January 23, 2020
Blockchain Meets ETFs
Last week’s “Behind the Markets” podcast featured Dan Doney, CEO of Securrency, a blockchain-based financial infrastructure company, and Will Peck, Director of Corporate Strategy for WisdomTree.
Interactive Advisors offers two portfolios powered by WisdomTree: the WisdomTree Aggressive and WisdomTree Moderately Aggressive with Alts portfolios.
January 16, 2020
Well I Told You Once and I Told You Twice…
Friday marked the first “real” data day for the bond market, with the release of the final jobs report for CY 2019. Once again, there do not appear to be recession winds on the horizon. On the political front, we continue to see how escalating and/or scaled-down tensions in the Middle East can be bond market moving in nature.
January 9, 2020
Was This Cloud Grown Organically?
January 2, 2020
ETF Model Portfolios: Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is
The first step is to access the model portfolio’s allocations, whether that be from a website, fact sheet, presentation deck or other means. The next step is for an advisor to understand what is most important for them to make a decision on.
December 26, 2019
Beyond Abenomics: Japan Poised to Outperform in 2020
Japan is a standout amongst G7 countries—the only government capable and willing to enact rational, pragmatic and decisive countercyclical fiscal policies. Where American and European political leaders appear stuck and forced to compensate for their own inability to actually design and implement targeted, innovative and timely fiscal policy by constantly insisting that it is the central bankers who need to do more, Japan wastes no time.
December 19, 2019
The Fundamental Problem for Indexes
December 12, 2019
Fed Watch: No Lump of Coal This Year
After three consecutive rate cuts, the Federal Reserve (Fed) decided to stay on the sidelines at their final gathering for 2019. While this result was widely expected, it also represented a stark turnaround from the December 2018 FOMC meeting when the policy makers made Santa’s naughty list and hiked the Fed Funds target for what amounted to the final time in that rate-hike cycle.
December 5, 2019
Don’t Fight the Tape
Should U.S. Treasury (UST) yields be this low, given the current investment landscape? It sure is an interesting question, don’t you think? That being said, whether or not you feel the UST 10-Year yield should be trading at its current level of around 1.70%, the old adage “Don’t fight the tape” comes to mind.
November 29, 2019
Is the Glamour and Growth Trade Finally Turning?
Last week’s “Behind the Markets” podcast featured a discussion with Nir Kaissar, founder of Unison Advisors. Unison provides portfolios to individuals and institutions that leverage academic work on the long-term performance of various investment factors. Kaissar was an early advocate for focusing on valuations to rotate between the various investment factors and asset classes.
November 21, 2019
The Barbell Solution: Q4 Update
The volatility in Treasury (UST) yields since Labor Day is a real-time example of what investors have been faced with recently regarding the direction of interest rates. While 2019 thus far has been, generally, a year of falling rates as compared to the 2018 experience.
November 14, 2019
How to Add Mortgage-Backed Securities and Securitized Debt to Your Fixed Income Arsenal
November 7, 2019
Time to Seize the European Small-Cap Equity Opportunity
October 31, 2019
Fed Watch: Third Time’s a Charm?
Once again, as widely expected, the Federal Reserve (Fed) voted to cut rates at its October FOMC meeting. This marks the Fed’s third consecutive quarter-point reduction and places the new federal funds target in the 1.50% to 1.75% range. The question that now comes to mind is whether the third time’s a charm.
October 24, 2019
The Yield Curve Un-Inverts
October 17, 2019
The Price Is Right
October 10, 2019
Clear and Present Danger? Not So Fast
October 3, 2019
World’s Deepest Value Play with Growing Capital Returns
September 26, 2019
Markets to the Fed: Go Fund Me
September 19, 2019
Profitability and Prudence in Small-Cap Equities
September 12, 2019
Evaluating ETF Model Portfolios: The Dues & Don’ts
I previously wrote “Debunking the Myths of a Model Portfolio Approach,” exposing the difficulties of third-party due diligence as a myth. Let’s prove it by diving deeper into best practices for ETF model portfolio due diligence. Ask the right questions – Starting at the firm level, here are a few questions advisors should ask when evaluating model portfolio providers…
September 5, 2019
Welcome to the Party, Powell?
August 29, 2019
High-Dividend Stocks: Calling March 6, 2009
August 22, 2019
Don’t Know Much About History
August 15, 2019
Game of Bridge or Game of Thrones between China and U.S.?
The entire German yield curve is negative. The U.S. 3-Month Treasury yield is at 2%, while the 10-Year yield currently sits close to 1.65%. Excluding U.S. debt with 20 years to maturity or more, U.S. short-term Treasuries now have the highest yield among all developed-nation debt.
August 8, 2019
A Bullish View Amid China Uncertainty
In a week of big news, ranging from the Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting to additional Chinese tariffs to an employment report, we had two great podcasts with Professor Jeremy Siegel covering the major events with First Trust economist Brian Wesbury and Hanming Fang, professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of the nonprofit website VoxChina.org.
August 2, 2019
Japan After the Election — Focus on Economy, Not Constitution
Japanese prime minister Shinzō Abe and his ruling coalition won a very comfortable majority, but fell short of gaining the two-thirds supermajority required for fast-track constitutional reform, in Sunday’s Upper House election. In our view, this is good news for financial markets as “Team Abe” will now stay focused on economic policy to maintain a strong “feel-good” factor, rather than divert even more political capital (and parliamentary time) to preparing to revise the constitution.
July 25, 2019
Fresh Catalysts for Europe in the Second Half of 2019
July 18, 2019
Time to Reengage with Japan
I recently had the opportunity to interview Jesper Koll, a Senior Advisor to WisdomTree, on opportunities in Japan’s equity market for our “Behind the Markets” podcast. Koll believes Japan will be a source of surprise for both economic strength and corporate performance. Koll sees investors as underweight in Japan today as they were at the time of the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster.
July 11, 2019
Debunking the Myths of a Model Portfolio Approach
Over 85% of the current advisory population is not using external model portfolio providers. Why aren’t more advisors adopting ETF model portfolios in their practice?Perhaps it’s because of some of the myths surrounding them.
July 5, 2019
