When we decided to ride the central bank liquidity wave in 2013, we knew there was a chance the market could have a pretty good year, but like most investors we were pleasantly surprised with the gains that the U.S. stock market delivered. Including dividends, the S&P 500 Index soared by 32%, well in excess…
One branch of technical analysis studies the relationships between asset classes to determine the health of the financial markets. John Murphy has written extensively on this subject and I have gathered a lot of my own wisdom through his teaching. With that in mind, here are a few relationships that I am watching right now…
If you are looking for a movie about power, money, sex, drugs, yachts, Lamborghinis, high-pressure sales tactics, stock manipulation, sex, and drugs (did I mention sex and drugs?) then go see the new Martin Scorsese movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film is based on the memoirs of Jordan Belfort, the…
Actively managing a portfolio requires buying and selling securities with the goal of managing risk and outperforming passive benchmark portfolios. Clients are correct to question the number of trades that are being made in their portfolio in pursuit of this objective. After all, one trade can generate several trade acknowledgments from our custodians, and each…
With less than two months to go in the year, the markets have returned a remarkable 23% on the S&P 500 index. Our portfolios are diversified, so we haven’t gained that much, but many policies are in double-digit territory (which represent significant gains in less than a year). With healthy returns already booked, one has…
Is it time to ring the register and take profits on our portfolios? Pinnacle’s Chief Investment Strategist, Rick Vollaro, explains why we’re not ready to do that just yet.
In a recent “Your Money” column in the New York Times, John Wasik did a great job of delivering the status quo message about portfolio expenses. He reminds us that John C. Bogle, Founder of the Vanguard Group, and many others, have performed studies that demonstrated that active managers cannot beat a passive index because…
With the end of the government shutdown and the lifting of the debt ceiling, it’s time to review how we’ve positioned Pinnacle’s portfolios. First, our stance has been that the political impasse was mostly noise — that’s why we didn’t pull volatility down over the past few weeks. Washington’s politicians waited until the last minute,…
What does the government shutdown mean for the stock market, and how does Pinnacle’s Investment Team plan to respond?
I just returned from a speaking engagement in Tennessee where I decided to do a “low tech” presentation on the current state of the financial markets. Low tech means no PowerPoint slides… just good old-fashioned notes on a yellow pad. I thought I would share what I wrote down on the way to Nashville:
