Volatility has begun to pick up in equity markets as bond yields have continued to creep higher, based on fears of higher for longer inflationary pressures.  I’ve warned before about being too aggressive in this environment.  Too many people expect equity markets to perform like they did in exceptionally low interest rate periods and that...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

Today’s higher than expected August CPI report, rattled the market dramatically, causing the Nasdaq to drop by 5.2%, the S&P 500 by 4.3%, and the Dow to drop by 4%.  This was the biggest down day since June of 2020 and the 8th daily decline of greater than 3% on the year.  The recent decline...Read More

Today we got the latest update on the Consumer Pricing Index (CPI) and it was a doozy, showing annual inflation of 7.5%.  As you can see on the image above, the Real Fed Funds Rate (Fed Funds Rate Minus CPI) is now a negative 7.4%, which is the lowest since 1974.  This means that money...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

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

Volatility is picking up once again, which we should expect given the extreme conditions the world is seeing.  Yesterday, the Federal Reserve chair said that interest rates were likely to stay near zero through at least the next year or so.  I don’t see that as surprising whatsoever, given the focus will be on reducing...Read More

Benjamin Graham (the founder of value investing) originally came up with the concept of margin of safety.  The idea is to buy a security at a large enough discount to its true worth, that you can greatly reduce your chances of losses, while also maintaining a maximum profit potential.  To determine intrinsic value, one uses...Read More

Historically, it has made reasonable sense for retirees to have a sizable allocation to bonds.  A minimum of 40% was certainly not uncommon.  The logic behind this was that retirees regularly draw from their accounts and are less comfortable with the enhanced volatility that stocks can at times provide.  The supposedly steady income from the...Read More

Severe disruptions in emerging markets are roiling financial markets across the globe.  Ineffective government leadership in Argentina and political upheaval in Ukraine and Turkey are some of the primary contributors.  In addition, data out of the Chinese economy, which is the world’s 2nd largest, has been quite poor.  While the S&P 500 was down about...Read More