Blog

Aug 23

It Pays To Understand The Indexes

By Cadence WM Blog

There’s an old business axiom “You Are What You Measure” and when it comes to investing, there is no shortage of things to measure: returns, risk, alpha, beta, tracking error, and so on. Each has its purpose. Measuring investment performance is frequently a two-part process comprised of measuring returns over a designated time period, and then comparing that performance to something. The first part determines your absolute performance, and the second part determines your relative performance; the first part tells you what you did, the second part tells you if it’s good or bad relative to something else. That second…

Aug 10

What’s Up With Gold?

By Cadence WM Blog

The last few weeks have been very unkind to gold investors with the rather choppy upward trend since the beginning of 2016 being called into question with a seemingly day after day drop in price. From a technical standpoint, gold has definitely broken through a couple more recent support levels and is beginning to threaten longer term support. The reason for this drop has been attributed to everything from the stronger dollar to rising rates. There are also those who feel there may be some manipulation at work in the futures markets in an effort to keep gold prices depressed.…

Jun 06

Strong Jobs Report! All Good, Right?

By Cadence WM Blog

The most recent monthly jobs report came out last Friday and was solid on most counts. The pundits were very excited about it and used it as an example of how strong the economy is and where it’s likely headed. Heck, even the President tweeted that he was excited to see it (an hour before it was released.) So was the strong report actually a good thing? Of course. More people at work earning a living is always a good thing. There’s no debating that. The question is, what does that mean for the stock market and economy going forward?…

May 24

Is There a Bear at the Door?

By Cadence WM Blog

On March 22nd we sent a special edition of our monthly Cadence Clips entitled “Was January 26 the Bull Market Peak?” After that S&P 500 peak of 2,873, the index’s value closed at ~2,581 twice: on February 8th and April 2nd. From top to bottom, that’s around a -10% decline. That special edition went on to discuss the existing conditions, like the unhealthy amount of debt-fueled growth over the past nine years, the small number of large company stocks propping up the indices, and the smaller number of stocks making new highs versus those making new lows, which all point…

May 09

Ask Cadence: If I am not invested in the stock market, am I missing out on these returns forever?

By Cadence WM Blog

Any investor who has not been 100% invested in the stock market since March 9, 2009 has missed out on some amount of stock market returns. However, everyone knows very few people should ever be 100% invested in the stock market. Therefore, we are going to miss out on some amount of returns during any period where the stock market outperforms other investment areas. Whether it’s the U.S. stock market or something else, there will always be an investment that outperforms what we own – this is an important concept for investors to grasp. If the risk of an investment…

Apr 12

Ask Cadence: Where are the safe places to invest if I’m nervous about the stock market?

By Cadence WM Blog

As a reminder, there are no completely safe places to invest, as nearly all investments have the potential to lose value at times, but there are almost always some investments that are relatively safer than others. The first step in the process is to identify those places that are most expensive and therefore present the most risk of loss over longer holding periods. Currently those are the world’s stock markets, particularly the US stock market. The next step is to identify those places that offer more value from a risk/reward standpoint and that have a better chance of holding their…

Mar 15

Ask Cadence: If the only way to earn a meaningful return on my investment is to take risk, how do I balance the different types of risk within my portfolio?

By Cadence WM Blog

The most important thing to understand when building an investment portfolio is that all investments worth considering can and most likely will lose money at some point. Unfortunately this is just how it works. The key is to make sure that the different components of a portfolio possess risks that are unique and somewhat uncorrelated. This way, we decrease the chance of any one type of risk doing significant damage to our investment nest egg. By keeping this approach in mind, we’re less likely to fall into the trap of chasing returns and building a portfolio with more loss potential than…

Feb 26

The Epic Disconnect

By Cadence WM Blog

What we’re experiencing in the financial markets right now is unique while at the same time very similar to previous bull markets. Those contending that this time is different are correct. We’ve never had synchronized global monetary easing on the scale we’ve witnessed over the last few years. This is new, and without question one of the primary drivers of this epic bull market run. The liquidity created by central banks around the world has created the desired effect – inflation. The only problem is that it hasn’t translated into price inflation to the extent desired (by central bankers) which…

Feb 09

What to Think of Interest Rates and Bonds

By Cadence WM Blog

Bubbles are dynamic and as a result, different each time. But one common theme amongst them has been the tendency for interest rates to play a role in their eventual demise. Looking back 30 years, there seems to be a causal relationship between rising rates and poor stock market performance. More times than not when the 24-month change in 10-year treasury rates spiked upward, stocks ran into trouble. Practically every sizable correction in stocks was preceded by an acute increase in interest rates. But rising rates don’t just signal possible trouble for stocks, they also mean there’s a current problem…

Jan 18

Goals Are Bigger Than Short-Term Investment Returns

By Cadence WM Blog

This current bull market started in March 2009, making it the second longest bull market in investment history. You can just glance at a chart of the S&P 500 and see that bull markets, especially big ones, do eventually come to an end. What has been unusual about this particular bull market is not only the duration going on nearly 9 years now, but also the relatively low level of volatility we’ve experienced along the way. This part of the market cycle has a sinister way of lulling people into feeling like there’s less risk in the stock market than…

Have A Question?

It Pays To Understand The Indexes

What’s Up With Gold?

Strong Jobs Report! All Good, Right?

Is There a Bear at the Door?

Ask Cadence: If I am not invested in the stock market, am I missing out on these returns forever?

Ask Cadence: Where are the safe places to invest if I’m nervous about the stock market?

Ask Cadence: If the only way to earn a meaningful return on my investment is to take risk, how do I balance the different types of risk within my portfolio?

The Epic Disconnect

What to Think of Interest Rates and Bonds

Goals Are Bigger Than Short-Term Investment Returns

Archives

Cadence

Client Center

Connect

Follow Cadence

Sign Up For Our Newsletter