Welcome to whiplash land. The S&P 500 (Total Return) Index gained 8.93% in the quarter and 5.57% year-to-date. On August 18, the index reached a record high for the first time since the COVID-19 bear market began on February 19. In just 126 trading days, the fastest bear market recovery on record, the market erased […]
3rd Quarter Client Note – COVID and Politics, a Potent Cocktail Read More »
There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I have quoted Vladimir Lenin in a client note. And probably the last. A great deal has indeed happened since my first post on the coronavirus pandemic, when the implications were just beginning to emerge. The public health implications
1st Quarter Client Note – Covid-19 Edition Read More »
The S&P 500 (Total Return) Index gained 9.07% in 2019’s final quarter. Bringing the advance for the year to 31.49% — and for the decade, to an average annual 13.56%. (And yet, all anybody wants to talk about is how poorly their bonds are performing. The Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index eked out a
4th Quarter Client Note Read More »
A recent column entitled, Survivor Bias: Why Successful Value Investors Live Longer, mused on the apparent longevity of legendary value investors Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett. Today’s long suffering value investors, looking for a silver lining in the decade plus underperformance of value stocks, may find one in Munger’s quip that “professors, judges and value
Value Investing and Skiing May be The Key to Living Longer Read More »
By almost any measure, the past decade has been one of the best 10-year periods in history for the US stock market. Quarter after quarter, with just a few hiccups, the market has climbed steadily since the market bottomed in March of 2009. This past quarter was no exception, with the S&P 500 (total return)
2nd Quarter Client Note – The Raging Bull Read More »
There is a saying about the weather here in Colorado: If you don’t like it, just wait a minute. When it comes to the stock market, one quarter is the equivalent of about a minute’s worth of weather. The S&P 500 (total return) Index rose 13.65% in the first quarter; the largest first quarter gain
1st Quarter Client Note – Just Wait a Minute Read More »
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs… Rudyard Kipling, from the poem If, circa 1895 We will forever be debating the causes of the 2008 financial crisis and the government’s attempts to minimize its effects. But the worst modern bear market other than the one caused by the Great
Celebrating the Ten-Year Anniversary of the Market Bottom Read More »
It’s only been a few weeks since the passing of John Bogle, the inventor of the index fund. In memoriam, I – along with many others – was singing the praises of the index fund for its ultra-low-cost ability to track the broad market. One writer has even given credit to the index fund for
Index Funds: Good, But Not Perfect Read More »
The S & P 500 (total return) Index fell 13.52% in the 4th quarter, bringing the benchmark index to a loss for the year of 4.38%. This, following a best-quarter-in-five-years gain of 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. The negative 9.03% in December was the 11th worst month in the past 50 years. The three worst
4th Quarter Client Note – Is Past Ever Prologue? Read More »
The S & P 500 (total return) Index experienced its best quarter in five years, rising 7.2%. (Of course, things happen so fast, that as of this writing the S&P 500 has fallen almost 4.5% in the first nine days of the third quarter; led largely by falling technology stocks and possibly attributed to the
3rd Quarter Client Note – Yield Curve Ball Read More »
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