Thoughts on Music & Wealth Management by Damaris Wyand There are two things I am passionate about – the arts (specifically music) and serving others. You might think these passions would have made my future vocation obvious, but as a little girl I kept envisioning my adult self in a suit and heels. This suited… Read More
The S&P 500 has now pulled back about 7.2% from its recent peak. What’s happening? Our take is that markets have been coping with several macroeconomic overhangs (Italy, US-China trade, rising interest rates, and wage inflation) for weeks. But, corporate earnings reports had been strong enough to assuage concerns for quite a while. Recently, however,… Read More
Have you considered the emotional aspects of retirement and how to plan wisely? In today’s world, people are working well past the age of 65 before retiring. Some people who are in good health may not be ready to retire just yet because they like what they do, want to keep busy, or need the… Read More
We are pleased to introduce the newest member of the BAMG team, Damaris Wyand! Damaris is joining Brand Asset Management Group as an Associate in our Operations Department. Her official bio can be read on our website here, but to help you get to know Damaris, we’ve asked her to share a little about her… Read More
As financial advisors, we use facts and logic to guide our clients through investment decisions, rather than emotion. Even the most perceptive investors, armed with years of market experience, can fall prey to mental biases that lead to poor investment decisions. While it’s impossible to completely eliminate mental biases, we help our clients identify and… Read More
In some years it’s easy to be an investor. In other years, markets will test your resolve. 2018 was a “testy” year globally. Following solid gains in 2017, markets began to hit turbulence in February. For a little while afterward, US markets moved higher, while international markets flattened out. But then early in the fourth… Read More
September 15, 2018 marked the ten-year anniversary since the failure of Lehman Brothers – a major milestone in history marking the beginning of the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. At the time, many investors feared a total systemic collapse. Stocks were sold indiscriminately with the S&P 500 falling 46% over the next six… Read More
The second quarter of the year contained plenty of action for market watchers. Trade war rhetoric and threats involving North Korea marred the first quarter and challenged the early innings of the second quarter. Following that, a relative calm settled in allowing US stocks to drift higher for a few weeks. However, that ended when… Read More
Wow – what a difference a few weeks can make! Our prior market commentary (written at the beginning of January), entitled The Case of the Missing Volatility, became very prescient a few short weeks later. It discussed the abnormally low level of volatility seen in the market for 2017. As we saw the end of… Read More
In spite of all the political bickering (and not just here in the US), 2017 was a great market for stock investors. What was really remarkable was the forward motion with such little volatility. Among the major stock indices, most charts for the year looked like a 45-degree angle higher, without so much as even… Read More