Crude oil might have hit the gas pedal, but equity investors have been left on the sidelines as energy stocks continue to struggle even as the price of crude rallies. Energy stocks seem like an easy way to play the recovery in crude prices, but the disappointing performance of most energy funds tells a different story.

Donald Trump managed to close out his first year in the White House with a major tax reform package that had something for everyone, except for homeowners in deep-blue states, but most especially for investors. Among the highlights that have them so excited is a tax holiday allowing for repatriation of overseas cash. Investors are hoping that cash is used for more dividends and buybacks, but a safer bet could be on another round of merger mania.

Even with record inflows into exchange-traded funds and dozens of publicly traded names to choose from, there’s only one ETF devoted to the restaurant industry, the aptly tickered USCF Restaurant Leaders Fund (MENU). Not that there haven’t been other attempts in the past, although they had the same lifespan as a “gastropub” focusing on sprouts.

Even with record inflows into exchange-traded funds and dozens of publicly traded names to choose from, there’s only one ETF devoted to the restaurant industry, the aptly tickered USCF Restaurant Leaders Fund.

One of the big stories of 2017 has been investors deciding that the grass really is greener on the other side. There’s been no bigger winner from this trend than iShares “core” international funds. Intended to offer investors a lower-cost alternative to the first generation of international ETF’s, the massive inflows of new capital have us wondering if investors are going to learn the same hard lesson that scorched so many in the past; that calling something “new and improved” doesn’t necessarily make it so.

Coal’s fall from grace is a well-known story and has had a predictable impact on the one-and-only coal ETF (a telling fact on its own); from its peak in April of 2011 to the inevitable trough in January of 2016.

President Donald Trump’s first address to the joint session of Congress in February may have elicited comparisons with some of President Ronald Reagan’s finest moments, but even the Gipper couldn’t compete with the Donald when it comes to setting market records.

Even the most inobservant investors can spot the arrival of the Chinese New Year by the ubiquitous column in every financial journal declaring that “20XX Belongs to China” and telling you that you need to add exposure to the world’s “largest untapped market.”

The past year was great for demonstrating one of the common investment fallacies that has kept behavioral finance specialists in expensive cars for many years — investors’ willingness to listen to a paid professional’s forecast for the market no matter what their track record.