28 Jan 2016

As Expected, Fed Stands Pat

As expected, the Fed maintained their policy stance yesterday in their first meeting of the year and left interest rates unchanged.  The statement noted that the Fed expected ‘only gradual increases’, given their current economic outlook. The statement revealed their softer view on economic activity by removing its reference to economic activity ‘expanding at a moderate pace’ and noted the slowdown in growth late last year. The also took out the… Read More

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27 Jan 2016

Drawdowns Part Deux

Yesterday’s insight on drawdowns was quite popular and enough people asked for the same thing, so I thought I would do an immediate update.  (Click here for the original post.) The first request was for the full history of the S&P 500 since yesterday’s chart only went back 25 years.  I picked 25 years somewhat randomly, but mostly because the other chart that went with it was difficult to read going… Read More

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26 Jan 2016

Drawdowns Help Visualize Losses

Until I read the book ‘Hedge Hogging’ by Barton Biggs before the 2008 financial crisis, I had never heard the term ‘drawdown,’ which refers to the peak-to-trough decline of an investment or market. A drawdown measures the depth and length of a decline and illustrates how long it takes to earn back money lost from the last peak. It’s a commonly used term in the hedge fund community, partly because… Read More

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22 Jan 2016

Stock Losses Take a Breather

Yesterday at lunch, when stocks were down more than three percent, I was reading market analysis and one analyst said that investors were disappointed by the ‘lack of policy response.’ That really struck me because markets were off sharply and it hadn’t occurred to me that the Federal Reserve hadn’t said anything material this year that might shore up stocks. Although we are steeped in losses very early in the… Read More

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21 Jan 2016

Stocks Post Amazing Late Day Rally

It’s going to be a short Daily Insights today because I went to an event last night featuring nationally known financial analyst James Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and Chris Varvares of St. Louis based Macro Economic Advisors. Mostly, I just have a snapshot of the intraday trading for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).  Although the S&P 500 is still my favorite measure for how stocks fared, I… Read More

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20 Jan 2016

Stock Prices are Lower. Are They Cheap?

Yesterday, Mike Lissner came over to my desk and asked what the Price Earnings-ratio (PE-ratio) was for the S&P 500.  I leaned over to my handy-dandy Bloomberg terminal, and looked it up and told him that it was 16.8. He then asked what the average was and moving to a different screen, I showed him that the average PE-ratio for the S&P 500 since 1954 was 16.4 and the median… Read More

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19 Jan 2016

Does the Stock Market Selloff Make Sense?

Years ago, I read a book by highly regarded hedge fund manager Joel Greenblatt, where he explains why he thinks that markets aren’t efficient. As I recall it, he asks his students to pick out a handful of their favorite stocks and then tells them to look up the 52-week high and low for the stocks and record those prices.  Then, in class, they report those numbers to each other. For… Read More

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15 Jan 2016

Portfolio Insights

We are pleased to provide a digital copy of Portfolio Insights, our quarterly newsletter. Table of Contents: Stock Market Summary Bond Market Review The Fed Awakens Volatility Strikes Back Click here to read the issue:  2015 Q4 Portfolio Insights

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15 Jan 2016

Insight: Fed’s Backing Down

Comments from central bankers have been dovish in recent days – they seem to be backing down from earlier statements that suggested that the fed funds rate could increase by one percent or more this year. St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard noted that ‘with renewed declines in crude oil prices in recent weeks, the associated decline in market-based inflation expectations measures is becoming worrisome.’ He further said that… Read More

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14 Jan 2016

Insight: More Bears are Growling

The widely followed Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell -365 points, bringing it perilously close to correction territory, which is generally defined as a decline of -10 percent from the recent peak. The S&P 500 is already in correction territory having not fully recovered from the steep losses last August.  The rally in October offset most of the losses, but a new peak was not reached since last May. While… Read More

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