Category: Markets
Ignore Elections — Focus on the Long Term
As 2019 draws to a close, we’ve started to field an increasing number of questions about the potential impact of next year’s U.S. Presidential election. Specifically, clients are concerned about the potential impact that specific candidates and the policies they’ve advocated may have on the economy, the stock market, and their portfolio. For that reason,…
Understanding the Mutual Fund Selection Process
For many of our wealth management clients, we gain exposure to certain asset classes through hiring mutual fund managers. With thousands of available options, selecting a mutual fund is a daunting task for many investors. Understanding a fund’s track record, expenses and other publicly available attributes might be a good starting point for fund evaluation,…
Living with Uncertainty and Volatility
Over the past twenty-five years, the internet has profoundly changed many facets of our lives. And the pace of change has accelerated in the past decade with the proliferation of internet-connected mobile devices. Billions of people worldwide now have access to a wealth of knowledge. It’s a never-ending flow of news and information – instantaneous…
Thinking About Share Repurchases
When public companies generate cash, they have a handful of options: park it in a bank account; reinvest in their business; acquire other companies; pay dividends; or repurchase their stock. Among these avenues, share repurchases draw a disproportionate amount of attention. They are viewed skeptically as a form of financial engineering that is solely focused…
Focus on Process — Not Always the Outcome
It’s tempting to make investment decisions based on previous performance. When the stock market is continually moving higher, as it had for most of the past decade, investors sometimes overlook the importance of process. But, as we all know, the stock market can be fickle. For that reason, whether the market is rising or falling,…
Bull Market Turns 10 — What the Past 10 Years Taught Us, We Already Knew
The stock market bottomed in March 2009 after a prolonged and deep decline from its October 2007 highs. The financial crisis wounds were deep. The global banking system was nearly torn to shreds, forcing unprecedented monetary and regulatory actions. Debt markets were frozen. A new administration had entered the White House. Stock market investors were…
The Value of Discretionary Investment Management
At The Fiduciary Group, we serve as fiduciary investment advisors. This means that we are required to act in the best interest of clients and to not place our own interests ahead of clients. As part of this relationship, we have the discretion to act on our client’s behalf and we endeavor to make thoughtful…
A Rational Approach to Market Volatility
Through the first nine months of the year, it looked like 2018 would be another pleasant year for investors. The S&P 500 climbed more than 7% in the third quarter, pushing the year to date return for the index above 10%. But those gains – and then some – evaporated in the fourth quarter, with…
The Perils of Market Timing
Following a choppy start to 2018, the U.S. stock market climbed 8% in the third quarter. However, most of those gains were given back during the recent sell-off. Even with the pullback, longer term returns have still been impressive: through October 24th, the trailing five-year and ten-year returns for the S&P 500 were 10.9% and…
Notes from the Investment Team
2017 was another banner year for investors. The total return (inclusive of dividends) for the S&P 500 was a gain of 22%. There were not any meaningful hiccups along the way; as shown in the chart below, the index posted positive returns in every single month of 2017. International stocks fared even better, with a…