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Equities ended the first half of the year wildly positive and remarkably resilient, with the S&P 500 having endured an approximate 10 percent decline in January and February to end the first half up 2.7 percent. The S&P 500 Index then reached a new all-time high on July 11. To a large degree, equities have begun the second half of the year ...

Investors were recently challenged after the U.K. referendum on membership in the European Union (the Brexit vote). Although the polls predicted a tight race, the markets were signaling that a vote to remain would prevail. As the facts of the market changed, it was critical that opinions adapted to evaluate whether an investor was on track to reach...

Heading down the backstretch of 2016, the status quo brings to mind the title of the old comedy routine “Everything You Know is Wrong.” It seems that the capital markets have adopted their own version of augmented reality in a topsy-turvy year. Bouts of volatility are likely in the second half, and risks appear elevated in a world of sl...

Any investors who were too preoccupied to track the markets in the first three months of 2016 might conclude from their quarterly statement that not much of consequence happened. They may have missed the mad dash to safe harbors followed by a speedy return to risk. The extreme moves in opposite directions nearly offset each other. The primary cause...

Prior to the Brexit vote on June 23, financial markets were relatively strong. The S&P 500 index was trading just under its all-time high and the British pound was at the highest level of the year. The day after the vote, markets reacted sharply with risk-assets dropping and safe haven assets rising. Oil, the S&P 500, and the FTSE Eurotop 1...

There were two distinct periods during the quarter divided by sentiment and performance. The start of the year through February 11 was a “risk-off” period of negative sentiment and sharp declines across asset classes and countries. Many assets had double-digit declines during the first half of the quarter. Sentiment shifted abruptly and...

Research shows that individuals investing directly in stocks or in mutual funds tend to have substantially lower returns than do comparable equity indices or the funds themselves. This underperformance is attributable mainly to human behavioral biases, either cognitive or emotional, which have long been the focus of behavioral finance literature. O...

Many acronyms and terms are associated with impact investing, including socially responsible investing (SRI), mission related investing (MRI), and environmental, social and governance (ESG). While each has specific attributes, all address the desire to align one’s investments with a social cause or causes one believes in. In 2015 research by ...

Bond markets globally were off to a slow start at the beginning of the quarter, but began to drive higher as the Brexit vote approached and eventually jumped on the result as investors sought out safe-haven assets. The Barclays Universal Bond Index gained 2.53 percent in the second quarter; the gauge has advanced 5.68 percent so far this year throu...

The 'leave' campaign, a victory for the pro-Brexit voters, was quite a surprise to markets and the world. The United Kingdom, based on a referendum of all eligible citizens, voted to leave the European Union (EU) and became the first country to do so. The effects of the referendum vote are already being felt in the political spectrum and th...

UK’s vote to leave the EU has escorted in what could be a long period of uncertainty and volatility in the market. There is also skepticism about the recent, liquidity-driven bounce in risky assets. Overall, global equities and bonds should be range bound during the remainder of 2016, although both are at the higher end of their prospective r...

One of the main components of investment management is an Investment Policy Statement (the IPS) that serves as a strategic guide to the planning and implementation of an investment program. It is a road map that defines roles and responsibilities and lays out directives for keeping investments aligned with a stated purpose. A good IPS includes seve...

Looking back over the first half of 2016, the FTSE 100 index increased by 6.7 percent when dividend payments are taken into account. However, this positive performance disguises the substantial equity market volatility seen in February, and again following the Brexit decision in June. The moves in the headline index are again misleading and market ...

For the fourth consecutive quarter, financial markets suffered a bout of sudden and dramatic volatility. This time it was the Brexit vote which triggered negative market reaction. After the UK's surprising election results were announced on June 24, global equity markets sold off, the British Pound fell to a 30-year low, and worries re-emerged over...

Impact investing has gone mainstream. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which regulates single-employer and multi-employer private pension plans, now officially agrees. Recent regulatory guidance clarifies that ERISA fiduciaries may now consider ESG, impact, and other factors in their investment decisions.