By: Matt Garrott On October 21st, 1985, Marty McFly went back in time 30 years to escape Libyans, save Doc Brown’s life, and turn his dad from a weenie into a hero. He also wound up with a rad 4×4, but before he could take it for a spin, Doc Brown stopped by [...]
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: Mark Weiskind I sit here on this early March 2015 day, a day where the Nasdaq briefly broke the 5,000 level for the first time since 2000. It brings me back to memories of conversations I had with clients and friends in the late 1990s, trying to convince them (usually unsuccessfully) that [...]