Dollars & Sense Blog
A Convergent Wealth Advisors Blog
May 10, 2013
The U.S. stock market is hitting record highs, driven by a Goldilocks combination of economic growth strong enough to avoid recession, yet tepid enough not to threaten inflation or an end to the Federal Reserve's monetary party. But to the dismay of diversified investors, emerging markets are not... read more
April 18, 2013
Commodities—oil and gold are two examples—have slid dramatically over the past week, and the stock market is down one day, up the next, then down again.
What gives?
Over the past year, we’ve become accustomed to a ‘low volatility’ environment—in other words, a pretty steady march upward, with the... read more
April 8, 2013
The S&P 500 finally broke through to a record nominal high, conveniently doing so (for market pundits at least) on the final day of the quarter. The widely-followed stock market barometer is now at its highest level since its previous peak in 2007. The first quarter was exceptionally strong for... read more
March 13, 2013
The stock market continues to test new highs. Why?
A variety of forces—some real, some purely psychological—are starting to push investors more and more into stocks:
The Fed’s ‘how low can you go?’ interest rate policy means that interest-bearing anything is yielding very little—nearly zero in the... read more
March 11, 2013
Break out the party hats—the Dow Jones Industrial Average is hitting new highs, smashing through levels last seen in 2007. So naturally, many investors are asking, "When is the correction coming?" It's a fair question, as human nature makes us want to hold onto gains and avoid losses. However, as... read more
March 5, 2013
As I have witnessed investor behavior over the past year or so, I have found that this metaphor (“a wolf in sheep’s clothing") is increasingly apt as it pertains to fixed income investments. Many investors view all securities with fixed rates of “interest” as similar members of a docile flock of... read more
February 20, 2013
In the last two blog posts we explored historical returns of bonds and the value of your ‘safe money’ today. Since January 2008 and continuing into early 2013, investors have put nearly one TRILLION dollars into bond mutual funds alone, while taking OUT nearly a half-a-trillion from stocks. That... read more
February 14, 2013
In the last blog post, we explored the history of bond prices and their historical returns—and the value of your ‘safe money’ today. We now pose the questions, “How did we get here?” and “What do we do about it?”
Well, the answer to the first question is complex. Slowing U.S. growth over the years... read more
February 12, 2013
According to a well-recited traders’ omen, "As January goes, so goes the year." The so-called January Barometer, as first mentioned by Yale Hirsch of the Stock Trader’s Almanac, suggests the performance of stocks in the first month of the year dictates where prices will head for the year overall.... read more
February 8, 2013
Remember when the words ‘bond’ and ‘fixed income’ meant ‘safe’ money?
For at least the past 30 years—since Treasury bond yields peaked at nearly 16%—the bond market has enjoyed a raging bull market, averaging a 10.5% return annually. And the cherry on top has been these market returns have come... read more
January 9, 2013
2012 might go down in the books as the "Year of the Fed," as the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks around the globe took unprecedented efforts to jump-start economic growth and soothe worried market participants. In the U.S., the Fed extended or launched multiple rounds of increasingly... read more
January 7, 2013
The equity markets around the world began 2013 with a loud "cheer" as U.S. legislators passed a bill at the last minute to avoid going over the Fiscal Cliff. The question remains, however, whether that cheer resulted from a belief that genuine steps were taken to solve our fiscal challenges, or... read more
Pages
Author
Categories
Monthly Archives
May 2013
(1)
April 2013
(2)
March 2013
(3)
February 2013
(4)
January 2013
(2)
December 2012
(2)
October 2012
(1)
September 2012
(1)
August 2012
(3)
July 2012
(3)
June 2012
(1)
May 2012
(2)
April 2012
(3)
March 2012
(3)
February 2012
(4)
January 2012
(5)
December 2011
(2)
November 2011
(2)
October 2011
(4)
September 2011
(2)
August 2011
(3)
July 2011
(3)
June 2011
(1)
May 2011
(2)
April 2011
(1)
March 2011
(4)
February 2011
(1)
