Good morning everyone. I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving last week. For me, it was a good time to add some calories that I’d soon be burning off. While I won’t bore you with all the details, I spent most of this past weekend paddling a stand-up paddleboard in 3.3-mile loops within a water park in Sarasota FL. The race is called Last Paddler Standing. Sounds fun, right? The main event went up to 48 hours of continuous one-hour loops. A “super loop” of about…

I don’t know about you but I’m finding myself to be more of a traditionalist these days. I like my holiday season evenly distributed with each holiday given it’s due. So I balk when Christmas decorations start popping up before Halloween and Thanksgiving sort of floats in between. And when Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals start showing up in my inbox weeks ahead of schedule, it throws me off. If these are early deals, shouldn’t I just wait for even better prices…

In last week’s note I mentioned how many, if not most, investors are in wait-and-see mode when it comes to the new administration’s impact on the economy and markets. I also mentioned how investors generally favor traditional Republican ideals of lower taxes and less regulation. That said, nobody likes uncertainty. Along these lines, the following is a great summary from JPMorgan on the ongoing reassessment happening in the markets. We’ve discussed this in recent…

Last week was a big one for markets. The Fed announced another interest rate decrease, we had some good economic and corporate profit reports, and that other midweek announcement… what was that about again? All kidding aside, you’re likely aware that the stock market surged on last week’s election news. Republicans were predicted to sweep the White House, the Senate, and the House (the latter now confirmed as I type this Tuesday morning). Very generally speaking…

Well, here we go again. This election marks the 60th time we’ve voted for a president since our nation’s founding. Polls via www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls and the betting odds sight www.electionbettingodds.com have been all over the place but generally indicate a tight race. We won’t know until we know but if what’s past is prologue, this could be a long day. In the markets, as I type the S&P 500 is set to open up a bit after a…

Last week we looked at options for stashing cash. This week lets add a layer by looking at bonds. The topic is timely because rates and prices have been on the move in the bond market. You might be looking to rebalance your portfolio by moving some money from stocks into bonds, or maybe moving longer-term money out of cash, but what should you look at buying? Bonds have had a rough go over the past few years and I won’t detail that here. However, it’s important to…