equity markets Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Rightpath Investments & Financial Planning, Inc.

Value Investing and Skiing May be The Key to Living Longer

Peak Thoughts, Uncategorized / Steven Smith / September 20, 2019

A recent column entitled, Survivor Bias: Why Successful Value Investors Live Longer, mused on the apparent longevity of legendary value investors Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett. Today’s long suffering value investors, looking for a silver lining in the decade plus underperformance of value stocks, may find one in Munger’s quip that “professors, judges and value […]

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2nd Quarter Client Note – The Raging Bull

Financial News, Money, Uncategorized, Waypoints / Steven Smith / July 12, 2019

By almost any measure, the past decade has been one of the best 10-year periods in history for the US stock market. Quarter after quarter, with just a few hiccups, the market has climbed steadily since the market bottomed in March of 2009. This past quarter was no exception, with the S&P 500 (total return)

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1st Quarter Client Note – Just Wait a Minute

Uncategorized, Waypoints / Steven Smith / April 6, 2019

There is a saying about the weather here in Colorado: If you don’t like it, just wait a minute. When it comes to the stock market, one quarter is the equivalent of about a minute’s worth of weather. The S&P 500 (total return) Index rose 13.65% in the first quarter; the largest first quarter gain

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Celebrating the Ten-Year Anniversary of the Market Bottom

Peak Thoughts, Uncategorized / Steven Smith / March 9, 2019

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs… Rudyard Kipling, from the poem If, circa 1895 We will forever be debating the causes of the 2008 financial crisis and the government’s attempts to minimize its effects. But the worst modern bear market other than the one caused by the Great

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4th Quarter Client Note – Is Past Ever Prologue?

Waypoints / Steven Smith / January 15, 2019

The S & P 500 (total return) Index fell 13.52% in the 4th quarter, bringing the benchmark index to a loss for the year of 4.38%. This, following a best-quarter-in-five-years gain of 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. The negative 9.03% in December was the 11th worst month in the past 50 years. The three worst

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3rd Quarter Client Note – Yield Curve Ball

Investment Management, Waypoints / Steven Smith / October 11, 2018

The S & P 500 (total return) Index experienced its best quarter in five years, rising 7.2%. (Of course, things happen so fast, that as of this writing the S&P 500 has fallen almost 4.5% in the first nine days of the third quarter; led largely by falling technology stocks and possibly attributed to the

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2nd Quarter Client Note – Fed Up With Rising Rates

Investment Management, Money, News, Newsletters / Steven Smith / July 11, 2018

The S & P 500 (total return) Index bounced back from its first quarter (.75%) loss, rising 3.43% in the second quarter. But US stocks were the lone wolf; with virtually all other major asset classes falling. The MSCI World (ex USA) Index fell 2.61%, while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index dropped 7.96%. After being

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1st Quarter Client Note – Volatility Emerges

Financial News, Investment Management, Money, Newsletters / Steven Smith / April 10, 2018

It was nice while it lasted. The S & P 500 (total return) Index fell .75%, its first quarterly loss since the third quarter of 2015. Some asset classes, of course, fared a bit better, with the small-cap Russell 2000 Index down .08%. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 1.42%. Others performed worse. The MSCI

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4th Quarter Client Note – Preparing for an Inevitable Bear Market

Financial Lifestyle, Financial News, Investment Management, Newsletters / Steven Smith / January 14, 2018

Global equity markets defied predictions – and perhaps even gravity – in 2017. The S & P 500 (total return) index increased 21.83%, landing in the top third best performances in its history. Foreign markets, buoyed by a falling dollar, performed even better. The MSCI World ex USA (net dividends) Index gained 24.21%. The MSCI

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2nd Quarter Client Note – Tribulations of a Value Investor

Investment Management, Newsletters, Wealth Management / Steven Smith / July 12, 2017

Stock markets around the globe had their best first six months in years. In the second quarter, The S & P 500 (total return) Index gained 3.09%; bringing the total increase to 9.34% thus far for the year. US Large Cap Growth Stocks returned 4.67%. While Large Cap Value returned only 1.34%. After years of

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