Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are considered to be one of the investment world’s great inventions. When first launched back in 1993, ETFs represented an improvement over their earlier index mutual fund cousins largely because they allowed investors to trade throughout the day rather than accept only end of day prices. Unfortunately, Wall Street, ever on […]
Anne Doremus
When Success Leads To Failure…
A handful of firms are having a larger and larger impact on the U.S. economy. Nowhere is this more evident than in the stock market where top tech titans Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google alone represent almost 15% of the S&P 500’s overall market capitalization. Market observers, and Value investors in particular, are scratching […]
The Times They Are A Changin’…
Over the past year, Nelson Peltz, head of asset management firm Trian Partners, has staged one of the largest proxy fights ever against a public company, consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. Big dollars were at stake in this boardroom brawl. The total cost of the fight is estimated to have exceeded $60 million so […]
Reinventing the Wheel?…
Fall is the time when individuals covered by employer sponsored health plans re-evaluate coverage and make policy selections for the upcoming year. Our provider, non-profit BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont, recently informed us that premiums for 2018 would increase 9.2%. This hefty increase sent me digging for an explanation. While a lot of things factor into […]
Behind the Inflation Numbers…
Inflation in the U.S. today remains stubbornly subdued. Since the end of the recession, annual price gains, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), have increased in the 1%-2% range. Many consumers, however, feel like the costs of the goods and services that they buy are increasing at much faster rates. Drilling into the […]
Where to Find Value Today…
The stock market’s gains this year have taken a lot of people by surprise. But a closer look at the details shows that the performance of just a handful of dominant technology firms, specifically Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, is behind much of the broad market’s gains. Since January, these five “FAAMG” stocks have […]
The Madness of Mobs or The Wisdom of Crowds?…
For most of the last 50 years, economists have supported the idea that markets are “efficient” and that securities prices fully reflect all available information. This theory about how markets function (the Efficient Market Hypothesis or EMH) is based on a set of laws that describe how investors behave (they are rational and profit maximizing) […]
What We Do When We Don’t Know…
Humans have evolved to be great at many things. We are uniquely able, for example, to master complicated speech patterns and engage in complex reasoning. But the big brains that make these things possible can also get us into trouble. In situations where there is a lot at stake and where the outcomes are uncertain, […]
It’s a Different Ballgame Now…
On March 15th, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark overnight lending rate a quarter point to a range of 0.75%-1.0%. The increase, together with a 0.25% bump last December, represents quite a shift. With a few brief exceptions, interest rates have been on a downward path since 1980. Markets have taken the Fed’s latest effort […]
Anne Doremus Invited to Judge CFA Institute Research Challenge
The CFA Society of Vermont hosted their first Local Research Challenge on February 8, 2017. The Challenge, sponsored by Champlain College, brings students from four Vermont colleges, investment professionals, and others together to work on company analysis and presentation skills. Anne Doremus served on the panel of judges for this Challenge. The case subject […]
Global Family Enterprise Case Competition at UVM
Anne Doremus returned to the annual Family Enterprise Case Competition (FECC) as a coach in 2017. The competition was held at the University of Vermont through the Grossman School of Business on January 12-14. While the FECC prepares participants to understand the issues unique to family enterprise, coaches play a critical role in facilitating the application […]
What to Make of Today’s Market…
President Trump’s unconventional approach to governing has many wondering what impact the new administration will have on the economy and international relations. The S&P 500 reached an all-time high on March 1st. The popular benchmark is up 20% over the past year and more than 250% since the 2009 market lows. These heady gains and […]
