Increasing your wealth over time is about more than making the right stock picks or always buying low and selling high. Too often, we see intelligent investors shoot themselves in the feet by making fundamental errors in their investing strategy. Through years of experience, we have observed the effects of fear, greed, lack of discipline, […]

The big news last week was that the federal government shut down on Tuesday, October 1 when Congress would not pass a 2014 budget bill. Since many federal agencies require their funding to be renewed each fiscal year, they were forced to shut down, furloughing 800,000 federal workers, and causing disruptions in services across the […]

Markets ended the last trading day of August in the red, with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their worst monthly declines since May 2012.  Trading was slow on Friday as worries about the escalating Syria situation and the Fed appear to have discouraged some investors.  For the week, the S&P 500 lost 1.84%, the […]

Markets closed out another positive week, driven upward by a better-than-expected GDP report and a reminder that the Fed won’t be pulling the plug on bond purchases this month. Nervousness ahead of a Fed policy meeting and the monthly jobs report contributed to volatility, but the rally pushed the S&P 500 to a new historic […]

Despite a spike in volatility, markets were still able to eke out gains last week. Friday also marked the end of the month and the end of the second quarter; though June ended in the red, equities closed out the second quarter in the black. This marks the third positive quarter in the last four. […]

The Fed and an ‘Omen’ Weekly Update – June 3, 2013 Markets ended the shortened trading week down, battered by selling pressure and volatility around possible Fed actions. For the week, the S&P 500 lost 1.14%, the Dow slid 1.23%, and the Nasdaq trimmed 0.09%.[i] Oddly enough, markets rose earlier in the week on a […]