2012 Themes: The More Things Change. Since we’ve now closed the chapter on 2012, we’d like to review our “10 economic themes for 2012” from last January to see how well our ideas performed. We’ve graded ourselves using these symbols: ? Right, X Wrong, ? Not Exactly. ? Steady as she goes: We think it unlikely the Fed will …
An article in the New York Time today reminds us all how important it is to have our financial act in order before a life-changing event occurs. We always advise clients to prepare a will, health care proxy and medical directive as part of our initial conversations with them. We’ve worked with numerous legal and …
We hope all of you in the north-east made it through Hurricane Sandy safe and sound. For many of us, it was a reminder of the awesome power of mother nature, the interconnectedness of our modern lives and the fragility of our beautiful planet. US stock markets were closed for two days straight, and our …
We hope you’re enjoying your summer and are staying cool. In our previous letter, we noted that the gaudy first quarter returns for risk assets (namely US stocks) were on an unsustainable trajectory and unlikely to continue upwards indefinitely. As we anticipated, the second quarter saw a steep selloff in risk assets as problems in …
Before we begin our quarterly market commentary, we wanted to give you a few quick updates. Louis was recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal online where he discussed the mobile budgeting app we are developing. The genesis for the idea came from speaking to both clients and non-clients who have expressed a need for on-the-go assistance …
Lou was profiled in the Wall Street Journal yesterday where he discussed the mobile budgeting app we are developing.
We did a 30 minute webinar on how socially responsible investing works. We’ve posted it on youtube and you can watch it here.
In our minds, the difference between Google and Yahoo! has always been the degree to which their core product relies on automation. Google wins whenever the best solution is a highly automated, machine-solvable one. Yahoo! has the upper hand when the solution requires some level of human interaction and editing. This is a distinction that …
The true tragedy at Pandora Media is not that the stock traded below its IPO price within 24 hours (though investors who bought shares in the secondary market on the first day may disagree). Rather, it’s that the founder (who was one of three co-founders) holds only 2.25% of the outstanding shares. Meanwhile, two venture …
One of the more notable financial news stories of the year so far is the decision of social media heavyweight Facebook to go public (an event we alluded to in our top 10 themes for 2012). The question on everyone’s mind is whether a potential $100 billion market valuation is appropriate for a company that …
If you’re new to investing and thinking about putting your money to work using an approach that incorporates social or ethical criteria, it’s important to know what types of strategies are available to you and how to differentiate between them. When we consider the socially responsible investment (SRI) universe, there are five main strategies …
Here are our top 10 investment themes for 2012. These are the topics we think will have the biggest impact on client portfolios in the coming year… 1. Steady as she goes: We think it unlikely the Fed will raise rates in 2012, largely due to the presidential election. With the ongoing crisis in …
Since we’ve now closed the chapter on 2011, we’d like to review our “11 Economic Themes For 2011” from last January, to see how well our ideas performed. 1. No. Raise ’em sort of high: We expect the Fed to raise short-term interest rates towards the end of the year, in response to …
We hope you enjoyed a restful holiday with your family and are off to a great start to 2012. We’ve attached two documents to this letter: the first reviews our economic themes for 2011 (evaluating where we were right and where we were wrong) while the second outlines our investment themes for 2012 (topics we …
The third quarter saw equity markets trade substantially lower from where they began—the S&P 500 index started the quarter at 1,320.64 and ended at 1,131.42, a loss of nearly 15%. On October 4th, the S&P 500 saw an intraday low of 1,074.77, which marked a decline of more than 20% from the 2011 high of …