Given the latest pullback in the market, we wanted to remind investors the importance of staying the course. The S&P 500 has declined about 11% from its closing high earlier this year. Is this abnormal? Should you be concerned? Should you do something different? Capital Research & Management Co. analyzed the U.S. stock market for declines from 1900 all the way to 2014. They found that: Declines of 5% happened on a frequency of approximately [...]

Overview At the start of the third quarter the exceptionally low volatility we had experienced all year continued. By mid August we had set a historical record for low volatility going back to 1929. To this point in the year, the range between the highs and lows was as narrow as it had ever been! However, as you are probably aware, market volatility exploded at the end of August. On August 25th the daily range [...]

Overview The story of 2Q is low volatility. The market has stayed locked in a historically narrow range with little direction to speak of. The market is at new highs, and there are at least a few signs of secular excess in some indicators that are of concern. The lack of volatility and overbought nature of the market certainly holds the possibility for renewed downside volatility this year. That said, we want to be clear: [...]

1Q Wrap-Up In our 2014 year end review, our view for 2015 was that it would probably be a decent year with average returns bit increased volatility, so far this seems to be as predicted. The S&P 500 was up + 1.0% YTD but the up and down volatility has been higher than normal. The Dow Jones Industrials are just over break-even at +0.3%. However Small/Mid Cap and International are doing better after last year’s [...]