Category: Markets
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…
Keeping Our Eyes on Access to Capital
In 2007, you could count the number of companies with a “AAA” credit rating on two hands. General Electric (GE) was among that select group. But decisions made by management over the preceding 10-15 years eventually led GE to lose that top credit rating in 2009 – and seriously tested the company’s financial stability. Consider,…
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…
How Investing Transformed Over the Century
I recently read a book on the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. The author thoroughly details the lives of some of the affluent passengers who were aboard the luxury liner’s final voyage. As I was learning about these “high net worth” people who lived one hundred years ago, I kept wondering about how they…
Where We Are in the Cycle
In the fourth-quarter newsletter, we discussed how we think about long-term equity return expectations. The purpose of the article was to explain how fundamental returns (driven by earnings growth) and speculative returns (driven by changes in valuation) collectively impact market prices. While changes in valuation are the overwhelming driver of equity returns in the short…