Client Communications

By keeping interest rates near zero for such an extended period, The Federal Reserve has forced the large population of savers to look for returns in more aggressive areas. Those savers, which as a percentage are mostly retired, simply cannot get by when their income has been reduced to nearly nothing from the average 4-5% […]

There really is only one way to properly describe the present environment – Normal.  Take into consideration some of what is going on around the world right now: international conflict (ISIS, Eastern Europe, South China Sea just to name a few), economic instability (Brexit, European Union, Japan, Emerging Markets), and political uncertainty (U.S. Presidential Election). […]

Often times you will hear us state that we make recommendations within the context of your financial plan and comfort level.  It is a basic tenet of our overall philosophy because, quite simply, achieving your goals and placing your interests first matters the most to us.  However, this is not new to our firm, but […]

The recent decision by the people of the U.K. to back out of the European Union is historic, only in that they are the first to leave the relatively young collaboration of countries.  What makes it similar to other events in history is that a group of people are choosing to separate from a larger […]

Market pundits, financial news stations, and even major brokerage firms seem to be trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy by continuing to warn of a coming financial Armageddon.  For nearly the past year we have been pounded continuously about the coming crash as a result of (take your pick):  The Presidential race, banking crisis, recession, […]

When markets decline or rise in a spectacular fashion, we attempt to try to figure out if there is a way we should have anticipated or seen this and if there is, what action could we have taken. Can the way the markets move at any point in time actually tell us anything? In a […]

Santa decided to skip the much anticipated year end “Santa Rally” in the stock market. As usual, markets rarely give what is expected. The volatility in December was unprecedented in that 21 of the 23 trading days saw the Dow Industrials move more than 100 points either up or down. Right out of the gates, […]

Most investors would have to agree that staying with a long term, logic-driven investment plan during periods of high volatility is not easy. As recently as 2009 while the markets continued their free fall, those investors that could not take the stress any longer threw in the towel and sold out. Almost immediately, as the […]

It has been quite some time since we have experienced as volatile a week as we have in the one just passed. For the past twelve months it looked as though the markets were in an “internal” correction. While the major market indexes were remaining within a couple of percentage points from their all-time highs, […]

We have reached the halfway point for 2015, and if you look at the indexes, most are about where they were at the beginning of the year. Dow +1.6%, S & P 500 +3%, Transportation Index -7%, Utilities -8%, and Corporate Bonds -1%. Bucking the trend is the Smallcap Index +6.5%, the Nasdaq sector +9%, […]