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

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