First, I apologize for being about a week later than I would like for a month-end account performance and commentary. I lost about a week to the 4th of July holiday. Last month I wrote about the seemingly contradictory market pattern. Among other things the small cap index was down over 2% while the Nasdaq  Continue Reading >

June 2, 2017 We are in an interesting, almost contradictory market pattern. In May, some sectors were up strongly, some were down and the broader indexes were up very modestly. A couple of things were telling: The small cap index was down over 2%, while the Nasdaq (technology) was up over 2%. The strongest areas  Continue Reading >

The Background As many of you know, we have tried utilizing numerous “alternative” funds over the years to attempt to diversify our stock market funds. We live in a world where bonds and bond funds have become ever more unreliable and vulnerable to low interest rates. With rates rising here in 2017, the situation has become  Continue Reading >

The stock market seems to be following the rule of unexpected, surprising outcomes that has prevailed during this whole political season. The markets were rock solid regarding two things during the presidential campaign:  1. They expected Clinton and 2. They wanted Clinton. The markets mirrored the FBI pronouncements (down when it looked like trouble, up  Continue Reading >

Of course, the ship is the stock market. The bottom part of the boat includes the most aggressive and smaller company stocks, then a little higher are the mid-size company stocks and then, finally, the largest, big name stocks, especially large dividend paying stocks. The decline has been very protracted and many believe this is  Continue Reading >

Most people know what the expression “bait and switch” means:  a salesperson promises a great deal on a product you want but when you arrive to purchase it, informs you that the product is no longer available. Instead the salesperson attempts to upsell you a more expensive product that you didn’t really want. The stock  Continue Reading >

One of the things in the news that I’m asked about is why low oil prices would hurt the stock market. Here are two recent headlines: “World markets plunge as oil drops below $27 a barrel”, CNN Money 01/20/2016 “Dow jumps 200 as oil surges”, Yahoo Finance 02/22/2016 Our natural inclination is to expect falling energy prices  Continue Reading >

I haven’t read anything by this philosopher and thinker since I was in college but recently I read an interesting article by someone who quoted this. There is some serious truth to this quote in the world of politics, but it also connects to economics and investing. When my dog gets sick and starts vomiting  Continue Reading >

Are We Seeing Light at the End of the Tunnel or Are We Seeing the Headlight on the Train? The markets are down big this year and with the strong rally of the last few days, some observers claim they are seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel”. I received an email this morning from another  Continue Reading >

Please Don’t Call Me An Expert Scott Rasmussen (well known pollster and political analyst) points out in an article on 12/25 (http://www.arcamax.com/politics/mod/scottrasmussen/s-1775884 ) that experts in so many fields have a way of being consistently wrong in their forecasts. In the field of economics and investing they manage to be wrong on picking stocks, evaluating  Continue Reading >