22 Nov 2017

The Curve is Falling… The Curve is Falling!

The yield curve has been a very hot topic lately in the financial news media.  Multiple times a day, there are commentators pointing to the yield curve as a sign that markets are on the verge of imploding.  Is it time to panic? The Federal Reserve has continued to push short term rates higher throughout 2017.  Long term rates have responded by falling 10 bps.  This has led to a… Read More

20 Nov 2017

The Bucket Approach

In my mind, the word ‘bucket’ should be banned from the investment industry because it brings to mind the ‘bucket shops’ where unlicensed hacks in boiler rooms cajole unwitting investors into pump and dump schemes. Despite my view about this word in this industry, it seems to be what we as a group have settled on for a particular retirement planning strategy (I’m not a fan of smart beta either,… Read More

13 Nov 2017

The Canary in the Bond Market?

The recent poor performance of junk bonds received a lot of attention last week, culminating in an article in the Wall Street Journal that asked, ‘Are High Yield Bonds the Canary in the Coal Mine?’ The two largest junk bond ETFs, HYG and JNK, saw their largest weekly pullbacks since August, falling just short of a percent each on unusually large volume. There are several reasons for the selloff: Barron’s… Read More

6 Nov 2017

The Fault in our Stars

In 2014, one of the breakout movies of the year was The Fault in Our Stars, a romantic drama based on a book written in 2012.  I didn’t see the movie or read the book, but I did notice the box office receipts of $307 million compared to the production budget of $12 million – now that’s a solid return on investment! I also liked the sound of the title,… Read More