Greetings, and here’s hoping you saw a great fireworks show on July 4th!
After a constructive quarter for our clients, it appeared all would be undone as we neared quarter-end and voters in the U.K. made the historic decision to back out of the European Union. Notables such as former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Treasury […]
I thought you might like to hear from your money manager given this past week’s accelerating equity sell-off. First, it is a remarkable testimony to the maturity of our clients that not a single one of you called me in panic or distress. Still, it would only be natural to feel some discomfort, so I […]
“Watching paint dry” would be an appropriate title to bestow on the first half of 2015 for our client portfolios, especially in light of our holdings in the coatings industry: Both Sherwin Williams and PPG Corporation (Glidden paints) finished June at almost exactly the same levels as they did in December 20141. The companies’ share […]
Following the explosive upward action in equities that capped off a healthy 2014 for long positioned investors, the first quarter was burdened by three albatrosses. A large portion of the country, particularly the Northeast was socked by repeated snowstorms and extreme winter weather that kept shoppers at home and construction activity frozen. On the West […]
Here is a short video with my 2014 Year-End Report to you, my Valued Client. Please let me know if you have any questions!
This was one of the best quarters and is one of the best half-years for our Balanced-Value style of investing that I can recall in our 13+ year history. Most client accounts will see a half year cash flow adjusted increase in the range of 7% to 10%, topping the performance broad stock and bond indices. Our superior performance was driven by a relatively heavy weighting to the energy industry which had been under market suspicion until things began to unravel in Iraq in June. An ocean of new oil is being produced in North America with more to come, and as with natural gas, there is worry that oil prices may become depressed for a time by surplus.
It was five years ago that the current equities bull market began, although you’d have had to search far and wide to find any investor, professional or layman, who properly called that bottom at that time. At Trusted Financial, we strongly suspected we were in a bottoming pattern and were continuing our program of selective […]
As we approach the half-way point for the current quarter (was New Year’s Day that long ago?), I wanted to briefly summarize financial market news and our response thereto. Hope was surging along with the market as the books were closed on 2013. As indicated at our client Holiday Luncheon in December and […]
As the third quarter came to a close, eyes were on Washington as the House of Representatives escalated what has been an annual brawl over the budget into a shutdown of mostly non-essential functions of the Federal Government. Congress has been rehearsing for this Kabuki dance since the last government shutdown in the mid ’90’s. […]
This was a good day for our style of investing and in particular for one widely held position.
Even before Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke revealed that the current policy of buying massive amounts of bonds would continue, sending interest sensitive issues soaring, Rich Kinder and his team offered a lively and detailed rebuttal to […]
