Stocks Continue to Climb The market climbed inexorably higher during the third quarter. This relentless march upward without yielding a meaningful decline is virtually unprecedented. Usually, even in the best of years, the market always sustains ordinary pullbacks. 2017 might end up being the first time the market has made positive returns every calendar month […]

It is normal for the stock market to have setbacks, on a regular basis. Usually, the stock market always goes through a garden variety 5% or 10% correction, even during strong years. Declines of this magnitude occurred in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, etc. Sometimes these declines happen more than once. But, this year is […]

The market and our client accounts continue to grind higher in the early stages of this quarter. If historical measures could serve as a guidepost, the outlook for the market is strong. Since 1945, when the market has been up in January and February, it has finished the year positive all 27 of 32 times […]

A “Goldilocks” Market Turmoil in Washington, geopolitical concerns, a four hundred point one day drop in the DOW, and higher interest rates were not enough to keep the markets from creeping higher in the second quarter. Led by the FAANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) markets were able to largely dismiss the predominantly […]

This quarter, the market shrugged off geopolitical uncertainty and has moved back to the top end of its trading range that it first set in February. A lack of progress in Washington, international conflict, and the French elections has not been able to derail the markets. The S&P 500 is back to 2400, its record […]

1st Quarter 2017 Market Overview The Big Picture Following the financial crisis in 2008-2009, the market staged a recovery but it began to run out of juice by 2011. At that time, the Federal Reserve was trying to figure out how to repair our economy and help it escape the lingering ills of the crisis. […]

A Year of Surprises The markets overcame their worst start ever to a year and finished 2016 with a gain of 9.5% on the S&P 500 index. The DOW almost touched 20,000 before finally ending the year at 19,780. It was a year marked by surprises and punctuated by the election in which Donald Trump’s […]

Even though our economy is problematic and any industry struggles to grow, investors need to be poised to profit from emerging business trends.  We are going to have to do this in order to generate top notch returns for clients.  Can we capitalize on these trends within our managed portfolios? One verifiable condition to examine […]

A high performing portfolio has a dual mandate to generate growth and minimize setbacks at the same time. A high performing portfolio strikes a balance that reflects the natural condition of the overall economy and has suitable diversification so that at least some investments within the portfolio will flourish given whatever circumstances occur. To create […]