The articles below offer general information, opinions, and forecasts and should not be considered advice.
Market Minute
March 2024 – By Bob Veres
It’s not generally known that the number of publicly traded stocks has fallen substantially, from more than 8,000 in 1996 to roughly 3,700 today. Does that mean that there are fewer companies today than there were three decades ago?
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February 2024 – By Bob Veres
There are periods of market complacency where most investors see nothing but upside from here to eternity, and then there are periods like this, which might be described as extreme complacency. One measure of how people are feeling about the market is the VIX, often called the investor fear gauge. The VIX index, which tracks market volatility, normally trades at about 20, and it can go dramatically higher—to a record 82.69 in March of 2020 as people began to realize the implications of the new COVID pandemic. Today the VIX is trending downward, at a 13 level, despite markets at all-time highs, persistent inflation, and global political instability.
Continue readingPlanning Article
February 2024 – By Bob Veres
The annual ritual of Groundhog Day is behind us, but we all still wonder when the weather will turn warm again. It happens at different times in different parts of the country, of course, but there is evidence that, in the Northern Hemisphere, the warming trend is coming as much as a week earlier, on average, than it did thirty years ago.
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February 2024 – By Bob Veres
We’re all reading headlines telling us that the stock market has reached all-time highs, something that never happened in 2023. Many investors who have a worrisome mindset will think that means that there’s a high likelihood that we’ll see a downturn in the near future. The markets have nowhere to go but down from here, right?
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