Category: Asset Management
Uncertainty, the Economy and Markets: Q3 2020
Given where we are in both the economy and stock market this year, I think it would be helpful to revisit some of the same data points and charts we looked at last quarter and see how things have changed. Record levels of money market assets held by investors and institutions When we last examined …
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A Decomposition of the Market Composition
2020 has been an interesting year for investors so far and it is showing no signs of letting up any time soon. The most popular and widely followed stock market indices are typically market-capitalization weighted (read more about it here https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capitalizationweightedindex.asp) and at times can be rather misleading when used as a proxy for performance …
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A Quantitative Look at Inflation and Monetary Policy in the United States
Summary Every time the Fed announces monetary easing of some kind, we are flooded with questions and fear regarding inflation. You can also see a similar amount of interest when looking at Keyword searches on Google: We believe that most of the public and even many investment professionals in the US lack an understanding of …
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When Comparing Growth to Value, Look Under the Hood
When investing, there are many different investment styles and factors for categorizing stocks. Categorizations became especially popular when Morningstar created a style box to classify stocks. Across the vertical axis of the Morningstar style box, stocks are categorized by size. There are large cap, mid-cap, and small-capitalization stocks, which is based on the market capitalization …
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A Tale of Two Frequencies
The biggest challenges I faced investing early on were both, getting to know myself, and the cognitive traps that we are all susceptible to. I am a firm believer that successful investing has more to do with understanding one’s self first, and then developing processes to help short-circuit or sidestep any behaviors that may be …
The Technology Hassle Factor
Technology is one of those things in life that’s constantly changing, forcing us to relearn systems, adapt and overcome. Call it forced adaptation. Call it annoying and counterintuitive at times. However, technology can be the answer to a difficult problem or just the tool we need to make our lives a bit easier from day …
The Dilemma of Performance Evaluations
Everyone likes a way to track their performance. Whether it be through reviews at work, stepping on the scale at the gym, or performance of an investment account, humans like feedback. Feedback acts as a guidepost, allowing us to analyze whether we are on the right track to meet our goals. While it is necessary …
Building a Case for Being a US Dollar Bull
The US Dollar Index (‘DXY’) is an index that values the US Dollar relative to a basket of major currencies. When the index goes up, the US Dollar is strengthening versus this basket, and when the index goes down, the US Dollar is weakening relative to the basket of major currencies. The US Dollar Index …
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