As protests and riots make 2020 an even more gravely difficult year, I think many of us are astounded by the reaction the stock market has had. If someone had put you in a time capsule on the first of November 2019 when the S&P 500 was at 3,060 and blasted you to June 1st, …
The Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer. It definitely felt a little odd this year, as none of the parades and celebrations were occurring. Usually people are out at barbeques in big gatherings, commonly playing field games- one of my childhood favorites was Tug O’ War. The U.S. stock market is now …
This is not a commentary about social distancing, or the need to stay away from large gatherings due to the risk associated with the spread of the coronavirus—although it could be, because we are all very well read on the supposed need to do so. It is about the risk to investors who follow the …
Recently I was contemplating how many investment platforms and tools I have used over the years managing money as a portfolio manager. Most professional money managers have a pretty hefty budget to allocate toward research, and in particular systems to help them do the research to determine what specific securities to invest in. One of …
In the late 1990’s, early in my career managing mutual funds with my mentor Dr. Martin Zweig, we would get on a weekly call with Advisors who had clients in our funds to answer questions about the markets and what Marty was thinking. Invariably someone would ask, “What about gold, Marty”? Gold peaked in September …
As I write this, the S&P 500 is now at levels where it was in October of 2019, a little less than seven months ago. What were you doing last October? I’m guessing you were not searching store shelves for toilet paper and wondering where you could buy a gallon of hand sanitizer to refill …
Depending on where you live and what you and your family decided, in all likelihood you’ve been in some version of “quarantine” for around a month. Despite some promising signs around potentially effective therapies for Covid-19, based on what we’ve seen thus far, I’m guessing that we’ll be pretty limited in “normal” movement for quite …
The late Dr. Martin Zweig, my former boss and mentor with whom I worked with for nearly 20 years, is largely credited for coining the phrase “Don’t fight the Fed.” In his 1970 book Winning on Wall Street he talks about the importance of monetary policy to stock market returns, particularly the trend in interest …
Way back in the 1990s, when the “buy and hold” crowd was beginning to accumulate evidence that the most successful investors effectively buy stocks and head to the beach, the idea of “if you missed the 10 best days” in the market started gaining traction in marketing materials. What it amounts to is that, depending …
