Blog

30 Mar 2012

Posted at 15:22h in Briefs about our Process, The Friday Brief by

You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own and you know what you know And you are the one who’ll decide where to go.

Dr. Seuss

Anyone who can grasp the concept of a future understands the power of goal-setting and planning. We and no one else are responsible for our own lives, yet we spend so little if any of our time directing our lives, with or for any great purpose.

16 Mar 2012

Posted at 15:15h in Briefs about our Process, The Friday Brief by
What comes to mind when you hear the word confidence? You might think about the assurance of your own ability to accomplish a task or to succeed in some endeavor, great or small. You might also consider it as faith in somebody else; that they will do right or act in a trustworthy manner. Confidence in this light can also be associated with things that act in a predictable or reliable manner. It can mean a secret shared and it can describe the relationship of trust that exists to make sharing the secret possible.

09 Mar 2012

Posted at 10:52h in The Friday Brief by
The week’s economic numbers continued their trend toward improvement with manufacturing store sales, consumer confidence, and jobs growth all moving ahead. Even Greece looks to end the week on a strong note as arm-twisting forced enough bondholders to swallow losses of more than 100 billion euros ($132 billion) and allow the beleaguered country to move forward with its next phase of debt re-structuring.

02 Mar 2012

Posted at 10:41h in The Friday Brief by
It is now two and a half years since the Great Recession officially ended. The 18-month downturn was the longest and most severe since World War II according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit research group which officially calls the beginning and ends of recessions. But things are getting better you say. Why bring up the ugly past? Some economic data have indeed shown improvements, particularly of late. Manufacturing has been a steady stalwart of the recovery. Exports have been generally strong for months, while the much touted automobile industry has made a ‘remarkable’ turnaround domestically. GM regained the lead over Toyota for goodness sake.

24 Feb 2012

Posted at 10:21h in Briefs about our Process, The Friday Brief by
Last week in Measuring Uncertainty I focused on the pitfalls of using performance alone to measure progress toward reaching your financial goals. It’s only natural to use returns because they are the universal language of the financial services industry. And if the language of the industry is returns, then the methodology for producing them is active management; where managers make specific investments with a primary goal of outperforming an investment benchmark index. But with return alone as your guide, you are left to wonder just how effectively your managers are improving your situation relative to your goals, how are they managing your wealth?

17 Feb 2012

Posted at 15:01h in The Friday Brief by
In the investment process there are things which can be controlled; such as expenses, taxes, and under-performing market indices, and there are things that cannot; the uncertainty of markets. It is, however, quite possible to measure uncertainty not only of historical market returns, but also of potential market returns. So why is it important for investors to measure uncertainty and how is it measured?

03 Feb 2012

Posted at 12:00h in The Friday Brief by
It has been a busy week for news on the economy and most of it has been good. The best comes today with news that unemployment in the US has fallen to a three-year low of 8.3%.Payroll jobs grew 243,000 in January following gains of 203,000 December and a 157,000 rise in November. The averages for workweek and hourly earnings improved which will continue to propel consumer income growth which got a bump first of the week

27 Jan 2012

Posted at 15:37h in The Friday Brief by
Some air went out of investors’ hopes today as the government reported lower-than-expected growth for the fourth quarter. Economists had projected a 3.0% increase. Still, the 2.8% pace represents the fastest growth for the economy since the second quarter of 2010. The government also said that consumer spending in the US rose 2% in the fourth quarter, improving the 1.7% rate of the third quarter and 0.7% in the second quarter. As the trading session gets started, stocks are mixed. Bonds remain higher.

20 Jan 2012

Posted at 12:00h in The Friday Brief by
Equity investors believe that the domestic and global economies are on the mend judging by their behavior so far. Since the end of September the US Total Market Index, S&P 500, and Dow are up 21%, 19.5%, and 18.5%, respectively. Global stocks as measured by the FTSE All-Worldex-US index are up 11.3%. In contrast, investors are shunning the safety of Treasuries as theBarclay’s 7-10 Index is down .25%. But last year the index soared 15% compared to a meager2% for the S&P 500.