Investors can be forgiven their skepticism towards small caps, despite the current rally. After all, small caps have underperformed the top-heavy, large-cap S&P 500 over the last decade.
As investor adoption of crypto, retail and institutional, continues to grow exponentially, discussions are typically centered around bitcoin and ethereum. The former is lauded for its store of value while the latter carries more functional utility when taking into account its role in the blockchain network.
Every week, this platform is used to highlight current ideas, fixed-income concepts, economic occurrences, and/or clarify a strategic fixed-income feature. The cohesive topic threads are fixed-income issues relevant to current market conditions.
On a recent episode of the Money Metals podcast, host Mike Maharrey interviewed Greg Weldon. Gold had pushed past $4,300, and silver broke $54 on the day of recording.
The most useful conversations about crypto don't start with block times or cryptography; they start with the monetary system. When money supply compounds and confidence in policy waxes and wanes, investors may reach for hard assets—tangible, scarce resources with intrinsic use value whose supply is difficult or costly to expand.
Earnings growth and attractive valuations for Japanese companies, reforms to corporate governance, and other shifts in the Japanese economy may create opportunities for investors.
In high-stakes negotiations, there are usually a series of threats and retreats before the final handshake. Each side uses bargaining chips to shape the outcome of the discussions. But bargaining chips don’t always lead to bargains.
In corporate credit markets, early indicators of stress often emerge subtly — not through dramatic dislocations, but through nuanced shifts in borrower behavior and market dynamics.
Amrita Nandakumar, President of Vident Asset Management, explains the role of an ETF subadvisor and shares her unique perspective on ETF product development, the forthcoming multi-share class structure, and the potential impact of a “lighter touch” regulatory environment. Roxanna Islam, Head of Sector & Industry Research at VettaFi, also weighs in on the multi-share class structure, and discusses the latest developments in crypto ETFs and the stellar performance of gold and silver miner ETFs.
Join VettaFi and ProcureAM for an educational webcast with insights on how to evaluate companies driving this growth — and how to position space in client portfolios.
Join the professionals at Fidelity Investments® for a product due diligence session covering their suite of options-based equity ETFs– Fidelity Yield Enhanced Equity ETF (FYEE), Fidelity Hedged Equity ETF (FHEQ), and Fidelity Dynamic Buffered Equity ETF (FBUF).
Today's marketplace demands a new understanding of what it means to stand out — not through revolutionary uniqueness, but through extraordinary execution of fundamental principles that most advisors neglect or execute poorly.
Business Process Management is a systematic approach to making an organization's workflows more effective, efficient, and adaptable. The firms that survive and thrive will be those that recognize the concepts of BPM and BPMN as strategic infrastructure, not optional enhancements.
If you’re preparing to sell your business, the M&A process might seem daunting and mysterious. As a financial advisor, you’re an expert at connecting with clients and providing sound financial guidance.
At times like this, our Internal Financial System™ comes alive. Inside us, different parts react to the same market in opposite ways. A risk-taking part may feel emboldened by the gains and want to buy more.
GMO has posted a new 7-Year asset class forecast as of September 30, 2025.
A new generation of ETFs is giving the crypto rich a novel way to fold their digital fortunes into the regulated financial system — without selling, and through funds run by big asset managers like BlackRock Inc.
Vanguard Group is expanding its proxy voting program — designed to give shareholders a greater say on corporate resolutions at portfolio companies — to add the investment giant’s oldest index fund.
The artificial intelligence trade that has driven the S&P 500 Index to one record after another over the past few years is transforming traditionally sleepy utilities stocks into booming growth plays. Since the end of 2023, the utilities sector is up 44%, making it the third best-performing group in the S&P 500.
Last week’s scheduled release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September was postponed due to the ongoing federal government shutdown, which has disrupted the operations of key agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
As the market concerns itself with a potential artificial intelligence (AI) bubble, there is a clearer and more practical approach that can be taken by investing in companies that could potentially benefit as AI technology progresses.
Since the shutdown began, air traffic controllers and TSA agents have been working without pay. Many are calling in sick, leading to longer lines and more flight disruptions.
Investors looking to profit from a “Goldilocks” environment where US stocks rally but Treasury market losses are contained should short the dollar, according to a new study published by Morgan Stanley.
Head of U.S. Fixed Income Greg Wilensky and Portfolio Manager Jeremiah Buckley discuss how balanced strategies can help investors stay true to their long-term objectives by providing a less volatile option to an all-equity portfolio.
So while there is a lot of focus on drug prices, measures taken to date are unlikely to make a meaningful impact on costs paid by the U.S. and its citizens. More fundamental reform would likely take an act of Congress, which would be hotly contested by lobbyists. There is no end in sight for debate on this front.
The 10-year Treasury briefly tested 4% and slipped just below, exactly what you’d expect when credit jitters boost demand for safe collateral. Real yields eased as well, consistent with a modest risk-off bid. Treasuries remain the cleanest hedge when credit fears pop, and that relationship asserted itself again last week.
While many investors entered 2025 heavily exposed to tech already, that hasn’t stopped markets from identifying other opportunities created by the need for AI computing power, like data centers.
A relentless surge in the price of gold is delivering windfalls across emerging markets, boosting investor confidence in countries that mine and buy the metal.
Stock markets are at all-time highs, public companies are shutting down their operations to buy bitcoin, consumers can bet in real time on almost anything they can imagine, “meme stocks” are back in full force, even the US government is buying stocks.
Despite short-term bearish sentiment, the case for Bitcoin remains underpinned by persistent macro weakness, potential Fed easing, and renewed distrust in traditional financial systems.
As we recently argued, investors don’t need to worry about the federal government shutdown showdown causing a recession. Before the current shutdown, the federal government had been shut for eighty days in the prior thirty years, with none of those days during a recession.
On this episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s head of research, Todd Rosenbluth, discussed the T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond ETF (TAGG) with Chuck Jaffe of Money Life. The pair discussed several topics related to the fund to give investors a deeper understanding of the ETF.
For most investors, energy security probably tends to be an afterthought until an event drives a jump in prices at the pump, as seen with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, energy security is about much more than geopolitics, especially as demand for electricity is poised for growth.
Buybacks raise important questions. Foremost amongst them are whether, and how much, buybacks push up stock prices, and whether they create other distortions relevant to investors and public finances. This article explores these questions by drawing on economic theory and broadly held views of real-world investor behavior.
Active fixed income ETFs can provide the refresh many investors want as the year draws to an end in an uncertain rate market.
Seldom has the middling been the cause of so much relief. Six months after the White House unveiled steep tariffs, the global economy has held up well — mainly by outperforming some doleful projections. There's been no recession. Forecasts have even been revised up a touch.
Apple Inc. shares hit their first record of 2025 on Monday after Loop Capital upgraded the stock to buy from hold, becoming the latest firm to cite positive iPhone demand trends.
All it took was a classic bout of haven buying to wake up a slumbering Treasuries market and drive benchmark yields to the lowest in months.
Emerging markets rose, with the stock benchmark advancing to the highest level in more than four years, as signals of easing US-China trade tensions supported appetite for riskier assets.
Prior to his most recent role, Marsh held several leadership positions including as head of the EMEA financing group, global co-head of credit finance and global co-head of the alternative capital solutions unit. He became a partner at Goldman in 2014 after joining the bank in 2006.
Pictet Asset Management just added three funds to a 2025 that’s seen a record number of actively managed ETF launches: the Pictet AI Enhanced International Equity ETF (PQNT), Pictet Cleaner Planet ETF (PCLN), and Pictet AI & Automation ETF (PBOT).
I’m a big believer in simplicity for most things, and that includes investing. When constructing a portfolio, simplicity is what I aim for. In this piece, I offer a brief summary of how I analyze the holdings and make recommendations on what to keep and what to get out of when a client asks me to review and improve their investments.
Connecting the dots, we found that a nation's court system and level of justice have the most significant impact on its Freedom Index, and therefore, by extension, on the wealth and happiness of its citizens. Aristotle connected these ideas over 2000 years ago when he opined, “A just life is inherently a happy one.”
Every market cycle eventually changes investor psychology to believe risk has been conquered.
Debt-driven growth definitely feels good. We all enjoy it immensely as long as it lasts. Then the lights go out and the party’s over. Yes, it starts again, but not until we all stumble around in the dark for a while.
In another sign that we are entering an era of even looser monetary policy, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hinted that balance sheet reduction is about to come to an end.
There is little question that the key economic storyline of Q3 was the fact that new job creation was not anywhere near as solid as the markets and, perhaps more importantly, the Fed believed.
Monetary and fiscal policy are now decisively stimulative to the economy thanks to interest rate cuts and the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This should provide a tailwind to investments.
The third quarter demonstrated the market’s ability to focus on powerful, long-term themes like technological productivity and monetary policy, even amidst significant short-term political noise. While large technology companies were once again a driver of headline returns, the positive performance across nearly all global asset classes rewarded a diversified approach.
The stock and bond markets are taking the government shutdown—and lack of data releases—in stride, but how long the calm might last is an open question.
