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April 11, 2016 Dear Client/Prospect: Navigating the markets in early 2016 has been treacherous. Social media stock LinkedIn down 45% in one day; that’s enough to bring anyone to their knees. While the first six weeks of the year were very rocky, the next six performed admirably and made up for the free-fall. Election years are historically very good years for the markets. I think the uneasiness with who the candidates will be and in some cases, what they represent, has made many investors and corporations nervous. I believe as we get closer to the national conventions and the two candidates are finally clear, we will finally see some stability in the markets. Until then we are probably going to ...

Dear Client/Prospect: I sent out a short video about a week ago (which is also posted on our Facebook page) touching on several items regarding our 2016 Global Investment Outlook. It has certainly been a hairy first fifteen days of January and that’s putting it lightly. It is also disappointing that many experts on CNBC including Jim Cramer are quick to point the finger at the Federal Reserve and their lowering of rates last month. If it were that simple, we wouldn’t be having the continued volatility that we’ve experienced since August. The Fed hadn’t raised rates since 2008! This was necessary and expected so let me mention a few other items that probably hold more water than those opinions ...

November 18, 2015 Dear Client(s): Well, the 2015 year in the markets has certainly been interesting. Every time it looks as if we are starting to secure some traction with equity gains, we take a few steps back. As bad as September was, October was fantastic; if you happened to hang in there and not cash in your chips. Amazon, Nike & Disney have been very big winners for us in 2015 and we continue to be fully invested in these positions. The Federal Reserve continued its usual position of doing nothing when it comes to raising rates. Will they finally do what we’ve been expecting for quite some time? Stay tuned and we will see in December 16 at ...

July 17, 2014 Dear Client: Our advice in April was “stay the course” and not much has changed since then. The stock market has continued to be strong and as normal summer trading volume is down, we continue to see nice gains in equities. We are maintaining our position at 90% equities, as we see no reason to change this. Many are waiting for the bottom to drop out when interest rates finally start to rise but we are of the opposite opinion. Many of the other economic factors are very solid. The U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in June and combined with the other five months of the year, we have added 1.4 million jobs in the first half ...

April 8, 2014 Dear Client (s): As I draft this letter, we are finally having a positive day in the stock market. This is after three awful days with just about everything in the red. The start of 2014 has certainly been different from 2013. After the S&P 500 being up over 50% in two years, we should expect some type of slowdown. There has been extreme volatility and a considerable amount of sell-off of equity positions. Much of this is due to fear and profit taking. The momentum stocks are taking it the worst, but I have one piece of advice: stay the course. There hasn’t been any indication that we’re in a market (dare I say it) correction ...

November 29th, 2012 Dear Client: Four more years! President Barack Obama remains as Commander in Chief, and at the very least, we are not kept in limbo wondering the outcome. The question that remains is will it be more of the same as the first term, or will this be an improved four years for the economy and job creation? I split my time between Minnesota and Michigan and as I’ve talked to people, there didn’t seem to be too many people supporting the incumbent. I dare say there must be quite a few closet Obama supporters in our typically liberal states. Regardless, we made it through another election and now we have many topics that require immediate action. The ...

August 16th, 2012 Dear Client: I’m going to start this letter with a personal tidbit. I decided to run my first full marathon a few months ago. After running five half-marathons in past years, I figured this would be rather simple, double my training and double my time. No problem…I thought. Was I ever wrong! This was the single most mentally and physically tough challenge that I have ever taken on. Yes, I did finish, but only by setting mini-goals throughout this awful and painful decision. All kidding aside, I am very glad I finished this long-time goal of mine. My point here is that I got through the race by setting mini-goals and measuring points throughout the race. I ...

March 13th, 2013 Well, equity markets have bulled their way to a Nascar-like start in early 2013. With the DJIA setting new daily all-time highs and the S&P 500 creeping toward its all-time high, we have had a great start these first ten weeks. This is on top of a double-digit return in 2012 for most equity investors. Can we sustain this almost four-year bull market rally? We should keep in mind a couple of dates. As we enjoy this run, October 9, 2007 was the S&P 500 all-time high of 1,565.15. The S&P 500 is up 129% over the last four years. Before we start celebrating, let’s compare that to the Nasdaq Composite. Its all-time high was 5,048.62 on ...

April 25, 2012 Dear Client: Our good fortune has continued with expanded growth in the markets. This is typical of an election year and if history is any indication, there should be more of this to come. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up over 13,000 and the NASDAQ Composite has reached a new high as well (much of this due to Apple’s meteoric rise this year). Unfortunately, as I have mentioned in previous letters, trillions of investor monies continue to sit on the sidelines in money markets, savings instruments and CD’s. Stocks continue to be cheap. When the market is bullish and on a tear: this is the place to be! Jobs news is favorable. Nonfarm payrolls increased by ...

February 1st, 2012 Dear Client: It’s about time! The market has recovered nicely in the New Year. We finished strong in December 2011 and this has continued through 2012 with the S&P 500 up almost 6% alone in the month of January. No politicians want to say anything about the economy whether they are Republicans or Democrats, but I will. The U.S. economy has started to recover and things are looking very good with the troubles in Europe now stabilizing. During the fourth quarter every bit of news that came out of Europe caused the stock market to shift one way or another. Is the Euro going to be broken up? Are there going to have separate currencies? Why is ...