From an email sent out to IIM investors on June 14, 2022: Good evening, IIM investors. The S&P 500 officially fell to bear market levels this week. Rapid inflation across the economy has affected consumers and businesses, raising questions about spending and corporate profits. These pressures have pushed interest rates higher across the curve, breaking […]

From an email sent out to IIM investors on May 12th, 2022: Good evening, IIM investors. The optimistic contrarian is the rarest of investors. Pessimism can make it hard to distinguish between exaggerated and real risks – and is often taken more seriously than optimism…which, in times of stress, can be hard to distinguish from […]

Just Another Megalomaniac Monday Equity markets uncomfortably faced higher inflation and interest rate hikes going in to 2022, but as masks came off and supply chains loosened, there were signs of optimism. Then Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, decided to get the USSR band back together and invaded Ukraine. When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, […]

From an email sent out to IIM investors on Feb 27th, 2022: Good morning, IIM investors. For long-term investors, periods of geopolitical risk are unavoidable. This week’s events in Ukraine are troubling and evolving rapidly. A major world power invading a free sovereign nation is of enormous historical significance. And though I am skeptical of […]

“What’s It All About, ESG?” It started with an announcement from a friend, a suggestion from an associate and a push, well make that a shove, from a colleague – it was time to pursue the CFA Institute’s certificate in ESG. I took all of the 130 hours recommended studying time, pulled out my pants […]

On Gravity Gravity or gravitation is the force that attracts anything with mass or energy to one another. It’s kind of important; it keeps we human beings grounded. Although global equity markets don’t meet the physics definition of mass or energy, most succumbed late in the quarter to the gravitational forces of the ongoing fight […]

The full letter can be found here at this link. An excerpt: “Being a portfolio manager is a perennial search to find – and then attempt to profitably exploit – systematic biases in the stock market. I would argue that nowhere has our current political dysfunction created more profitable biases to exploit than in the […]

The Light at the End of the Tunnel There appears to be a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, at least in certain parts of the US. According to USA Facts, by July 14 of this year 56% of the population had received at least one vaccine dose and 49% of the population […]

History is Rhyming The provenance of “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” is questionable but sure seems to apply today to pandemics and stock scandals.  Although the current pandemic has not run the course, vaccines and therapeutics to counter secondary infections should keep the death rate below the 50 million experienced during the […]

With the recent $1.9 trillion stimulus package now signed into law, more than $5 trillion has been authorized over the past year to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like its predecessors, this bill sends checks to households, supports small businesses, extends unemployment insurance, funds healthcare initiatives and more.  Although this spending is […]