We are pleased to provide a digital copy of Portfolio Insights, our quarterly newsletter. Table of Contents: Stock Market Summary Bond Market Review Changes Coming to the S&P 500 The Risk of Recession The Big Picture & Fast Facts Click here to read the issue: Q2 2018 Portfolio Insights
To my surprise, it’s been more than three years since I wrote about negative yields on bonds throughout the world. In my article, which can be found here, I wrote that bond yields could go a lot lower than I ever thought since I thought that they were ‘zero-bound.’ A year later, I returned to the topic when the yield on 50-year Swiss bonds had a negative yield. The article… Read More
In the old active-versus-passive debate, the S&P 500 serves as the champion fighter in the passive corner. That’s funny, because the S&P 500 is hardly passive. For example, it’s not a list of the largest 500 companies, but a curated list of stocks chosen by the index committee at Standards & Poor’s. Most of the differences between the index and the actual list of the largest 500 companies are relatively… Read More
We are pleased to provide a digital copy of Portfolio Insights, our quarterly newsletter. Table of Contents: Stock Market Summary Bond Market Review Tariffs and Trade Wars New at Acropolis The Big Picture & Fast Facts Click here to read the issue: Q1 2018 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 New Tax Laws and You What is Bitcoin, Anyway? The Big Picture & Fast Facts Click here to read the issue: 2017 Q4 Portfolio Insights
For almost 50 years, one of the most controversial ideas in finance is that markets are efficient, as presented by Gene Fama’s Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) in 1966. Let’s start with a simple definition of EMH: Current market prices incorporate all available information and expectations and are the best approximation of intrinsic value. In some ways, it’s such a simple statement that it’s a little surprising that it’s so controversial…. Read More
Long time readers know that I’ve been cautious on US stocks for some time, calling them overvalued in 2014. Last year, I referred to a quote from Sir John Templeton, who famously said that ‘Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die in euphoria.’ I said then that I could see the rally continuing on for years but that we were probably moving from… Read More
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
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
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
