Uncategorized
September 28, 2020
The dominance of large growth companies these past 10 years is no secret. Every day we listen to reports about Facebook, Amazon, Apple, NVIDIA, Netflix, Google, and Microsoft. But to truly appreciate their dominance in the stock market, one needs only to look at the graph below that illustrates the outperformance of Growth vs Value. The higher up on the graph, the more the outperformance of large growth companies. Today’s outperformance dwarfs the early 2000s and the 2008/9 Great Financial Crisis. Since 1995, the outperformance of growth over value has never been higher. S&P 500 Growth Value < Source: Bloomberrg Now that […]
September 25, 2020
Everyone knows that the coronavirus has changed how we live, work, and play. As a result, people are spending more money and time on the internet than ever before. In fact, some experts estimate that Americans are spending 30% more money online1. Meanwhile, social media, teleconferencing, telehealth, and mobile payment services are playing an increasingly important role in our daily lives. Many of us are even doing our grocery shopping online! The internet makes it easier to do more things from home than we ever thought possible. But with this added convenience comes an added risk: The risk of exposing your identity and financial information […]
August 13, 2020
You are living through, and surviving, one of the most tumultuous times in World History. Your schedule has been upended. The amount of change you are experiencing in your life is most likely at it’s peak. Many of you, or someone you know, has likely experienced a huge career impact. Vacations have been uprooted and re-booked some time in the future. The way kids experience school is completely changing. We have no sports. You get the gist. It’s easy to focus on the negative. Let’s spin this puppy around and find the upside. The amount of increased family time has been incredible for many […]
July 30, 2020
One of the most perplexing aspects of our investment world is how market summaries you generally see on television and websites can mislead us about the health of the stock market. Today is an extreme case in point. Chances are, you have seen headlines telling us that the Nasdaq Composite index is up about 17% for the year, testing new highs every other day or so. The S&P 500 index is almost flat so far this year, but is not far from its late February high. The markets are moving ahead smoothly, or even robustly, right? As it turns out, most of the gains […]
July 9, 2020
A report from First Trust Advisors, L.P.: Not since the 1960s and 70s has the United States experienced social upheaval like it is experiencing today. We have protests (both peaceful and otherwise), and a massively divided political landscape. On top of that, we have a virus that is spreading across the country, creating fear and an acceptance of economic shutdowns. Originally, the scientists said we needed 15 days to slow the spread. These same scientists have consistently lengthened the time they believe keeping the economy relatively closed is a good idea. Yet, eventually, as the number of new cases of […]
July 4, 2020
Independence Day, July 4th, 2020 Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is the United States of America. I was born on July 4, 1776, conceived in freedom and liberty. That freedom has brought millions to my shores to cast their lot with me. It has also given human incentive its widest scope. Now, just 244 years later, I am a diverse, multilingual country that is bound together by a single language, English. The dominant language of the business world, of the Internet world, and the second language for most of the world. Who would have believed that 60% of the world’s […]