For weeks, I watched the evolving coronavirus crisis the way one observes an avalanche: it looks distant until suddenly it is upon you. I was inclined to take advantage and “buy the dips.” Then, something snapped: I started selling. I wanted cash. I panicked.
There. I said it.
We are now four months into the Trump administration, and the Washington soap opera is in no immediate danger of cancellation. Aside from a few brief selloffs, markets have been chugging along on a different track, largely shrugging off political drama.
After a dramatic start to the year, with equities rallying worldwide and bond yields rising in anticipation of stronger economic growth, markets have entered one of those eerie calm periods whose very placidity tends to spook investors. It’s springtime, and while the weather becomes progressively milder, investors seem less certain than ever.
For several years, investors have anticipated a “great rotation” from bonds into equities, and for several years, they were dead wrong. In fact, even as equities were quietly rising for the past years, both domestic and international money has continued to surge into bonds. At long last, that is beginning to reverse, which demands a reconsideration of strategies that seemingly have worked so well and so easily for so long. As long as bond prices were rising, pouring money into assets that had a certain return looked like a slam dunk. No longer.
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Where’s the market headed next? Matt Maley of Miller Tabak and Zachary Karabell of Envestnet discuss with Brian Sullivan.
Recent volatility notwithstanding, what has been striking about 2016 as an investing year is how relatively good it has been. In fact, the return on a diversified portfolio this year is competitive with many major asset classes, and has restored (for now) some confidence in the age-old mantra of diversification being among the most prudent of investing strategies.
If the Federal Reserve raises rates in its September meeting, how would markets respond? Larry McDonald of ACG Analytics and Zachary Karabell of Envestnet discuss with Brian Sullivan.
The Envestnet Edge from September 2016
Craig Johnson, Piper Jaffray Senior Technical Strategist, and Zachary Karabell, Envestnet Head of Global Strategy, discuss their outlooks for the S&P 500 under the shadow of the Fed with Melissa Lee.
Since the start of the year, stocks, bonds, oil and gold have all risen. Zachary Karabell of Envestnet and Gina Sanchez of Chantico Global discuss with Dominic Chu.
Smart place to find yield, or risky pick of last resort? Zachary Karabell of Envestnet and Gina Sanchez of Chantico Global discuss emerging market debt with Dominic Chu.
As stocks climb to new highs, many investors are concerned about whether today’s equity valuations are reasonable. But the debate over valuations and whether equities are frothy often misses a key element: nothing exists in a vacuum.
The Envestnet Edge for July/August 2016
The Envestnet Edge from June 2016
It is a time-honored tradition in the world of investing to use sports clichés. Yes, it’s a cop out, a failure of collective imagination, but rather than fight it just now, we are going to jump on that bandwagon. And not just sports clichés; we’re going to embrace all clichés—after all, most clichés have a real kernel of truth.
The Envestnet Edge from May 2016
The Envestnet Edge from April 2016
China was poised to make its largest-ever investment in the United States this past week, after the Chinese insurance group Angbang topped Marriott in a bidding war for the Starwood hotel chain. The offer was extremely attractive: $14 billion in cash. But a chorus of skeptics urged Starwood to say no.
Looking at volatility in the markets, and how to maintain a smart strategy through the waves, with Zachary Karabell, Envestnet, and Matthew Roddy, Rockland Trust.
Step away from the intense bouts of volatility that recently have characterized financial markets, and an important trend emerges that is unsettling investors large and small. With few exceptions, investments simply are not generating the average annual returns that they’ve come to expect.
The Envestnet Edge from February 2016
The Envestnet Edge from January 2016
For the past few months, financial markets have been positioning for a change in Federal Reserve policy to move from “very easy and accommodative” to “easy and accommodative.” The decision of the Fed, finally, to raise short-term lending rates by 25 basis points was met with relief that months of will-they won’t-they were finally over. At the same time, the energy and commodity complex has continued to melt down as prices plummet. The result has been both an unusual amount of turmoil in fixed income markets and a rising chorus of voices anxiously drawing parallels to 2008-2009.
The Envestnet Edge from December 2015
We’ve seen a significant move away from how most people invested in the 20th century—actively and with the at times costly advice and direction of advisors and brokers—towards a more digitally enhanced, passively implemented set of strategies. Some of that trend is inevitable and a useful addition to the suite of options. But as we have said, and continue to maintain, the rush toward passive investing is not without issues, and it must be balanced. There can be too much of a good thing. Today’s rush towards passive, ultra-low cost investing solutions must be tempered with questions: What is being gained? What potentially could be lost?
The Envestnet Edge from October 2015
The Envestnet Edge from September 2015
Tweets from @ZacharyKarabell
Risk. Mention the word, and many investment professionals pause. Traders, hedge funds, and a few quantitative firms and their algorithms may love risk. But these days, the preponderance of investors, advisors, strategists, and their clients—not to mention the individual investor