Starting just about at the bottom of the dramatic plunge at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the prior twelve months have proved remarkable from a total return standpoint. In the latest quarter, stocks furthered a ramp out of the downturn’s trough. Though domestic stocks continued to rise in 2021, international stocks furthered their strong […]
The rule that all investing carries risk applies even to bonds. The negative price impact of rising rates over the past few months proves that case well. Even so, bonds in our view remain a fine compliment to equity exposures for those wishing to dampen overall portfolio volatility. To this day bond price swings remain […]
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Even without the pandemic or the U.S. election, market returns alone would have made 2020 an abnormal year. Adding to their peculiarity, though, was the fact that global equity markets at one point in 2020 had lost a third of their value from a prior peak. The historic drawdown and the ensuring gargantuan rally, all […]
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For a moment, you'd have thought there were no other stocks in the world. Though a handful of names were caught up in what's proved so far to have been a short-lived frenzy, one dominated headlines. And by dominated, we mean to suggest it seemed there was no other news, as electronic gaming retailer GameStop […]
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Via this update to our investment models, we have sought to boost flexibility to bolster income potential across the model spectrum. Among the more aggressive models (as defined primarily via exposure to equity), we have consolidated positions that maintained potentially more aggressive exposures to credit and duration risk. We similarly expanded such flexibility among less-aggressive […]
Take out global viral contagion and the U.S. presidential election and we still had a bonkers year from an equity market return standpoint. Fixed income, too, as interest rates fell at one point to forever lows, reflecting grand concern that economies around the world would need tremendous support to weather the activity-destroying effects of the […]
Amidst a year of unprecedented turmoil, the domestic stock market experienced what may in hindsight be considered its requisite volatility. U.S. stocks saw two separate declines of 5 percent or more, and a maximum decline of more than 34 percent from a peak in February to a late-March trough. The market nonetheless turned in a […]
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Now that the presidential election has passed, seems investors have turned their collective gaze toward many stocks otherwise forgotten earlier this year. Smaller-capitalization and less-expensive stocks have strongly outperformed over the past few months. While we might not call it the start of a durable trend, we are pleased to see these two groups seemingly […]
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No, we don’t mean the election. We mean the market. Once the presidential election has been resolved, investors tend to shift their focuses to the likely big initiatives the winner will seek to execute as the new term begins. Even the best laid plans run into the realities of governing, though, and earlier investor expectations […]
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In an effort to continue to provide cost-competitive investment solutions, Dimensional Fund Advisors announced on 11.02.20 that they intend to reduce the management fees across a range of the equity mutual funds they manage. DFA expects to implement these changes on 02.28.21. The details presented in the announcement, which may be found via this link, […]
