Stay Cautious, Investors

Sometimes it’s good to be long, sometimes it’s the time to be short… And other times, it’s time to go fishing. Let’s take a look at some key takeaways from today’s markets: Lack of follow-through evident beneath the surface Risk-off environment persists Defensive sectors gaining strength Last month’s equity market bounce was impressive at the…

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Markets Don’t Go Up Forever

Trees don’t grow to the sky and markets don’t go up forever. Over the course of a lifetime, an investor is likely to experience both bullish and bearish cycles. As defined by Investopedia: “A bull market is a market that is on the rise and where the conditions of the economy are generally favorable. A…

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Why Not Have Systems for Investing?

Systems exist everywhere. In nature, we find almost an infinite number of hierarchical, interconnecting ecosystems that play key roles by which energy is transported and transformed. In society, we find that systems can provide for organization and guidance for human interactions. Take for instance how we drive – we follow a precise system. Here in…

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Start Sharpe(ning) Your Investment Skills

Good portfolio management begins and ends with risk management.  In last week’s ADAPT, we discussed the importance of understanding maximum drawdown, a key stat that can determine the likelihood that an investor can stick with an investment strategy through both good times and bad… And why it’s important to keep that number as low as…

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It’s Time We Looked Beyond Returns

Last week my kids had Spring Break and we visited a theme park. I rode every single roller coaster. I was hurled from 0–50mph in 2.8 seconds, dropped from over 100 feet, and sent upside down and backward at 70mph. While it made for an exciting vacation, I want my investing experience to be exactly…

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Value Is the New Growth

I’ve said it before: You can’t score from the 50-yard line if you’re calling plays that work best from the 20-yard line. You need the right playbook for the right spot on the field. Investors are guilty of making the same mistake. Far too many investors are still using the playbook designed to work in…

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How to Build an All-Weather Portfolio

In my recent series, “The Death of 60/40,” I cautioned investors that traditional asset-allocation strategies that have worked in recent years would begin to fail.  We’re not even three months into the year so far and the classic 60/40 is down more than 10%, on pace for the worst drubbing since the financial crisis of…

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Overlooking This One Sector Could Really Cost You

Technical analysis is all about seeing what IS happening in the market, not what MIGHT happen in the market. I’ve never met anyone who made money based on what might be… just what is. That’s a big reason why we focus our efforts on technical analysis. I’d rather find something that’s working. Why complicate it?…

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Let the Cycles Be Your Guide

Over the centuries, the American economy has gone through repeated up and down cycles. From expansion to contraction and back again. Some of these cycles were muted and went virtually unnoticed, while others have been dramatic and painful – like the Great Depression of the 1930s, the runaway inflation that marked the 70s, and the…

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The Death of 60/40: What’s Next?

Welcome to the last of the series “The Death of 60/40.” I have written in this series on how the 60/40 portfolio was justifiably a staple in investor portfolios based upon past performance.  By any measure of financial history, the last four decades were one of the most significant periods of asset growth price ever.…

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