11 Apr 2016

Watching Your Fellow Shareholders

When you own individual stocks and bonds, you don’t have to pay too much attention to what your fellow shareholders (or bond holders) are doing. A mutual fund is a little different, though, because the actions of your fellow shareholders can affect your returns, especially on an after-tax basis. Morningstar reported last week that of their 500 most widely followed mutual funds, 168 have seen outflows of more than 10… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
8 Apr 2016

Healthy Aging: Building Your Social Network

This is the third part in a series on the successful transition to retirement. The first article addressed The Challenge of Leisure and was followed by Why Put Family First.  This one will expand from family to your broader social network. As a reminder, researchers have shown that strong social relationships keep us younger, healthier, and lower our mortality risk.  In addition to living longer, healthy people lead happier lives in… Read More

By Michael Lissner Tags: ,
7 Apr 2016

Welcome, Broker-Dealers. Seriously.

In 1981, IBM unveiled their first personal computer and in response, Apple, who had created their first personal computer in 1977 and mass produced a second version the next year, published an ad in the Wall Street Journal welcoming Big Blue to the personal computer business with the headline, ‘Welcome, IBM.  Seriously.’ IBM had previously scoffed at computers for the masses and was the undisputed king of corporate computing at… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
6 Apr 2016

Yield Curve Madness

Bond yields continued their downward march and fell to a five-week low yesterday as the yield on the 10-year US Treasury hit 1.73 percent.  After starting the year at 2.24 percent, the benchmark yield dropped to 1.63 percent when the stock market bottomed out on February 11th and then climbed to 1.98 percent before falling again. As low as your yields are today, they are among the highest in the… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
5 Apr 2016

Capital Markets in Perspective

We all know that the first quarter was a wild ride as the S&P 500 fell -10.29 percent through February 11th and then rocketed back over the rest of the quarter and finished in the black. When I tallied up the results for the first quarter, I have to admit that I was surprised by the range of returns within the major asset classes, from the -5.4 percent decline in… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , , ,
4 Apr 2016

The Real Unemployment Rate

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that total non-farm payrolls rose by 215,000 in March, lower than February’s upwardly revised 245,000 figure, but ahead of the consensus estimate of 205,000.  January was also revised downward to 168,000 from 172,000. The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.9 percent to 5.0 percent reflecting a large increase in the labor participation rate which increased six-tenths of a percent in the last six… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
31 Mar 2016

When to Head for the Exits

Back in November, I wrote about the Sequoia fund (ticker symbol: SEQUX) on the losing side of a big bet on Valeant Pharmaceuticals (ticker symbol: VRX). Sequoia is a well-known fund, in part because when Warren Buffet unwound his hedge fund in the late 1960s, he recommended that his clients go to Sequoia, which was run by his friend Bill Ruane.  Sequoia had good results and wasn’t afraid to take… Read More

By David Ott Tags:
30 Mar 2016

Over-Promising and Under-Delivering

Back in the depths of the 2008 crisis, I remember hearing a radio spot for a newly launched series of mutual funds from a well-known fund family that promised ‘absolute returns.’ In the investing world, the term absolute return refers to investment strategies that are intended to generate positive returns regardless of market conditions.  Whereas most investments are judged relative to a benchmark like the S&P 500 or Barclays Aggregate… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
29 Mar 2016

Healthy Aging: Why Put Family First

This is the second part in a series on the successful transition to retirement.  The first article addressed The Challenge of Leisure and this one will dive a little deeper into the family dynamic, which typically effects everyone in the house, not just the person retiring. My parents had close friends (whom I will call George and Martha).  My dad and George served in the Navy together.  George went on to… Read More

By Michael Lissner Tags: ,
28 Mar 2016

Brexit Basics

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union comprised of 28 countries from the tiny island of Malta with a population of 429,000 situated on 122 square miles to the obvious world powers like Germany, France and Britain. When combined, the EU represents seven percent of the worlds population and 24 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP, measured in purchasing power parity).  The idea behind the union,… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,