“Stocks up 12%, best quarterly start since 1998.” Now, that is a headline to be grateful for. The market has confounded the pessimism of most of 2011 with a great start.  The Dow is up 8.14%ytd and the NASDAQ is up a whopping 18.67%ytd.   Now what? Well, it will never be easy. You can expect that the political events leading to the presidential election of 2012 are going to be very tough for the market.   The reality is that it is ALWAYS tough. This is the market that we have and this … [Read more...]

Perspective The market has posted a positive quarter. Autum 2011 was another volatile period marked buy a fixation on Europe and the seemingly unending problems of the inflexible Euro currency. For the Year 2011 markets in the US finished nearly even, but global investments have suffered. Massive flows of assets continued to pour into bonds. Interest rates are near all time lows. Pervasive Negativity Since the bottom of the market in March 2009, there has been persistent and growing fear of a … [Read more...]

Perspective The market has posted a significantly negative quarter. The summer produced a political spectacle in Washington, D.C.  An extremely divisive debate regarding an increase to the debt ceiling produced a demonstration of the dramatic dysfunction of the US Federal Government in it’s current state. The markets spent the summer in an increasingly volatile pattern. The dramatic swings have been a reflection of the lack of confidence in government and lingering fears from the financial … [Read more...]