26
Mar
2015
It’s Tax Time (for Suckers)
Tax time is fully underway at Acropolis as we help clients and their accountants get the information they need to prepare their taxes. It’s a cumbersome process for everyone (although the accountants have it the worst by a long-shot) that concludes with writing a check to the government. People might not be so bothered by the whole process if they felt that their money was going to good use, but there… Read More
25
Mar
2015
And the Yields Keep Tumbling Down
Last year, one of the big stories was falling yields. Much to everyone’s surprise the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fell from an even three percent to 2.17 percent. After falling sharply early this year into mid-January, yields started to rise and ultimately retraced their steps just a month later. Just as people started to think, ‘Okay, this is it – now interest rates are going to rise,’ yields started… Read More
24
Mar
2015
ALM Insights – March 2015
ALM Insights is focused on banks and other institutions that use their portfolio to manage risk on both sides of their balance sheet. It takes an in-depth look at securities investment strategies, balance sheet and asset/liability strategies, regulatory topics and general economic information. To view this issue, click the image below. In This Issue: At Least We Aren’t Europe Bond of The Day – When Does 2% ≠ 2%? More Problems… Read More
24
Mar
2015
Fund Manager Beats Market for 40 Years
The most recent issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine featured a photo of a stately gentleman with a blazing headline that read, ‘This Fund Manager Has Consistently Beaten the S&P 500 for 40 Years.’ The article highlights the performance of The Nicholas Fund (ticker: NICSX), a $3.6 billion mutual fund run by Albert Nicholas, who started the fund in 1969. The article says that he has outperformed the S&P 500 by… Read More
23
Mar
2015
The Fed’s New Drug of Choice
Even though I was out of town last week on vacation, I generally keep my ear to the ground for market news and last week that was especially true because the Fed was expected to move one step closer to raising interest rates. For at least a year, the Fed has maintained that they would be ‘patient’ about the timing of raising rates. I assumed, like most people, that the… Read More
17
Mar
2015
Participant Insights 1Q 2015
Click here to view latest issue of Participant Insights 1Q 2015
13
Mar
2015
Women and Investing
Despite being married with two daughters, I am not an expert on women. For a long time, I couldn’t figure out why women might want or need different financial advice from advisors. A few years ago, Dannelle Ward set me straight and pointed out that women do face different financial circumstances that sometimes require different advice. Here are some statistics: • At birth, the life expectancy for women is 81.3… Read More
12
Mar
2015
What Corporate Bond Yields are Telling Us
It should not come as a surprise to anyone that markets have performed very well over the past five years. The S&P 500 has earned 16.12 percent per year in the five years that ended in February. Few investors realize that corporate bonds have also done very well over the past five years. For the five years that ended in February, the Barclays US Corporate Bond index has earned 6.22… Read More
11
Mar
2015
Currencies and Candy
The falling euro appears to be the primary culprit for yesterday’s market jitteriness and clearly seems headed for ‘parity’ with the US dollar, which means an exchange rate of 1:1 between the two currencies. The euro traded at 1.2 US dollars per euro at the beginning of the year and now trades at around 1.07 dollars per euro. Moving to a dollar per euro would represent a 20 percent decline… Read More
10
Mar
2015
A Bear Market Strategy
When I was a senior in college, and just starting to take some finance classes, my professor expressed deep concerns about the stock market’s valuation at the time. Of course, at the time I had no idea what he was even talking about, let alone an opinion about whether he was right or not. Using my trusty Bloomberg terminal, I can see that the price-earnings (PE) ratio for the S&P… Read More