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There have been a number of market-moving events beginning this summer. The U.S. trade war with China continues to drag on, and investors have become worried it may tip the global economy into recession. It could go unabated, or it could be resolved more quickly than people think. The reality is that nobody knows, so [...]
As you are undoubtedly aware, technology is changing and enhancing all fields. And while much of the financial technology clients come in contact with is related to reviewing accounts online, paying bills, etc., we are beginning to see some real advancements in portfolio construction and risk mitigation tools. Investment risk can be defined in various [...]
You know it’s late August when corporate earnings season is over, the market is trading off of whatever little news is available, and volatility increases (many Wall Street people are on vacation, trading volume is low, so market moves tend to be exaggerated). That’s where we are now. It feels the same as last August, [...]
The market took a big dive yesterday and the news media screamed about an inverted yield curve and a recession. You might ask, so what is an inverted yield curve? During most times, investors require higher payments (yields) for buying longer-dated bonds. Or think of a CD – a bank typically pays you more interest [...]
Mark Twain once joked, “I’ve been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” The same can be said for investors. Since the financial crisis, investors have spent a lot of time and energy worrying about events that seemed destined to send the markets into another deep dive. Remember these events? [...]
Today, the US economy broke a record for the longest expansion in history. The last recession ended in June 2009, so the US economy is now in its 121st month of growth. With this record in place, the drumbeat of pundits predicting the next recession is likely to increase. And with it come questions from [...]
It’s amazing how quickly sentiment can change. And the change from last December shows the importance of focusing on data and not sentiment. During last fall’s downturn, it seemed that everywhere you looked, people were talking about a global slowdown and a coming recession in the United States. Pessimism abounded, yet much of the data [...]
Over the past week, volatility picked up in response to the trade deal with China (or lack thereof). For much of this year, we’ve expected the trade deal to go through and for news related to China to fade from the front page of the papers. However, that all changed and President Trump is back [...]
As you know from your monthly and tax statements, our firm uses Fidelity Investments as the custodian of your assets. Recently, Fidelity implemented an SEC policy wherein a “trusted contact” is listed alongside the account owner. You may have recently received an email that looks like this. http://www.whiteoakfinancialmanagement.com/.... The purpose of this policy is to [...]
The New Year is shaping up quite nicely. The market is up roughly 18% from the December lows, although not back to the all-time highs from early October. As I said in several emails, I think the market reaction to events late last year was overblown. Likewise, I think the January/February recovery is not telling [...]
