By: Matt Garrott Equities had a difficult quarter while fixed income assets were generally up. The Barclays Aggregate Bond Index gained 1.23%, the Barclays US Municipal Index was up 1.65%, and the Barclays Global ex-US Bond Index rose 1.37%. The Barclays US TIPS Index dropped 1.15% as inflation remained roughly flat. Domestic Large [...]

By: Matt Garrott You are probably aware that August was an eventful month for stocks – in a bad way. The S&P 500 was down 6.03% bringing year to date returns to -2.88%. A diversified portfolio would have cushioned against the drop somewhat, but allocations to Emerging Markets and Commodities hurt returns. The [...]

By: Matt Garrott What is the most important story in the investment world right now? Greece? China? A Federal Reserve rate hike? The single most important story in the investment world right now is over the word ‘Fiduciary’. A Fiduciary (this word is so important that I’m capitalizing it) acts in the client’s [...]

By: Matt Garrott Returns were mixed this quarter, mostly positive for equities and negative for income-producing securities. The Barclays Aggregate Bond Index was down 1.7%. Municipal bonds lost 0.9% and TIPS dropped 1.1%. Foreign bonds declined by 1.5%. US Large Cap stocks as measured by the S&P 500 returned 0.3% while Small and [...]

By: Matt Garrott Will the Federal Reserve Raise Interest Rates? Yep. Will they raise them at the next meeting (June 16-17)? No one knows for sure. I don’t know. The guy shouting on CNBC doesn’t know. That economist you don’t like who writes for that newspaper you don’t read doesn’t know. The Federal [...]

By: Matt Garrott If you have 24 hours to fill on your financial news network, you can only run Shark Tank reruns for a certain amount of time before people expect actual news programming. So what do you do on a news program when there’s no news? Invite an “expert” to talk about [...]

By: Matt Garrott Returns were positive across almost all asset classes in the first quarter. The Barclays Aggregate Bond Index was up 1.6%. Municipal bonds gained 1.0% and TIPS rose 1.4%. Foreign bonds declined by 3.7% due to the strong dollar. US Large Cap stocks as measured by the S&P 500 returned almost [...]

By: Matt Garrott Bathed in the cold incandescent of my refrigerator’s light, I stared vacantly at my sparse options. Condiments, beer, a block of cheese… My stomach growled in hunger. Aha! What’s this? Leftover sushi from … probably not too long ago, right? I did a quick risk assessment. When did I bring [...]

By: Matt Garrott After the run up in the US stock markets, more and more people are asking why anyone would want to invest anywhere else. The world is falling apart and the US is the ‘least dirty shirt’ or the ‘best house in a bad neighborhood’.  Apparently you are stripped of your [...]

By: Matt Garrott The US Dollar reigned supreme in 2014, driving commodities down (-17.01%) and dampening returns for foreign denominated asset classes such as foreign bonds (-2.77%), developed market stocks (-4.90%), and emerging markets stocks (-2.19%). Domestic large cap stocks had another strong year, up 13.69%. Small and mid-cap US stocks had a [...]