Wall Street Archives - Page 8 of 18 - Acropolis Investment Management

4 Dec 2023

Why We Fear Inflation

I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about this week and thought about simply starting with a picture of inflation, as measured by the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure, the core Personal Consumption Expenditure, or PCE. Like the core Consumer Price Index, core PCE strips out food and energy prices because they are so volatile, but don’t really change the numbers of the long run. Said, another way, they… Read More

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

27 Nov 2023

Fooling Yourself with Private Market Math

Private investments, or simply ‘privates’ in the current vernacular, are among the hottest investments in recent years. Private investments, which are often considered one of the most prominent alternative investments, means owning securities that aren’t publicly traded. Private markets can include equity (stocks), credit (bonds), and real estate. Each major group has subcategories. Private equity can be venture capital, buyout equity, or growth equity. Credit can mean direct loans, mezzanine… Read More

By David Ott Tags: commentary, Diversification, Economy, Investing, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, Private Equity, Private Investment, stock market, Volatility, Wall Street

13 Nov 2023

30 Market Timing Signals that Worked

My subject line is taken from an article written by the PhD Head of Investment Research at Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), but I cheated and left out the second half of the sentence. Here’s their full headline: We Found 30 Timing Strategies that “Worked” and 690 that Didn’t. I guess I’m not above clickbait, but I also don’t have enough space to get the full headline into the subject line…. Read More

By David Ott Tags: Economy, Investing, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, stock market, Volatility, Wall Street

9 Oct 2023

Active Passive Word Play

I think that most people in the investment business have at one point, or another wrestled with the question about whether the market is efficient and what you should do about it, regardless of your answer. In simple terms, an efficient market quickly incorporates news and information into prices. It’s easy to find examples of market inefficiency, like when companies added .com to their name in the late 1990s and… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Active Investing, commentary, Economy, Efficient Market Hypothesis, Investing, Markets, Passive Investing, Portfolio Strategy, Portfolio Theory, stock market, Wall Street

18 Sep 2023

America’s Credit Rating

Earlier this year, when Congress seemed to come together and avoid a debt ceiling crisis, I listened to a podcast that said we would right back to the same problem in the fall. I didn’t pay much attention because I was annoyed with the government and the fall was months away. Although I am loving the cooler weather, I’m annoyed again because the deadline to deal avoid a government shutdown… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Credit Rating, Credit Risk, Economy, Federal Reserve, Investing, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, Stocks, Wall Street

11 Sep 2023

Stock Bond Correlation Changes Aren’t Concerning

Every investor suffered losses last year because the two most basic investment building blocks, stocks and bonds, both lost value. Many of the investment community’s intelligentsia are in a twist because the correlation between stocks and bonds is now positive for the first time in two decades. They say, full of sound and fury, that bonds offer less diversification now that the correlation is positive. My goal today, without getting… Read More

By David Ott Tags: Bonds, Economy, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, Portfolio Theory, Stocks, Volatility, Wall Street

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, commentary, Investing, Markets, Portfolio Strategy, Stocks, Volatility, Wall Street

10 Jul 2023

Lessons from the Land of the Rising Sun

When I was in high school, Japan Inc. seemed invincible. Their economy was booming, which pushed up their real estate and stock markets, and a handful of over-the-top events like the purchase of Rockefeller Plaza by Japanese investors and the sale of Van Gogh’s Portrait of Doctor Cachet sold for $82.5 million (or $189.5 million in today’s dollars). From 1970-1989, the Japanese stock market, according to MSCI, gained 16.9 percent… Read More

By David Ott Tags: commentary, Diversification, Economy, International Investing, Markets, Recession, 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, finances, 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: commentary, Economy, Investing, Markets, Stocks, Volatility, Wall Street

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