Over the last few days, one of the things that has put the market a little bit on edge is concern that interest rates could be forced higher sooner than possible. Fed chair Jay Powell gave investors room to start feeling anxious last week when during a televised question and answer session, More →
Introduction
The Boston Consulting Group interviews 250 investors annually who have a combined wealth of $500 billion. The results usually aren’t shocking except for this year. 65% of those investors think the market is overvalued. More →
Introduction
Last week the FED released its meeting minutes. It’s always a good idea to take a look at the minutes as inside you can find interesting long term trends that aren’t yet recognized by the market but will eventually surface. More →
Introduction
There are two main drivers of what can be done to improve the economy. One is new inventions and structural reforms that increase productivity, while the other is monetary policy. As the former takes time to get results, we mostly talk about the latter. We can assume that increased knowledge and structural reforms take care of themselves. Companies are always investing in new technologies, and governments, no matter what kind, slowly push for social and political improvements. The results can only be seen if we look at it in the long term. The quality of our lives is much better now than it was 20 years ago and 20 years from now will be even better. More →
Introduction
There are more important insights that can be gained by going through the FOMC minutes than by just reading the news about an eventual interest rate increase. An interest rate increase of 0.5% won’t change much. It will give the news something to talk about for two weeks and from then onwards it will be business as usual. Structural risks and what the FED is ready to do or not do in the case of turmoil is what will determine our investing returns. More →
Introduction
On big news sites like Bloomberg you often come across headlines related to the movement of the U.S. dollar. The headline below is a good example. More →
Introduction
On July 6 the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) June meeting minutes were released. As they give clear insight into how the controllers of our monetary policy think, it is very important to analyze the minutes in order to better position one’s portfolio and also execute short- and medium-term trades. The FOMC gave a clear indication of their expectations in relation to future GDP growth, unemployment, inflation and its federal funds rate. All of the mentioned indicators will have different effects on various investments. More →
Introduction
On May 18 the FED released the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held in April. The FOMC decided not to increase interest rates in April which gave a short relief to the markets, but an analysis of the FOMC meeting minutes reveals interesting things because it gives indications on the way of thinking FOMC participants have and hints on potential future interest rate increases. While the goal of the FED is to maintain financial stability and increase the resilience of the financial system to shocks, for an investor it is important to look at the economic trends related to the FOMC’s decisions in order to better assess the risks of their portfolio. More →