I’ve written quite a bit about interest rates in recent years. They have an inextricable impact on financial asset prices, so it’s always instructive to pay attention to what is happening to rates – both in the US and abroad. Interest rates have risen relatively drastically in July and August across the yield curve (ie: […]

I met with clients this week that own a home in another state. They have owned it for a few years and during that time, they have used it mostly for their personal use (themselves and family). In the past year, they have started renting the property out to tenants. When the house was first […]

One of the most important economic releases for August came out today (Thursday August 10th) – the July CPI report – revealing the latest inflation dynamics at play in the United States. August has been a challenging month for investors, as markets have reversed their upside trendlines sharply in the first several trading days of […]

While meeting with a prospective client earlier this week, he asked about a key differentiating factor in the world of financial advisors. Specifically, he asked what makes a financial advisor a fiduciary (which Windermere and its advisors are). This is an excellent concept for everyone to understand so let’s dive in What is Fiduciary Duty […]

August is typically a challenging month for stocks and that is proving to be true yet again this year (at least as of August 2nd while I’m writing this note). We did get relatively tame data regarding inflation and jobs earlier in the week and another jobs report will hit the wires shortly before this […]

For the past two weeks, I’ve addressed client questions related to two popular equity market indexes – the NASDAQ and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. While no none asked me specifically about the seemingly most popular equity index, I couldn’t leave this series of questions without addressing it. So let’s take a closer look at […]

Last week, a client asked about the NASDAQ 100 and its rebalance. This week, I was talking to a client about the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). This long-standing market index just posted its best winning streak since the 1980s, posting 13 straight days of positive closes (it fell short of 14 straight days by […]

Let’s travel back in time. Friends is the top TV show. All for You by Janet Jackson is the top song. AOL has 28 million users and AOL.com is the top website. George W Bush is president. Flip phones and Blackberries dominate the cell phone market. Gas is $1.46 per gallon. It’s early 2001. A […]

I was reviewing a weekly newsletter this week (yes, I read several others beyond the Friday Five!) when this headline caught my eye. It was sourced from this recent CNBC article on what adults in the US believe they will need to retire Notice anything alarming about this summary graphic? Pretty much everything in the […]

The news media has been discussing a relatively rare occurrence this week – a special rebalance of a key market index. A client asked me why it’s happening and what it may mean for markets and individual companies. Let’s take a look What is the NASDAQ 100? The NASDAQ 100 is a common equity market […]