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There is a risk, in a time of prolonged economic uncertainty, that you become blinded to the pitfalls ahead. U.S./China trade tensions have now been ramping up for over a year, and other geopolitical tensions for even longer (Brexit for over three). But while we have suffered bouts of volatility, markets have not fallen into a more prolonged period...

Both stocks and bonds enjoyed positive returns in the Third Quarter 2019, adding to already-impressive performance from the first half of the year. Declining interest rates again deserve much of the credit for these attractive investment returns. Pessimism regarding global economic growth along with central bank accommodation compressed interest ra...

Substantial inflows into passive funds over the last decade have led to speculatioon that a bubble is forming. Key concerns center around the lack of price discovery inherent with passive funds as well as liquidity during market dislocations. While conerns may be valid, empirical data does not seem to support the case for a bubble.

Consumer confidence measures have been mixed amid heightened geopolitical noise. The global manufacturing slowdown has pulled that sub-set of the U.S. economy into contraction territory and threatens business investment. Key service-based readings have maintained resilient growth in the U.S. Currencies around the world have fallen versus the U.S. D...

What are the tax benefits of investing in Qualified Opportunity Funds? A closer look assesses the opportunities —and the risks.

Prices of commodities and the US dollar are strongly linked. But is this also true at the individual commodity level?

More and more investors are considering an allocation to commodities, typically motivated by a desire to tap the inflation-fighting and diversifying properties of this asset class. While the most natural way to get commodity exposure is by investing in a portfolio of commodity futures, many investors (and consultants) believe owning a portfolio of ...

Passive doesn't mean indifferent. Often people lose sight of the fact that while passive, or index, investors have made a choice to diversify and trust the market to reward them for their investments in the long run, they still want positive performance. And influencing corporate behavior for the better is a key way for them to achieve tha...

With the longest economic expansion on record currently underway in the United States, it is hard to imagine that capital markets and investments were in utter disarray a little over ten years ago. Or that technology stocks—the darling of equity markets today—took a severe beating two decades back. We believe that when the going is good...

Wealthy individuals and family offices are increasingly looking to direct investments to enhance their returns. Other significant incentives for choosing direct investing include the elimination of management fees charged by investment firms. They can also serve as a vehicle to align investments more closely with the values and mindset of the inves...

U.S. stocks have global exposure but do not provide global diversification. In investing, being exposed to too much of the same thing could be dangerous, especially when that market or a segment of it underperforms. A globally diversified equity portfolio may not only protect investors from the concentration risks due to home bias, but could also o...

The spectacular decline in global interest rates, both here and abroad, has been viewed as a necessary tonic to reinvigorate the sluggish global economy. But will a sharp reduction in short-term interest rates engineered by the Fed result in a new economic boom and a powerful rally in stock prices? Or is the experience of the European and Japanese ...

Recent legislation and changing public opinion has led to the birth of an exciting, fast-growth new industry: cannabis. Companies eager to capitalize on the trend toward legalization are moving quickly to establish a toehold in an industry that is expected to generate explosive growth in coming years. At the same time, investors considering ways to...

Oil prices jumped 18% at the opening of trading Sunday night after a missile attack on the world's largest crude oil processing plant in Saudi Arabia, but fell back to a gain of about 9% on Monday morning as traders attempted to handicap the impact on future production. Saudi Arabia has a stated goal of restoring one-third of lost production by...

What might your best stock holding, a piece of real estate, shares in a privately held company, interests in private equity, venture or hedge funds, fine art, collectibles, and bitcoin have in common? Whether you purchased them for love or investment purposes, they could be among the best items to give to your favorite charities to realize maximum ...