Insights

The second quarter was strong overall. A steady, boring (in a good way) upward trend was the theme A bit of occasional selling pressure was quickly met with underlying support.

We’ve had a nice start to 2017.

Many stock indices around the globe returned decent to very strong numbers.

So far this year our emerging markets fund is up 13.68%, international small cap value up 7.73%, momentum up 9.26%, S&P 500 up 6.03%.

2016 was a good year for investors. Election years can be hit or miss; 2016 was a hit.

Our equity funds returned between 5.00% (large growth) and 28.26% (small value). The fund returning 5% had been an out-performer for several years and, due to a change in supply and demand for different baskets of securities with different characteristics, it lagged while others flew.

This January was a horrible month for stocks, we undercut the lows from August of 2015 when markets dropped 10% in 5 straight days. The media made a big deal of the January loss citing historic episodes where a down January portended a bad total year.

As I write this large U.S. stocks sit in virtually the exact same place they sat 50 weeks ago. They’ve only been lower between then and now except for a month ago when they were at this same spot.

Yesterday citizens of Britain voted by a strong margin to leave the European Union after 43 years of membership.

The EU was formed after World War II as a means of tying countries together in a way where they'd never want to war with each other again. A big part of the ties are related to the "free flow" of goods and services between member countries.

Sublime is the word that comes to mind for describing performance in financial markets for Q1 2013. 

With the exception of a short dip in February, stocks mostly went up smoothly and with little resistance.  We’ve had years of turmoil and frustration with global economic progress but things looked mostly not horrible last quarter.

In the realm of investment advice, value is defined by what you receive from your advisory relationship that meets or exceeds your expectations.

Young families with an eye to the future are faced with a daunting choice – to save earnestly for a secure retirement or to save for their children’s education. Can you do both?