When our clients or prospects consider our services, they often gravitate toward one aspect of what we do for them. In some cases, they may see us as portfolio managers, balancing their needs with uncertain markets and shifting economic times. Many will see us as adept financial planners who know how to make sense of their varying financial goals. Others will see us as trusted advisors who provide the necessary…
The beginning of a stock market selloff feels terrible—there’s a palpable tenseness and nervousness in the air. Intuitively, we know that selloffs happen, but our emotions and fear don’t care about market history, context, or what the data tells us. What if this time is different? What if we’re on the verge of something catastrophic? After all, every market downturn, whether a correction, pullback, or full-blown bear market, had to…
What we remember A few weeks ago, I had the chance to hike Half Dome in Yosemite National Park for the second time in my life. The first time was over 23 years ago with two close friends. The three of us reunited, added one more long-time friend, and ventured out again to conquer the 8,800 granite peak, climbing 4,800 feet of elevation to reach the top. It was a…
Our national media cycle is a non-stop barrage of mostly gloomy headlines focused on topics that generate clicks and views. Unfortunately, we are biologically wired to focus and react more to negative news than to positive news. In the information age, you can always find data points to confirm your opinion (cognitive bias, anyone?). But, in this post, we thought we would take the liberty of highlighting some of the…
Recently, two regional banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank have been caught up, to some degree, in the making of their own demise. Both were seized by regulators last quarter, as their depositors realized the banks were struggling to keep up with withdrawals and were being forced to sell securities at a loss, to keep up. Ultimately, regulators intervened, citing a lack of confidence in their respective management…
LOOKING BACK It’s difficult to know what the future will hold without understanding the past. 2022 was a difficult year in the market. An unprecedented, rapid increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, created significant market volatility and negative returns for the year: Consequently, the S&P 500 finished down -19.44% and investors experienced the risk side of the “risk/reward” relationship. What was different about 2022 was that the negative…
Inflation is an economic indicator we discuss heavily with clients during our planning sessions to project future income needs. For years, inflation has been benign, to say the least. Over the last decade, policy makers have been attempting to increase inflation, to ensure it stays close to their preferred target of 2%. Anything lower than their 2% target, risks stagnation in an economy, or worse deflation, which is difficult to…
In February of 1968, Harry Belafonte, host of the Tonight Show on NBC, had Martin Luther King Jr. on as a guest. Below is a clip of Martin Luther King Jr. responding to a question from his host and the following quote: “The economic problem is probably the most serious problem confronting the Negro community, and, I might say, the most serious problem confronting poor people generally”. It’s no secret…
Many people have been caught off guard by the recent market volatility. Most have been surprised to see asset prices increase so quickly after hitting bottom in March. We’ve seen unexpected price movements before, but this was quite extreme given the fact that we are still very much in the middle of a pandemic, with no immediate end in site. What has been driving the recent recovery? Government intervention has…
A debate has been raging in this country, regarding the economic toll and public health toll that this pandemic has caused. The arguments range from concerns about an economic depression caused by mandatory government shutdowns, to concerns about our health care system being overwhelmed by sick patients and an untold number of unnecessary deaths occurring due to an unchecked COVID-19 virus. We believe it is a false narrative to say…
