market commentary tagged posts

Thanks to L.K. Benson for sharing with us.

We often say that owning a diversified portfolio means always owning something you aren’t happy with. So far in 2024, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything in your portfolio like that. Every major asset class has posted positive returns this year, with many in double digits. In the third quarter, US Large-Cap stocks were up almost 6%, while US Small-Cap stocks were up over 9%. International developed stocks were up about 8%, and emerging market stocks were up close to 9%. After two straight quarters of negative returns, REITs bounced back in a huge way with a return of around 17%.

Compared to these stock market returns, you might think bonds would be the part of your portfolio you hate...

Thanks to L. K. Benson for sharing with us.

Last January, in our 2022 market commentary, we talked about how the world will never stop surprising us. Yet, despite the surprising nature of the world, our desire to try to predict the future never stops. Every conversation we have about the markets includes a question about what we think will happen next. Usually, that question begins with “I know you can’t predict these things,” but we still can’t stop ourselves from asking for a prediction anyway!

This doesn’t just happen in the markets. In sports, people spend hours trying to predict who will win the next big game or the next championship. Every election year, there is endless commentary and polls trying to predict who will be elected...