During the past several years, the world of virtual currencies has exploded, of which bitcoin has been the most popular. The growth in virtual currencies has been driven by a desire to avoid banks and regulators. The fist thing to know about bitcoin (and all virtual currencies) is that this is unregulated territory. There is…
Our first report was published in 2005 and updated in 2006; the initial reports discussed our decision to increase our allocation to non-U.S. equities and the phased-in implementation. Since early 2007, 40% of our allocation to equities has been allocated to non- U.S. equities (for a 60% equity portfolio, 12% of the total portfolio is…
Looking forward, there are many good reasons that the bull market is likely to continue. The economy is back on track for growth. Yet there are many who are bracing for a down market and have low expectations for the equity market in 2014, due to last year’s extraordinary performance. We enter the New Year…
Our first report was published in 2005 and updated in 2006; the initial reports discussed our decision to increase our allocation to non-U.S. equities and the phased-in implementation. Since early 2007, 40% of our allocation to equities has been allocated to non- U.S. equities (for a 60% equity portfolio, 12% of the total portfolio is…
There are some investors who feel that you have to “bet big” in the stock market to become rich. They are willing to put all their eggs in one basket by investing a large percentage of their investable assets in one particular stock. Others may not intentionally have made this “big bet”, but it just…
Now that the equity market has recovered from its lows that were reached during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, investors, as is common in such a time, are wondering if it might be a good time to get out of the market and lock in their gains. In this article, we revisit…
We believe that we are facing a treacherous time for bond investments that have been made without regard to pricing and interest rate sensitivity. The mad rush to bonds resulted from extreme risk aversion to stocks. After cashing out of stocks at the wrong time, investors rushed into bonds at a time of historically low…
Since 1980, the policy of the Fed has been to avoid a repeat of the “Great Inflation” that gripped the U.S. economy during the 1970s. The political pressure to improve economic conditions has been a constant for the Federal Reserve throughout its history. Effective with the Employment Act of 1946, the Fed has been assigned…
Since 1993, the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) industry has grown to include approximately 1,100 products representing $1.1 trillion in assets. In 2007, there were approximately 430 products with $430 billion in assets. During 2011, fixed income ETFs have drawn the greatest cash flows within the ETF universe, with $16.1 billion added during the first half…
