Commentary

  • Environment Ripe for Market Rout Time Sensitive Opportunity to Attempt to De-Risk

    In Market Analysis on

    Losses have accelerated and broken through technical resistance, suggesting that the seasonably unfavorable months of September and October may delver a potentially large correction.  These losses are mounting at the same time that the FED is considering removing maximum accommodation. A key behavioral riddle to be understood is that the market doesn’t always correlate with the economy.  Last year, when

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  • The history of inflation in the United States

    In Market Analysis on

    Inflation has dominated much of the financial news for the past quarter as it has perked up above 4% for the first time in years. This rise is accompanied by many typical attributes of inflationary periods such as supply shortages and surging commodity prices. It’s been a long time since we’ve had any meaningfully high inflation that investors may have

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  • A Bubble that May Rival Tulip-Mania

    In Market Analysis on

    In my time as an investment manager, which now exceeds thirty years, I’ve witnessed two prior bubbles. In the late 1990’s the bubble was in internet and growth stocks, some which were priced at infinity times (negative) earnings. Prior to the financial crisis, real estate prices crescendoed to unrealistic levels. Each time, markets advanced into a “shared speculative hallucinationi” that

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  • Stocks Rally in the Face of a Mounting Pandemic

    In Market Analysis on

    For the year, the S&P 500 moved higher by 18.4%, a remarkable feat considering the elevated levels of unemployment, business bankruptcies, and disruption of the travel, hospitality, and entertainment industries. The year provided our investors an opportunity to see how Toews strategies functioned during a bear market, the first realized since the 2008 financial crisis1. In this commentary, I’ll discuss

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  • Markets Advance, but are Challenged During the Quarter

    In Market Analysis on

    The strong rally that began at the end of March continued through early September, and then turned lower as covid cases continued to escalate across the country, causing fears that the market rally had gotten too far ahead of itself. In the past couple weeks, however, stocks have moved higher once again. Our algorithms moved us into a defensive posture

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