Inflation and its impact on interest rates continues to be the driving factor in financial markets and the overall economy.  There are certainly signs of inflation slowing down in a practical sense, with what we are seeing in housing, as prices decline in many of the formerly hottest markets.  That will take time to show...Read More

The Huge Cost of Trying to Time the Market and Favorable Election-Year DynamicsToday I saw an interesting statistic that I wanted to share with you.  If you sold stocks at the bottom of each 10% selloff, and then bought back 10 days later, you’d miss out on over 2/3rds of the gains since 2002.  This...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

When you are in the midst of a bear market, all the news is bad.  You are usually either in or about to be in a recession. Analysts that kept telling you to buy stocks at 50% higher prices, now tell you to sell the same stocks despite them being dramatically cheaper.  Economic data gets...Read More

We are beginning to see a bit of increasing volatility in equity markets arise, as concerns around Covid-19 and the Delta variant have caused increases in positive test results and restrictions, albeit on a far smaller basis than what occurred last year.  We’ve been writing about the market getting a bit ahead of itself for...Read More

Earnings season has begun and thus far almost every one of the banks that have reported have beaten their earnings estimates.  The stock prices haven’t yet reflected the improving metrics, but over time prices follow business fundamentals, so there will be convergence.  ALLY Financial posted an absolutely sensational quarter this morning with record earnings and...Read More

I’ve been writing to you for quite some time about the massive paradox between growth and value stocks.  The largest growth companies have become so big that they now represent the largest portion of the indices in history.  Conversely, value stocks have remained in the penalty box and are trading at very cheap valuations.  The...Read More

2020 has certainly been a tragedy of epic proportions on just about any level imaginable.  There is no sugarcoating that.  When you have tens of thousands of people dying from a new virus, and economies shut down across the world, it is tough to feel cheery, especially when you sprinkle in record unemployment.  The stock...Read More

On Saturday, Berkshire Hathaway hosted its annual shareholder meeting, which had a different feel, taking place in an empty auditorium, and without the great Charlie Munger being by his side.  Despite that, the meeting had a lot of great information, during these immensely precarious times.  Overall Buffett, is always bullish long-term on America, and on...Read More

It has been an interesting week with a great start and a terrible finish for the markets.  We know there is going to be volatility so I wouldn’t see it as much of a surprise.  I’ve written a lot lately, so I’ll just pass on this great video of Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates, one...Read More