If you’ve seen the news over the past two weeks, you’ll have noticed there is much joy in the U.S. financial picture. The Dow has reached an all-time high of 17,000, unemployment dropped again in June to 6.1% after 280,000 new jobs were created, and fear levels, as measured by the various “fear indices,” are […]
You have possibly heard about the military coup that occurred in Thailand on May 22, 2014. In brief, the military imposed martial law and has dissolved much of the elected government. They are establishing a new economic plan, and have temporarily installed the head of the military as the prime minister. In short, democracy in […]
It is a little tough to believe that it is 2014 and already a new year. But in a sense I am quite relieved that 2013 is done and behind us. It was a defining year in the modern era of finance. This time, the disparity between developed market stocks (US, EU and Japan) and […]
From Tapering to Teetering As has been the pattern of the past six years, the summer always brings an interesting set of challenges for the financial markets. This summer was no exception, from continued uncertainty in the financial markets soothed over by unprecedented Fed stimulus to geopolitical developments that are still unfolding. Unfortunately, the political […]
What is NORMAL? Normal is a much-overused but complex word. It can refer to societal values that reflect one group’s preferences to the exclusion of another. In a statistical sense, it refers to a baseline expectation drawn from reams of data. When you combine the two, you create statistical measures that can be used to […]
Apple Earnings Release It is impressive how the market can fixate on a single stock. Apple has been that focus for a few years now – on the way up and on the way down. And while I rarely focus on a single company given the diverse nature of our investment strategy, Apple is as […]
Last week was another one of those moments in the market which reminds us that we are in troubled times. Taking a completely agnostic, statistical perspective on last Monday’s events in the gold market, we again had an event that demonstrates the unstable foundation of the market. In this case, gold dropped by 5.8% on […]