Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair. --Sam Ewing, former professional baseball player and All-American at The University of Tennessee On Wednesday, November 9, Janet Yellen gave...
November 2017 Monthly Insight: Thoughts on Tax Reform and Stock Market Highs
“Don't tax you, don’t tax me, tax that man behind the tree.” —Louisiana Senator Russell Long; former chair of the Senate Finance Committee (1966 to 1981) Tax reform The House Ways and Means Committee released H. R. 1, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, on Thursday, November...
Q2 2017 Quarterly Market Review
We are pleased to present the Q2 2017 Quarterly Market Review for your perusal! This report features world capital market performance and a timeline of events for the past quarter. It begins with a global overview, then features the returns of stock and bond asset...
June 2017 Monthly Insight: Uncertainty, the Trump Agenda, and Stocks
Only a strong economy can create higher asset values and sustainably good returns for savers. — Ben Bernanke, former two-term Chair of the Federal Reserve Uncertainty, the Trump agenda, and stocks There was no shortage of angst in the investment community that a...
April 2017 Monthly Insight: Fear, Greed, and Four Behavioral Biases
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. -Sir Winston Churchill Greed and fear are the two dominant forces that move markets on a daily basis. When stocks are going up, an investor might feel greedy and rush to buy more shares at increasing values,...
March 2017 Monthly Insight: Risk Tolerance, Risk Capacity, and Risk Perceptions
“The confidence people have in their beliefs is not a measure of the quality of evidence but of the coherence of the story the mind has managed to construct.” — Daniel Kahneman Risk Tolerance, Risk Capacity, and Risk Perceptions are important concepts in investing. As...
January 2017 Monthly Insight: Looking Back and Looking Forward
“A year from now, you're gonna weigh more or less than what you do right now.” -Phil “Dr. Phil” McGraw The year in review The corollary to Dr. Phil’s quote above is, “A year from now the market will be more or less than it is now.” No one knows where 2017 will end...
November 2016 Monthly Insight: The Bond Issue
When people think of investing most think of the stocks of companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500. However, almost all our clients' accounts have bonds too as part of a well-diversified portfolio. Bonds (Fixed Income) are debt securities...
October 2016 Monthly Insight: Potential Volatility on the Horizon
"In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these." - Paul Harvey As we enter the fourth quarter of 2016, it’s worth noting that this long-running bull market has now lasted nearly seven and a half years. If that seems hard to...
September 2016 Monthly Insight: Election Edition
As of Labor Day, September 5, there were only 64 days until Election Day. However, early voting in Tennessee starts Wednesday, October 19, just 44 days after Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer. There are many issues surrounding the presidential election this...