFs
Leveraged ETFs can magnify daily market moves without requiring investors to borrow directly, but daily resets, compounding and volatility make their longer-term behavior more complicated than a simple multiple of an index.
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Guide
Deciding on ETFs
A good ETF choice starts with the exposure you need, then compares how competing funds deliver it through their holdings, costs, trading quality and structure.
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Guide
The Flexibility of ETFs
ETFs combine pooled investment exposure with exchange trading, giving investors more control over execution, portfolio construction and strategy choice while introducing trading costs and product-specific risks.
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Guide
How ETFs Empower Investors
ETFs give investors more control over how and when they invest, but that flexibility is most useful when it supports a clear portfolio plan rather than frequent trading.
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Guide
The Outlook for Mutual Funds
Mutual funds remain a core investing and retirement vehicle, but their future is being reshaped by ETF growth, passive investing, lower costs and a more fluid boundary between fund structures.
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