Ben Bernanke announced yesterday that the Federal Reserve (Fed) sees improvement in the economy and that if (and this is a big if) improvement continues, the Fed will begin tapering (not stopping and certainly not reversing) its bond-buying program known as quantitative easing or QE3. The reaction: stocks down more than a percent in the…
There were a lot of great songs written in the 1980s but, with all respect to any Animotion fans out there, this one probably wasn’t one of them. Like a lot of ‘80s music it will stay with you, and to anyone who finds themselves accidentally singing “Obsession” on your way home tonight I certainly…
Late last week I was talking to a client who mentioned it had been a while since we last sent out an Insight. I explained, as I often do, that we only write when we feel there is actually something worth writing. Of course the very next morning we come in the office and Japan’s…
For years I have been giving the same talk about the standard measures of risk used in the modern financial world: standard deviation and beta. Standard deviation is a measure of absolute volatility, while beta is a measure of relative volatility. Standard deviation measures the average, or “standard,” difference, or “deviation” (we financial types are…
It is always hard to tell what will actually trigger a correction. This week it seems like Cyprus is the culprit. The story out of Cyprus is almost surreal; the thought that the government could just come in and take ten percent or more of your savings is bizarre to our ears. In an almost…
