The nationwide shutdown in response to the coronavirus has hit all corners of the economy, including the energy sector. The oil market made historic moves on Monday with the headline price of crude oil falling into negative territory for the first time. How could this happen? In short, suppliers continue pumping oil, while the demand… Read More

Not all bear markets are created equal and this one is no exception. Work stoppages, state lockdowns and a reduction in personal spending due to the coronavirus have already begun to affect the economy in unprecedented ways. To make matters worse, it’s unclear how long this will last. While controlling the spread of the coronavirus… Read More

Each day, our team consumes tens of thousands of words on markets and COVID-19. Some of the data is from industry publications, some from national news outlets, some have been shared with us by you! Here are several pieces we found quite interesting and worth passing on. Our hope is that you find encouragement in… Read More

This is a trying time for our world. Businesses and families alike are making adjustments that we never thought would be necessary. Starting today, two-thirds of the BAMG team will be working remotely until such time as it makes sense to return to normal. Our office will remain open and you can reach our team… Read More

Yesterday, global stock markets were again selling off as fear of a coronavirus-induced recession continued to spread. What had been a steady drop in the price of oil due to a general slowdown of global economic activity, evolved into a much larger drop over the weekend when Saudi Arabia decided to start a price war… Read More

The first quarter of 2020 was a pretty rough one. The S&P 500 ended the quarter down 20.0% (down 19.6% on a total return basis, including dividends) – the worst quarterly return since the fourth quarter of 2008. As everyone knows by now, this was all due to the coronavirus and the toll of this… Read More

“Progress is invisible to most people because they don’t get their understanding of the world from numbers; they get it from headlines. Journalism by its very nature conceals progress, because it presents sudden events rather than gradual trends. Most things that happen suddenly are bad: a war, a shooting, an epidemic, a scandal, a financial… Read More

2019’s third quarter was another wild one in terms of volatility in the markets. July gave us a promising start as US stock markets set new all-time highs early in the month. August was less favorable to the US investor. It started with escalated trade war rhetoric between President Trump and China, and then the… Read More

All in all, the second quarter turned out to be a good one for stocks. The S&P 500 was up 4.3% on a total return basis (including dividends), but it wasn’t easy getting there. The index initially continued its first quarter run higher, eventually setting a new high on May 3rd thanks to a first… Read More

Dalbar, a firm that has been analyzing investor returns based on cash flow data from mutual funds since 1994, recently reported that the average investor lost twice as much as the S&P 500 in 2018. Their latest Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior report estimated that the average investor lost 9.4% during the full year. This… Read More