23
Sep
2024
Thank You Chair Powell, May I Have Another!
Early last week, few questioned whether the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates; the only question was whether they would cut by a quarter or a half of a percent. We know now that the Fed cut half a percent (or 50 basis points), but two questions remain. First, why did they cut as much as they did? Second, how much more will they cut? Perhaps I should start with… Read More
16
Sep
2024
Introduction to Alternatives
I am proud that one of Acropolis’ team members has a new certification for the firm. Before I jump into that, though, here’s a look at what our fine team has already: 15 CFP® Certificants 4 Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholders 3 Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) 1 Certified Exit Planner (CEPA) 1 Certificate in Performance Measurement (CIPM) holder 3 ASPPA Qualified 401k Administrators (QKA) 1 Investment Adviser Certified Compliance Professional… Read More
9
Sep
2024
Index Fund Overhaul: Passive Investing vs. Market Concentration
One of my (many) pet peeves is when people offhandedly say, “Just buy an index fund.” I get the point, and I agree with it: Index funds are a great way to invest, much better than the old-school method of active investing. That said, there are thousands of index funds, and the rules that govern the indexes often create very different portfolios with very different performance. The largest tech-sector ETF… Read More
29
Jul
2024
Small Cap’s Revenge (…has a long way to go)
Take a look at small cap returns last week! Since July 9th, small-cap stocks have risen by about 10 percent, a remarkable run of 16 trading days. Better still, the S&P 500 fell during that time, highlighting the diversification aspect of small caps. One of the pillars of factor investing is that small-cap stocks should outperform large-cap stocks, a phenomenon known as the size premium. From an academic standpoint, there… Read More
22
Jul
2024
China vs. India
I saw a chart last week that caught my attention, and I recreated it below. It shows the market capitalization weight of Chinese and Indian stocks. Finding historical weights is a little challenging, so my chart shows the year-end weight of the two countries, except in 2024, where I show the market weight as of June 30th, 2024. The picture makes it appear that the last half-year is a complete… Read More
15
Jul
2024
Tech vs. the World
Last week, Minjung Son sent the Investment Committee some information showing that the total market value of all emerging market stocks was about $10 trillion. Ryan Craft chuckled and said that was about equal to the three largest stocks in the US. Although I’ve written about how concentrated the US market is and how emerging markets haven’t done all that well in recent years, I was amazed that three stocks… Read More
10
Jul
2024
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 Anxiety of Private Markets Inside the Economy: Inflation The Big Picture Click here to read the issue: Q2 2024 Portfolio Insights
8
Jul
2024
When will we feel the benefit of higher interest rates?
One of my favorite long-time readers and clients asked me a good question last week, which was: As I recall, David, you said that eventually, higher interest rates would be a benefit. If my recollection is correct, when will that be? It’s such a great question, and I thought I would answer it for everyone, but unfortunately, my answer is a little mealy-mouthed: it depends. It depends on how high… Read More
1
Jul
2024
Want NVDA? You’ve already got it
I was having breakfast the other day, and someone said they missed not having the 3,000 percent gain on Nvidia (NVDA) over the past five years. Of course, I agreed, but then I returned to the office thinking that the return couldn’t have been that high. In fact, over the five years ending on June 28th, the cumulative return for NVDA was 2,926 percent, so I’ll give that to them…. Read More
24
Jun
2024
How Much Do You Trust the Government?
It’s hard not to love the Roth IRA because once money gets into the account, all withdrawals should stay tax-free forever. That’s in contrast to a traditional IRA, which incentivizes savings by offering a tax deduction at the time of the contribution and allows the assets to grow without taxation. The downside is that withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. We call those tax-deferred accounts because you put off the… Read More