Views from the Hill

Whether it’s the tulip mania of the 1620s, the railway boom of the 1840s, the dot-com craze of the 1990s, or today’s cryptomania and astronomical prices for SPACs, financial bubbles have been around as long as markets existed. Before a … Continue reading →

Bitcoin and lesser-known cryptocurrencies are receiving intense media coverage these days. Many wonder whether this electronic “money” represents a “paradigm shift” and should deserve a place in their planning strategy. While their prices have soared, that is the past. What … Continue reading →

A year ago, at the end of March 2020, the S&P 500 was down nearly 20%1 and the world was going into lockdown. Many experts and economists wrote about where we would be in a year. I don’t remember anyone … Continue reading →

(Sample Advertisement) Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies (now numbering in the thousands) are the subject of much popular debate and media attention. Can something that exists only in cyberspace truly be equivalent to gold? Given bitcoin’s dramatic price changes, up and … Continue reading →

A recent flurry of return spikes for a handful of U.S. stocks has captivated investors and non-investors alike. Wall Street news trending on social media even amid an NFL playoff season is indeed an unusual event. So, what should investors … Continue reading →

Many investors view dividend payouts as a reliable source of income, and construct portfolios emphasizing stocks that pay above-average dividends. This strategy has become common among many conservative investors over the past decade as bank interest rates and returns on … Continue reading →

Investors and media habitually look for a connection between who wins the U.S. White House and whether stocks will go up or down. But predictions based on election outcomes are unlikely to result in consistently winning bets that provide excess … Continue reading →

While surprises can and do happen, voter surprises in America frequently lead to outcomes that investors and pundits don’t expect. Election Day here in the U.S. is coming the first Tuesday in November. For those needing a civics refresher, the … Continue reading →

Some investors favor a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) approach to deploying their investment capital. Unlike lump-sum investing, in which the full amount of available funds are invested up front, DCA spreads out investment contributions using installments over time. The appeal of … Continue reading →

With activity in many industries sharply curtailed in an effort to reduce the chances of spreading the coronavirus, some economists say a recession is inevitable, if one hasn’t already begun.1 From a markets perspective, we have already experienced a drop … Continue reading →