Volatility Archives - Acropolis Investment Management

17 Mar 2025

Sentiment Shifting

As noted above, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index received much attention last week. The index is a monthly survey of at least 500 US households, who are asked about their current financial situation, economic expectations, and attitudes toward purchasing major household items. The consensus estimate for February was a reading of 63, which would have been a little lower than the January reading of 64.7. When the actual… Read More

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

10 Mar 2025

Nobody Likes Volatility

The headlines have been volatile lately, leading to anxious calls from clients wondering if they should take action based on what they think might happen. If you want to make some changes at the margin, that’s probably okay, but a wholesale change at this moment probably says more about your political views than an unbiased investment outlook. When we set an asset allocation policy with clients, it’s usually in the… Read More

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

11 Nov 2024

Morningstar Makes Things Right?

In June, I wrote that the S&P 500 had become a growth index by Morningstar’s definition (you can refresh your memory here). I like Morningstar, especially its stock analysis, but it confuses investors by oversimplifying complex topics. While that is a laudable goal (and I try to do the same thing), they go too far. Well, Morningstar saw the problem that the investment community could see and changed their rules!… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Investing, Large Cap Stocks, Markets, Stocks, Style Drift, Volatility, Wall Street

28 Oct 2024

Why Not All Tech?

Over the last ten years, the oldest technology ETF I could find, the Select Spider Tech fund (ticker symbol XLK), has made more than 20 percent per annum through September 30th. A $10,000 investment in that fund would have been worth $64,172 at the end of last month. Even though I know better than to drive forward while looking out through the rearview mirror, I can’t help it: I want… Read More

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

14 Oct 2024

The Hottest Stocks of All Time

An Arizona State professor, Hendrik Bessembinder, wrote a fascinating paper detailing something that we intuitively sense: a small handful of stocks have created almost all of the wealth over time, and most stocks don’t provide much in the way of returns. It’s one of the reasons we want hot tips (even when we know they aren’t likely to be hot). The paper’s provocative title is “Do stocks outperform Treasury bills?”… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Diversification, Economy, Stocks, Volatility, Wall Street

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

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

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

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

17 Jun 2024

Is the S&P 500 a Growth Index?

In addition to working with private clients, Acropolis has an incredible team of professionals who manage retirement plans, principally 401k plans (click here for more information). I meet with some of the retirement plan trustees to discuss the plan’s investments. When we manage a plan, we want enough choices so participants can build a diversified portfolio but not so many choices that they are overwhelmed by the options and don’t… Read More

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

10 Jun 2024

Stocks Look Cheap!

Since the beginning of 2023, the S&P 500 index has grown a staggering 40% through the end of May. While some of this performance has been driven by earnings growth, a lot of it has been good old-fashioned speculation as prices have outrun earnings. This is evident when looking at prices through the lens of company fundamentals. Consider the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. This ratio shows the value investors pay for… Read More

By Ryan Craft Tags: Diversification, Economy, Investing, Markets, P/E Ratios, Stocks, Volatility, Wall Street

28 May 2024

The Anxiety of Private Markets

I’m writing about private markets again, which may seem odd to long-time readers because we don’t invest in private markets. I routinely think about private investments for two reasons. First, they’re the hottest topic in our industry—what are you doing about privates? Have you heard of this private or that private? Second, as I’ve said many times, I’ve invested in some to learn more about them and see if they… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Alternative Investments, Economy, Investing, Markets, Private Equity, Volatility, Wall Street

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