The common characterization of US-China relations as a new Cold War is wrong. Instead, the most recent spike in tensions between the two countries – the second time this has happened since US President Donald Trump took office in 2016 – is primarily motivated by political considerations ahead of the November US presidential election.
A brief monthly update on what's happening in the municipal bond market.
Over the course of history, during world wars, pandemics, financial crises, and deep recessions, municipal bond defaults have been an extremely rare occurrence. There have been less than 700 rated municipal bond defaults in the over 100 years of public finance existence. As a point of comparison, we saw over 117 corporate defaults in 2019 alone.
Read Harold Evensky's latest NewsLetter.
Before you invest time and money on marketing, ensure you have these five things in place.
Having trouble helping your clients appreciate a balanced portfolio? These charts may help.
The way to get people to think about death is to imagine that by doing so they will never die. Recognizing this universal character trait will lead to more productive planning outcomes.
I’m doing some wild things to stir up my Zoom calls. These ideas may be too radical for you. But humor me, read on and let me know what you think.
He explains why even someone like himself — who has spent a lot of time around hyper-rational people who respected him, knew where he went to school and how much money he made — shares the feeling of being demoralized.
The returns of the 2009-2020 bull market were nothing short of extraordinary. From the 2009 low in the S&P 500 to the 2020 high, stocks gained a massive 488%, or nearly 18% on an annualized basis.
In their effort to improve things/prevent pain, Fed officials past and present financialized the economy. That, along with more unintended consequences from government debt and regulatory interventions (all well-intentioned, you understand) brought us to where we are today. We can’t walk it back without a great deal of pain no one wants to take, including your humble analyst.
The selloff this week was “perfectly normal,” according to the math. Find out why it makes sense to have a long-term investment horizon.
A backlash is growing among regulators and participants in the junk-bond market against the new accounting practices of the pandemic that obscure the virus’s impact on businesses.
Puerto Rico’s debt attracted investors throughout the U.S. for its higher yields and because the securities are tax exempt in all 50 states. Bondholders now wonder if they will ever get repaid.
It will go down as the wildest of the shale wildcatters, the overreaching pioneer of fracking techniques that minted vast fortunes and, now, have left behind ruin.
It is imperative that all Americans see recent events around racial inequality as a call for action and work to ensure equality for people of color. In his latest memo, Howard Marks shares his thoughts and pledges to heed this call.
We are on a deserted island, and the most necessary, most important parts of our firm’s life have become apparent.
A look at why investors may want to look beyond the alphabet soup of recovery trajectories while looking for opportunities.
The oddity of today’s stock market is exactly what any God-fearing value manager should pray for. There are very few scenarios in the last 50 years that can be used to model or forecast what is currently going on.
Stock market participants remained optimistic about the economy, further encouraged by a surprisingly strong employment report for May. Bond yields moved above their recent range.
Our secrets for hosting a great virtual meeting.
This article examines Reg BI and provides tips and tools for, in particular, independent broker-dealers to consider what needs to be done by July 1, 2020 and the balance of the year.
Between mid-February and late March 2020, we saw a “take no prisoners” market crash. Anything with a whiff of perceived risk crashed, in direct proportion to its perceived risk. The only assets that soared—because of tumbling interest rates—were long Treasury bonds, and with them, the net present value of pension obligations.
Warren Buffett “should have kept airline stocks because the airline stocks went through the roof today,” President Trump said this week. It’s a good thing that investors chose not to follow Buffett’s lead, as airline stocks are up 50% since his exit.
European banks’ additional Tier 1 securities should survive a short bout of the coronavirus. But even in a prolonged pandemic, the risk/reward trade-off might be better than perceived.
In a new quarterly letter to GMO clients, Ben Inker, head of asset allocation discusses the current uncertainty over the market and economic outlook and the decision to significantly reduce net equity exposure in the GMO Benchmark-Free Asset Allocation Strategy. Alongside Inker’s letter, Jeremy Grantham writes in “The Virus, The Economy and The Market” ...
Every day, ETFs are expanding in number, assets, and complexity. Now, more than ever, it is important to keep your clients’ best interests in mind as you navigate this evolving landscape. To be successful, advisors must do this without sacrificing client experience, financial outcomes, and overall communication.
Join Carlton Neel, CEO of Chaikin Analytics, and Pete Carmasino, Director of Advisor Strategies at Chaikin Analytics, as they explore the overall ETF landscape and debut a cutting edge platform that improves client communications, offers compliant-friendly reporting, and keeps your clients’ best interest at heart.
Advisors will learn how to:
Utilize best in breed platforms to communicate with clients
Perform a model checkup—diagnose your ETF models to ensure that they have the best of the best in each category of asset style and class
Use techniques to engage with clients and demonstrate best interest practices
Understand how a forward-looking quantitative rating and customizable reports can help grow your practice and facilitate compliance
After the presentation, the presenters Carlton Neel, Sash Hayman, and Pete Carmasino will be available to answer live questions.
In normal times, COBRA coverage presents challenges for those who are eligible for Medicare. Throw in COVID-19 and your clients face perilous decisions about their health care.
Three factors that may explain today’s disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street.
May was a good month, in terms of the virus, the economy, and the markets. But what does this positive news mean for the month ahead?
For many of your high-earning clients, 529 plans still make sense.
This post is part of a series delving into the growth-versus-value debate. Here we explore three considerations when evaluating growth-versus-value positioning.
True expertise is scarce and limited in scope. Howard Marks’s Uncertainty II — a postscript to his recent memo Uncertainty — explains why we should be careful about the “experts” we listen to and the weight we assign to their pronouncements.
Shake up a snow globe and the world inside is instantly upheaved, until the flakes settle and a new reality is revealed. This pandemic demands that advisors engage in the same level of strategic upheaval to ensure they thrive in an unsettled world.
The dominant question we’ve been getting from investors is about the perceived disconnect between what’s happening on Main Street and what’s happening on Wall Street.
The advisory industry is unaware that the traditional asset-location rules (i.e, put bonds in tax-deferred accounts and stocks in taxable accounts) don’t work in our low interest rate environment. The exact opposite is appropriate for most retirees.
Although any joint EU action should be welcomed, the current COVID-19 response plan hardly amounts to a radical break with business as usual. Far from a long-awaited embrace of debt mutualization, the newly proposed European recovery fund risks being both politically unpalatable and economically inadequate.
As troubling as these developments are, it’s important not to lose sight of the good that appears to be taking place right now. Investors that focus only on the negative tend to miss out on the opportunities.
Today I’ll share some more insights from the Virtual Strategic Investment Conference. Frankly, I could go on for weeks like this, but this is going to be my last letter on the SIC. We had so much expertise and wisdom beamed in from all over the world. I’ll give you a few more highlights and then offer my own personal takeaway.
Our ears are ringing as the iconic bell on the New York Stock Exchange is dinging – in person – once again! This week, Governor Andrew Cuomo had the honor of reopening the trading floor for the first time in two months, but of course, there were a few new rules in place.
In order to sustain this population and our growing demand for resource-intensive animal-based foods, the World Resources Institute estimates that crop production will need to increase by 56% from a 2010 baseline.
We're excited about the opportunities we see in value investing going forward. Here's why.
I’m trying to think of a year when rebalancing has been more important. None come to mind.
How has the coronavirus shock changed medium-term fundamentals? And how does that change our long-term asset views?
The coronavirus kills, everyone knows it. But this isn't the first deadly virus the world has seen, so what happened? Why did we react the way we did? One answer is that this is the first social media pandemic. News and narratives travel in real-time right into our hands.
Roth IRAs look very appealing following market volatility and warnings that tax rates are bound to rise.
Are you willing to handle what I call "the boredom of success" – doing mundane things over and over again until you realize your goals?
Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with clients and prospects. But to get results from your efforts, you need to make email list building a priority.
The stock market was choppy as investors bounced between hopes for a successful reopening of the economy and fears of a more prolonged slowdown.
