When your largest position, Viasat Inc. (Ticker: VSAT), enters into a transformational merger involving regulatory complexity, interesting technology, enough equity issuance to require a shareholder vote, and a conceptual doubling down against what might be called the “Elon Musk-generated low-earth-orbit satellites (LEO) space craze...
To expand your reach beyond your existing network, outsource your marketing.
The need for content and guidance in the past few years has been greater than ever before, as clients realize that establishing a charitable vehicle is only step one in achieving their charitable goals.
Desmond Shum’s message for investors is clear: Institutions matter, and beware the siren song of the Chinese economic miracle.
I am writing in the middle of a whirlwind week in New York. We are going to discuss what I’m learning, some takeaways from the conversations I’ve had, changes in my personal portfolio, and thoughts around the topic of the day: inflation. As well as a few random things that I have read this week. All delivered to you within my 3,000-word limit. Let’s jump in…
Gold performed as expected this week following a monster CPI report that showed inflation skyrocketing 6.2% in October. The yellow metal broke out of its downward trend going back to August 2020, when it hit its all-time high of $2,073.
Its National Young Readers Week! Whether your favorite childhood author was C.S. Lewis or Judy Blume, you likely remember the joy of reading your favorite book and turning through the pages of witty rhymes and colorful illustrations. I know for me, the times spent reading with my three daughters will always be some of my fondest memories.
It’s been called “a lot of sizzle, no steak.” “Great marketing.” “Overhyped and oversold.”
After U.S. prices climbed by the most in three decades, there’s even worse news ahead for households and policy makers: Inflation likely has further to rise before it peaks.
Americans are racking up bills on credit cards, returning to pre-pandemic habits after emergency relief programs ended and the economy reopened.
Speculative psychology is the only thing standing between an hypervalued market that continues to advance and a hypervalued market that drops like a rock. Our best gauge of that psychology - the uniformity of market internals - remains divergent enough to keep market conditions in a trap-door situation.
Transitory or not, the current inflation rate has many investors concerned. A look back in history can put today’s situation in perspective.
Here are nine things every female solo advisor should know about launching and growing a wealth management practice.
The benefits associated with exclusion-ratio taxation can be significant and should be considered when selecting the appropriate GLWB annuity for a non-qualified account.
After this year’s record-setting rally in equities, the list of things that could go wrong in 2022 is getting longer.
New research documents a case where a U.K.-based investor engaged with companies and got them to respond to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, thereby reducing the risks associated with those stocks.
Inflation is looking less and less “transitory,” and make no mistake: Transitioning to a zero-carbon energy mix as quickly as climate scientists are urging will be highly inflationary.
Here are the trends we can expect to see for different marketing strategies in 2022, and how you can meaningfully apply them for your own success.
How do managers in the emerging markets, global/international, Asia and China equities spaces feel about the market’s reaction to events in China? Here's what our recent survey reveals.
How annuities can help shoulder RMD burdens in a market drawdown.
Chair Jerome Powell and the Fed had been holding the market’s hand in the lead-up to the tapering decision, making it abundantly clear that a decision was imminent at today’s meeting and effectively pre-announcing all of the relevant details of the decision...
In March 2020 the Federal Reserve was able to use old and new tools to manage the unimaginable – a Pandemic. The Fed stabilized the Treasury bond market and the municipal bond market through its purchases and back stopped government loans to small and medium sized businesses to keep them from going under.
The unprecedented exodus of women from the workplace during the pandemic is empowering those who remain, helping spur a resurgence in labor organizing as industries such as health care, education and retail confront an acute shortage of jobseekers.
Last year the global economy came juddering to a halt. This year it got moving again, only to become stuck in one of history’s biggest traffic jams.
This Halloween season, Rick Rieder and team shed light on today's market ghosts, ghouls and goblins and how to build a resilient investment portfolio around them.
Here is my interview with Eric Negron, an advisor, about how he uses the Asset-Map software.
What If I told you that 40% of the bull market rally over the last decade was from buybacks alone? That may not be as crazy as it sounds.
RIA owner Michelle Smith shares an observation that illustrates the dilemma independent financial advisors face in recruiting advisory talent.
Consumer spending on durable goods fell for the sixth month in a row in September, according to inflation-adjusted data released last week.
Digital-asset companies are pushing back against claims of excessive energy usage in the cryptocurrency sector as world leaders flock to Glasgow this week for key climate change talks.
The higher the costs of conventional energy, the greater the case for investment in clean energy sources.
These “perfect storm” disruptions have created numerous headaches for shipping and logistics companies. But as is often the case, bad news is good news, especially for investors who have seen shares of container lines surge in the 18 months since the pandemic began.
Today, I’ll describe what I think will happen over the next year or so. I rarely make short-term forecasts because I’m usually early. Reaching the major turning points takes longer than we think.
Jeepers Creepers! It’s hard to believe that Halloween is just days away, and as the month of October comes to a close investors will be anxiously awaiting the release of the jobs report next Friday. There has been some ‘toil and trouble’ in the labor market due to the vast number of jobs available yet an inability to fill the openings.
Given the inherent volatility of small capitalization stocks, even small differences in benchmarks can affect relative returns. Investors should be aware of the composition of the index used to define the opportunity set when comparing performance.
Nestle SA, Pepsico Inc. and local brands are among the 27 companies backing a project that calculates a product’s environmental impact from farm to store and then grades it with a color-coded label. It’s the first time a partnership this big is working to find a one-size-fits-all way to assess the supply chain.
We believe the municipal markets should remain strong into 2022, although the good news may already be baked into high quality bond valuations.
Energy prices have surged to multi-year highs amid the global economic recovery from COVID-19, contributing to larger-than-anticipated jumps in measures of headline inflation. While some policymakers had suggested inflationary forces would prove “transitory,” today many are questioning that thesis.
Performance highlights from the third quarter of 2021, plus manager expectations for the final months of the year.
Today’s atmosphere is one that we rarely see as investors. This is not like junk bonds in the 1980’s or the run up in Valeant Pharmaceuticals and the other generic drug companies in the 2010’s. There is not a narrow way of looking at today. It is broad.
In this excerpt from our latest “Global Investment Outlook,” Franklin Equity Group Portfolio Manager Serena Perin Vinton discusses how her team thinks about environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing and the opportunities in investment-driven innovations levered to a more sustainable environment.
We have been ranked as the most-read electronic newsletter among financial advisors for the third year in a row by Erdos & Morgan.
This installment of our ESG Engagement Series unpacks the relationship between a leading auto manufacturer and Loomis Sayles Credit Researchers.
John Vail, Chief Global Strategist at Nikko Asset Management, takes a deep dive into the firm’s 12-month outlook for the global economic recovery, and explains where he is finding the greatest investment opportunities.
I explore how estimated portfolio loss potential changes with different estimates of asset volatilities. Specifically, I compare portfolio loss potential calculated using Research Affiliates’ outlook for asset class volatility and return versus option-implied and historical volatilities.
In addition to the robo-advisors discussed in Part I and Part II of our series, traditional investment companies, including Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, Schwab, and Merrill have developed their own robo-advisory services.
Is inflation truly transitory? Will central banks start to tighten the policy reins? Will earnings continue to boost equity valuations? Heading into year end, the K2 Advisors team ponders these and other questions in its fourth quarter (Q4) hedge-fund strategy outlook.
Despite multiple headwinds, including increasing inflation, rising rates, and tight labor markets, our view is that the U.S. economy is in good shape. Markets may experience higher volatility as the Fed begins to taper its bond buying program, but we expect that to be a short-term issue.
Reducing exposure to equities and bonds to accommodate non-correlated assets or alternative strategies may reduce risk, but at the expense of lower potential returns and painful tracking error. We introduce a novel investment concept, accessible to all investors, which is designed to seek higher returns with less risk and low tracking error by using new products which, in combination, can provide more than $1 of exposure for every dollar invested. The proposed solution harnesses the full potential of traditional portfolios plus the opportunity for higher returns and risk reduction from non-correlated investments. We show how to maximize “Return Stacking™” opportunities by choosing alternative fund managers already engaging in capital-efficient strategies.
Among the illusions encouraged by every speculative bubble is the idea that wealth is embodied in the prices of securities – that higher prices inherently represent greater “wealth.” The fact is that every security is, at base, a claim to some future stream of cash flows that will be delivered into the hands of investors over time.
