Posts Tagged ‘market outlook’

This Outlook edition has (uncharacteristically) trod lightly on economic numbers and interest rate narratives. Suffice to say, the numbers have remained quite strong since our last e-mail in August.

2017 was a remarkable year. We jumped from a pessimistic tone in the media’s assessment of global markets and economics throughout 2016 to comparisons of the 1990’s technology stock-market bubble in the span of about six months. 

This market has seemed to defy odds and expectations given the pressures of the current highly politicized environment.

If we can recognize within ourselves which biases have tended to define our investment approaches, then we are taking the first step toward improving our results already.

Greetings this New Year from our new office facilities in Westborough, MA. We hope you will find time to stop in if you are in the area!

For some, higher mortgage payments may soon become a reality.

Here at the mid-point of 2016 it’s worth noting the remarkable turn of events, both inside and outside of the financial world we professionals occupy.

In today’s hyper-connected world with media outlets “screaming” headlines to attract eyeballs, it is nearly impossible to separate fact from narrative.

The flaw in compartmentalized thinking for an investor is that we tend to place too much weight on the investment outcomes of a particular calendar year when it bears virtually no impact on long term investment results.
                                                                           –CCR Wealth Management Outlook, February 2015

Some clients may be required to adjust their own portfolio expectations & strategy in pursuit of the return required of their financial plan.

Investors are forced to choose between the boogey-man of actually rising interest rates, or the boogey-man of a 100% credit-bond portfolio.

As with most truly alternative investments, an investor must give up some liquidity to reap these benefits. 

US equity markets have seen what we would describe as mild volatility over the last few weeks, mostly attributed to geopolitical tensions emanating from the Ukraine-Russia belligerence. 

What are the similarities between 2013 and the late 1990’s? What are the differences that matter?  Are we in another equity bubble?

The stakes are too high to flirt with failure and ultimately default; party affiliation will not insulate anyone, all parties to the impasse know it (despite the rhetoric), and we must operate under these premises. 

Last year we were looking for US economic growth in the 2%-3% range, an improved investing environment here in the US as well as a stabilizing of non-US and particularly developing markets. 

In June we quoted Alexis de Toqueville with regard to the developed world’s attempt to come to grips with fiscal burdens of increasingly hefty magnitudes.