Investing Archives - Page 4 of 11 - Acropolis Investment Management

14 Aug 2023

Thank You Short-Sellers

Growing up, my best friend’s father was a pilot for Ozark Airlines. He seemed like a pretty happy-go-lucky guy who loved flying and golfing when he wasn’t flying. His demeanor changed markedly when Carl Icahn’s backed TWA bought Ozark. I didn’t understand it much then, but I heard terms like ‘corporate raider’ and ‘asset stripping’ at the time. To my friend’s dad, Icahn was a true villain who borrowed money… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Investing, Markets, Short Selling, Stocks

7 Aug 2023

So You Say You Want Alpha: Cathy Woods has Some

Cathy Woods is a fascinating character. Her ARKK funds were the darlings of the pandemic, focused on innovation, and were on fire. Not surprisingly, investors poured money into the funds, just in time for them to collapse. The fact that investors piled in and out isn’t Woods fault. She bought a portfolio of stocks that she believed in and stuck to her style through the boom and the bust. Last… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Alpha, Beta, Investing, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, Stocks, Volatility, Wall Street

26 Jun 2023

Decoding How the Mighty Greenback Shapes Your Investments

Last week, I was asked to consider writing an article about how the dollar’s strength or weakness impacts a portfolio. I’ve covered it a bit over the years, but I thought now would be a good time for an update, and I’m always interested in writing about what readers want to read about, so I try to address specific issues whenever possible. I will illustrate later how the dollar has… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Currency, Currency Hedging, Currency Prices, Economy, Investing, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, US Dollar, Volatility, Wall Street

20 Jun 2023

The McNealy Problem

James Grant is one of my favorite market gadflies. He is the editor of the eponymous James Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a columnist for Barron’s, and host of the Grant’s Current Yield podcast. Grant is intelligent, funny, and a long-term market skeptic. I’ve heard him say he doesn’t like being described as a perma-bear, but he’s been bearish for as long as I can remember and seems a true gold bug. So,… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Economy, Investing, Markets, Stocks, Volatility, Wall Street

12 Jun 2023

The Bond Market is of Mixed Minds about a Recession

One of the things that I hear all the time these days is that the bond market and the stock market aren’t in agreement about whether a recession is coming. Usually, I hear this from someone who thinks that the bond market is right and that the stock market will correct sharply when the recession comes. And in fact, bond investors are giving strong signals of a recession from the… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Economy, Federal Reserve, Interest Rates, Investing, Markets, Recession, Stocks, Wall Street

5 Jun 2023

The Market Has Bad Breadth

The S&P 500 is up 12.4 percent year-to-date as of Friday, which is excellent news. Less excellent, however, is that just a few stocks are powering the entire return. The half-dozen largest stocks in the index are worth about 25 percent of the index, and they are up 67.9 percent on average. They are all up by over one-third, and two have more than doubled. My back-of-the-envelope calculates that the… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Economy, Investing, Markets, Stocks, Wall Street

22 May 2023

Debt Ceiling Crisis in Perspective

Chris and Cliff forwarded me an article last week asking: what would you do with your portfolio if you knew what was coming? The article referenced the still unresolved debt-ceiling situation and proceeded to list many pretty lousy events over the past 30 or so years. It made me think of a chart we made when we started Acropolis with small images depicting awful news with the growth of a… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Bonds, Debt Ceiling, Diversification, Economy, International Investing, Investing, Markets, Stocks, Wall Street

8 May 2023

Stock Buybacks: Finding Common Ground Amid Controversy

Companies’ capital decisions aren’t usually very controversial, like paying down debt, paying another quarterly dividend, or upgrading the facilities. Stock buybacks, however, are another story: they generate a lot of controversy. Before getting into the debate, let me take a minute to describe a buyback. When companies have extra capital, they sometimes go into the open market and buy back their own stock, hence the name (although they are sometimes… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Economy, Investing, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, Stock Buyback, Stocks

1 May 2023

How to Avoid Disaster

September will mark the 25th anniversary of the failure of the massive hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), and my podcast feed is filling up with retrospectives. One podcast featured Roger Lowenstein, the author of When Genius Failed, which is considered the definitive work on the subject. I read it when it came out in 2000 and once again in subsequent years, and it’s a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed…. Read More

By David Ott Tags: Credit Risk, Diversification, Economy, Investing, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, Stocks, Volatility, Wall Street

27 Mar 2023

Cash Matters

After the market closed on Friday afternoon, I was sitting at my desk at the office, wondering what I was going to write about this week. I’m sort of tired of the banking crisis for the moment, even though it’s not over: Deutsche Bank was in the hot seat Friday. In any case, a terrific longtime client (and reader!) called to ask some questions about money market funds, and it… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Cash, Economy, Interest Rates, Investing, Markets, Money Market, Wall Street

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