Investors and market participants often get told that the way to get rich is buying quality companies or properties.  Firstly, it is important to define quality.  For many, quality is conflated with credit risk.  For example, U.S. government debt is often seen as having the least chance of a default than any other bonds, mostly...Read More

It’s been a bleak week and month frankly, with the S&P 500 down nearly 5% on the week as I write, and well over 11% on the month.  Current market sentiment is as bad as it has been since the Financial Crisis, which is really saying something given there have been quite a few significantly...Read More

Last week we wrote to you about when to expect bear markets to end and we touched on the first day of big bank earnings.  Well, since then we’ve gotten earnings reports from Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Ally Financial.  These companies have access to an enormous amount of...Read More

During bear markets, it is not uncommon for market participants to be focused on if there could be another 10-15% downside, regardless of the fact that the market is far cheaper than it has been in several years when they were willing to invest aggressively.  Bear markets bring out the biggest pessimists, peddling the most...Read More

Heightened concerns about military conflict between Russia and Ukraine have rattled markets the past two weeks. Just today, the S&P 500 was down 2.12% and the Nasdaq was down 2.88%.  The 30 second version is that Russia wants assurances that Ukraine won’t join NATO and has long-term cultural affinity with the territory.  Ukraine wants its...Read More

Stock market volatility has continued with a vengeance throughout January as inflationary concerns, and the coinciding likely interest rate increases to combat it, are front and center on investors’ minds.  In addition, while the economy is still reasonably strong, how durable would it be in a higher rate environment?  Throw into that mix geopolitical uncertainty...Read More

It was quite a week for the markets with the Nasdaq dropping 7.6%, the S&P 500 5.7%, and the Dow 4.6%.  The Nasdaq is now down 15.1% from its November high and is off 12% YTD.  Staggeringly, 45% of Nasdaq equities are off 50% from their highs.  There were not many places for solace as...Read More

I thought it would be helpful to share an options trade in real time, to give you an idea how it works.  Keep in mind, most junk bonds are yielding around 4% and the 10-year Treasury sits at about 1.7%.  One stock that we like long-term is Lending Club (LC).  This is a fintech company...Read More

Happy New Year and I hope that you have a wonderful and healthy holiday season.  The year is off to an excellent start as value stocks have started to catch fire.  Bond yields have risen quite dramatically in the first few days of the year, which has caused the expensive tech stocks to sell off,...Read More

Global markets have sold off pretty hard to start the week.  Most of the narrative surrounds the Chinese property market and one of their largest developers, Evergrande.  China’s government is clamping down on leverage and demanding many industries to buy in, literally, to their social objectives via cash “donations”, cheaper housing, etc.  Both the Shanghai...Read More