Most of us look forward to August as a month for relaxing in the summer weather, maybe taking a holiday, or at least leaving some of our day-to-day cares behind for a while.  Not this month, at least not for those of us involved in the capital markets.  August was a crazy month.  As the […]

When university students enter into the study of economics, they generally take first year courses in Micro-economics and Macro-economics.  Macro looks at the whole economy and the mechanisms that governments use to affect it.  Micro looks at how businesses operate.  If Macro is the forest, Micro is the trees.  At the moment, Micro and Macro […]

Waiting for the market to stabilize is not an investment strategy.   Waiting for the market to bottom is not an investment strategy.  Putting stop losses on your portfolio is not an investment strategy.  No one can successfully time the market over the long run.  The only viable strategy is to buy companies with strong balance […]

By the time I arrive at work, I have already received numerous emails from various brokerage firms showing their bond offerings.  For the past six months, the yield to maturity, or return, that these bonds offer has gotten lower and the quality of offerings has gotten worse.  A five year corporate bond issued by a […]

A number of our clients have asked us why we do not buy Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).  They tell us that these instruments are inexpensive, efficient and provide good exposure to the market.  We do not disagree with these observations, but they do not tell the whole story. An ETF is really just a mutual […]

Far from it actually MARCH 2009: Nouriel Roubini predicts new lows in the next 18 months MARCH 2009: John Mauldin say bulls will get their hopes crushed over the summer APRIL 2009: Dylan Ratigan says this is a suckers’ rally, no question MAY 2009: Andy Kessler says “this sure smells to me like a sucker’s […]