One might suggest any hesitancy to be exposed to investment risk at the end of the third quarter proved misplaced, as returns for Q4 2019 show green most places one looks. Then again, one might in response state that misplaced is a poor choice of words, with premature perhaps a better qualifier as relevant risks […]

Last month, we discussed the highly variable magnitude of investment outcomes over longer periods of time. The focus was on the accumulation phase of our investment lifetimes, or those years when we tend to be saving much more than we are spending. Markets may prove just as variable when we begin to spend our invested […]

Investment hypotheticals are imaginary scenarios of portfolio returns. Summaries of theoretical past or future circumstances, they may serve as powerful tools for instruction, in particular we think when the goal is as much to convey how the investment math works as it is to convey the results of that math. Helping folks think through the […]

Depending on how one defines the group, Value stocks have underperformed Growth stocks for a decade or longer. This potential for long periods of underperformance is one of the primary reasons that we “tilt” our portfolios toward Value, while also incorporating multiple factors into the stock selection process. Value’s underperformance, nonetheless, does not dampen our […]

The third quarter was tense in manners similar to the thrilling, but otherwise inconsequential subplots forced into the hurtling-toward-a-super-bad-outcome narrative of a typical disaster movie. This year’s trade scrap is just one round of many past and likely future struggles that the U.S. will experience as it seeks to come to terms with an ever-surging […]

Seems like each day brings a new call that a recession is right around the corner. Or, if not right around the corner, somewhere in the nearer-term future. If not so soon, then likely at some point over the next few years. Or perhaps later. Of course, one of those statements must be true. As […]