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Fourth Quarter 2024 Performance Commentary and Review
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 1/7/25

2024 was about as good as it gets in the equity markets – with the BGEP up 31% and the broader market as a whole posting double digit gains. Underneath the surface, we believe that there are three main drivers of the year’s solid returns. We discuss them below in our market review and outlook.

Little League Trophies
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 11/16/15
The financial markets have worn many masks this year. Like a ping pong ball, wide and powerful swings from Fed pronouncements, movements in the dollar, and the price of oil have contributed to violent and swift changes in mood. Perception and reality are almost entirely a function of macroeconomic news, but for the very brief period in time each quarter when company specific news arrives in the form of earnings season.

Earnings Voids and the Emergence of Plausible Risk
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 8/26/15
We had put the finishing touches on a market update celebrating our first ten years in business, but were rudely interrupted by the first violence in the markets we’ve seen in nearly a year. Yes, a year.

Nevis & NASDAQ 5000
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 3/2/15
Fifteen years ago, the tech-stock heavy, dot-com laden NASDAQ hit 5000, a level it hasn't seen since - until today - March 2nd, 2015. Whether or not it will maintain a closing price above 5000 remains a work in progress, but in all likelihood, we'll get there.

A Moody Market
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 10/17/14
For those that may not have noticed, stock market volatility has been on the rise in October, with more up and down 1-2% days and powerful intraday moves than we've seen since the Great Recession. Weak overseas economies, fears over what rapid declines in energy prices could mean, and Ebola are just a few of the factors that have been used to explain the disappointing action.

America in the Driver’s Seat – Enjoy the Ride
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 9/17/14
Like clockwork, earnings season has drawn to a close, creating an information vacuum for the stock market, one in which the media spends more time "making" the news than perhaps reporting it. The marginal dollar at trade - or the price maker in a high frequency dominated trading world - is one more likely to be concerned about the Fed's words over the next two days than the stream of earnings produced by corporate America over the next few quarters.

Our Take on the Fed Minutes
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 8/22/14
Usually, I don't have anything intelligent to say more than once every month or so and since I'm not a journalist, I'm never forced to make stuff up just to sell papers. I do believe, however, that the release of the Fed Minutes was worth a few of my minutes and perhaps yours. Even if you're yawning right now, please know that putting my thoughts in writing helps me to better manage your investments. As a money manager, we pick your investments, not your money managers. The buck starts and stops with us.

Mixed Signals and the Road Less Traveled
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover, Mike Czekaj of Broadleaf Partners, 5/16/14
As the markets flirt with all-time highs and a potential shift in Fed policy, earnings season has not altered the fact that the level of investor uncertainty feels elevated. Throw in the case of a really bad winter, a geopolitical environment that rhymes with events just prior to World War I, and poor trading volumes, and it all suggests that heightened levels of unease remain.

Broadleaf's 2014 Investment Playbook
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover, Mike Czekaj of Broadleaf Partners, 1/27/14
Most sell side firms publish their outlook for the economy and stock market at the end of December and in early January. As a buy side firm, we really arent under any expectation to share our outlook for the coming year and, as funny as it might sound, some of our clients dont even care to know what we think, only that we handle what they hired us to do, which is to outperform the market indices over a full market cycle and help them attain their financial goals over time.

Twenty Five
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover, Mike Czekaj of Broadleaf Partners, 11/13/13
I am not a particularly good salesman. From the time I first meet a prospect to when they become a full-fledged client, it can often take two years even when they initiate the first meeting. Fortunately, growing the firm isnt one of my primary roles, a responsibility that does fall to Bill Hoover, my business partner. The beauty of our relationship is that while Bill devotes his time to our firms outside efforts, I am able to spend almost all of my attention tending to the portfolios of those who have already hired us. (View a printable version of this Economic

Looking Farther Down the Road
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover, Mike Czekaj of Broadleaf Partners, 8/8/13
The stock market has continued to do very well over the summer months, reaching new, all-time highs and proving to even the most stubborn of skeptics that Great Recessions can become Great Recoveries for those with the appropriate time horizon. While our industry spends a great deal of time and effort focused on relative performance results compared to appropriate benchmarks, the greatest value any financial advisor or money manager can provide is usually addressed far less often; simply keeping you in the game.

Driving with the Doors Off, Part II
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover, Mike Czekaj of Broadleaf Partners, 6/5/13
About ten months ago, I wrote about my new bulldozer-yellow Jeep Wrangler, comparing the sensation of Driving with the Doors Off to investing in the New Normal, or as I like to call it, a slow growth for as far as the eyes can see environment. While the pavement had always been a mere twelve inches beneath my feet, Driving with The Doors Off made the experience far more real, far more alive, and far more aware of the risks that had always been there. In the New Normal it feels like we are always and everywhere just one small pothole away from the next economic disaster.

Like Baseball in the Snow
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover, Mike Czekaj of Broadleaf Partners, 4/26/13
As has occurred in each of the last three years, the economy should continue to plug along, not as we might like it to be, but as we can reasonably expect. Growth scare or not, we suspect that the end of 2013 will show that continued progress lies ahead, but perhaps not exactly in the same pattern as it has thus far.

Flying High
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover, Mike Czekaj of Broadleaf Partners, 3/8/13
The media has made a spectacle out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching new all-time highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 indices do not include the compounding effect of dividends paid by member companies. Any retiree will tell you that dividends represent a return of capital and useful income in the real economy. If you had reinvested those dividends back in the index as they were paid, the old time highs reached in October of 2007 likely would have been passed some time ago.

An Apple's First Worm
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover, Mike Czekaj of Broadleaf Partners, 1/30/13
Writing about Apple is painful. Not because I have lost money in recent months or have no insight to provide, but because the media will likely report on it ad nausea for the next few days. It is perhaps human nature that the news which is most readily produced is also the news that is most easily consumed. If you want to be read, it's best to write words that people will read. While this makes for great entertainment and advertising, it hasn't typically been the best way to get new investment ideas.

Nothing Changed
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 11/15/12
Many events have transpired since our mid-September update, but not much has really changed. Economic growth should remain slow for as far as the eyes can see, as each region of the world struggles with its own version of the New Normal. Capitalistic animal spirits have gone the way of the modern American male and while not completely extinct, he's decidedly more metrosexual. Flannel has ceded ground to the skinny jean and ambition has given way to contentment. Save for the halls of America's top military brass, unbridled passion is simply no longer.

Driving with the Doors Off
by Doug MacKay, Bill Hoover of Broadleaf Partners, 8/13/12
Two months ago I bought a bulldozer-yellow Jeep Wrangler, replacing my eight year old black Audi A6. While the A6 had been a wonderful car, I was ready for something new and a Jeep fit the bill. Driving with the doors off was a lot of fun, but certainly a different feeling than I was used to experiencing. The stock market over the last two months and perhaps even last three summers has been a lot like that, different, but ultimately rewarding.
17 results found.