TFA’s Annual Video Report
Our Annual Report Video! Each year Trusted Financial Advisors hosts a luncheon for clients and Gary Miller, CFP provides an overview of portfolio performance and the economic outlook. If you would like to find out more about what it’s like to be a client of Trusted Financial please take a look at the video from this year’s event, held December 9, 2015. You may play the video by clicking on it.
TFA – Quarter End Report, Sept. 30, 2015
Since “going independent”, that is, changing my relationship with clients from that of “broker” to that of a fee-only investment adviser, in January 2001, the stated objective for Balanced/Value accounts has been to “capture” most of the total returns available from U.S. stocks and with less risk. As shown below, this has been fully achieved for most clients over a [...]
A Cold Wind in August – 2015
Over this past weekend, I shared a special report with clients, discussing with some detail their current holdings and explaining our approach during this time of equity (stock) market correction. Below is an edited version for use by the public: The US is basically being pulled down by the rest of the globe, in particular the Chinese equity markets which [...]
Mid-Quarter Update – August 2015
Bow Wowwwww! They don’t call it the “Dog Days” for nothing. Imagine being a pooch in summer, wrapped in a fur coat in the days before air conditioning? This pretty much describes the behavior of most stocks during the summer. Trader’s desks are empty, clients are enjoying the beach, or cruising in their yachts (big time investors all own yachts, [...]
TFA Letter to the Department of Labor
On April 16, 2015 I posted an article about conflicts of interest exhibited by many who advise retirement plans. The value of retirement assets owned by U.S. plans and savers is something north of $21 Trilliion. The latest figure I've found was from 2013, at $20.8 TT and the equity and real estate markets have risen considerably since then, while [...]
One of My Favorite Charts
The inflation adjusted Dow or similar “inflation adjusted” measures of performance
remind us that earnings and returns on investment, in the end, are about what you can
buy with your profits. As the cost of living rises inexorably, we all need to generate
greater dollars to maintain and hopefully improve our wealth.
We hear of “record” levels for stocks, from time to time but without adjusting for inflation
this is as deceptive as comparing Elvis Presley’s 1956 earnings to those of Taylor Swift
in 2014. So the chart below is one I like to check from time to time, as it tells us if
markets are truly making progress for investors over longer time spans.
As I noted here last year and at our annual client event, this chart should get a true
“technician” excited. Any asset class whose real level is able to exceed the level that
has held it in check for some 13 years is usually sending a strong continuation signal.