Early in 2007, a prospective client informed me that he would not be placing his $1,000,000 portfolio with my company, Pacific Park Financial. He explained that another Registered Investment Adviser specialized in leveraged emerging market ETFs and that the firm’s performance was amazing. I challenged the individual to better understand daily compounding versus annual compounding, though ultimately, I [...] Continue Reading...
U.S. stock investors have largely dismissed several market-moving forces from the previous decade. “Decoupling,” rising interest rates, the yen carry trade — many of the most powerful forces in the financial universe have been less relevant because the Federal Reserve is purchasing $85 billion in government and quasi-government bonds. More recently, however, the uncertainties of yesteryear [...] Continue Reading...
Several days ago, one of my clients referred a friend to Pacific Park Financial, Inc. The elderly gentlemen came to my office with a familiar dilemma. Specifically, he struggled to see the value of holding different asset classes in his portfolio. His investments had appreciated nicely over the years. What’s more, he was proud of the [...] Continue Reading...
In recent weeks, stock market volatility has been rising due to uncertainty surrounding whether or not the Federal Reserve would curb its money-printing-for-bond-buying program. Yet this week’s data coupled with comments by Fed officials should have assuaged fears related to the tapering of those bond purchases. For example, U.S. manufacturing data via the Institute of Supply [...] Continue Reading...
There are moments when the media will grab hold of a terrific sound byte and refuse to let go. For example, some blame the recent weakness on yield-oriented assets — investment grade bonds, high yield bonds, convertibles, preferreds, REITs, defensive dividend stocks — on a mythical “Great Rotation.” The popular catchphrase describes a circumstance whereby [...] Continue Reading...
In 1986, I visited the Philippine Stock Exchange. There were few, if any, computers on the floor. Black markers registered trading activity on a giant whiteboard. And the feeling that I came away with was that I had caught a glimpse of an incomplete science experiment. Today, however, a number of frontier economies have upped their [...] Continue Reading...
Sometimes, when the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve speaks, my diaphragm pushes on my lungs hard enough to inhibit breathing. It’s not that I don’t admire Ben Bernanke on a variety of levels. It’s just hard to believe that a man of remarkable intelligence is serious when he says, “In light of the current [...] Continue Reading...
On Wednesday, 5/8/2013, U.S. stocks recorded gains for a 5th consecutive session. In fact, the S&P 500 logged its 12th gain in 14 trading days, rising 6% since a mid-April hiccup and reaching yet another all-time peak. Equally intriguing, the last week has witnessed a renewed interest in foreign equities. In spite of a deepening recession [...] Continue Reading...
Daisy Maxey is a talented financial columnist for WSJ.com. Ms. Maxey also follows me on Twitter. Not surprisingly, then, I may be slightly hesitant to question the timing of her recent feature, “Frontier Market Funds Offer Promise, Risk.” By the percentages, Ms Maxey cites data that is supposed to represent opportunity in the least developed countries [...] Continue Reading...
The relative strength of the primary U.S. benchmarks — the Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 — distorts the true picture for risk assets today. In fact, we do not even need to look closely to see the cracks all along the wall. For example, the most important metal to the world’s economy appears destined for [...] Continue Reading...
