Do Small Company Stocks Like New Presidents?

In the three months since Joe Biden was elected President of the United States, small company stocks have risen more than 30%. Four years ago, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States and small company stocks went up almost 20% in the twenty-six days surrounding the election, from November 3rd to December 9th. Do small company stock investors just like new Presidents?

February 22, 2021 Financial Perspectives

Every week it seems there is a new story about which investment, which “trade”, is making amazing money. Each new story brings a sense of urgency, act quickly before it’s too late. You can’t afford to miss out on this one. There are at least 3 important risks investors should pay attention to, some are urgent, some are important, some are both, some are neither.

March 22, 2021 Financial Perspectives

Many indicators say the US and global economy are growing at rates faster than expected. Most of this is welcome news given the past 12 months. But is there a danger the economy could overheat? Inflation continues to be on the minds of some, should it be on yours as well?

What a Difference a Year Makes

On March 23, 2020, the S&P 500 tumbled another 3%, culminating a near 34% drop over that same month. The Dow Jones hovered around 19,000. Gains from the past few years were gone. 

April 12, 2021 Financial Perspectives

One of my favorite comedians has always been Steve Martin. One of his funnier routines was “let’s get small.” Lately small company stocks have been outperforming their large company counterparts and it’s hard not to notice. What is a small company and why the outperformance recently?

April 26, 2021 Financial Perspectives

Markets have been reaching some all-time highs recently. US stock markets, foreign stock markets, even newer assets like bitcoin, SPACs, and NFTs have been soaring much of the past six months. At these relatively high values more than a few skeptics are predicting a fall. Some say correction – a temporary minor adjustment; some say crash – major problem ahead. Is there a reason to be acrophobic – fearful about markets at record heights?

What’s Your Best Buy: Firm Foundation or Castle In the Air?

If an investor could discover the true worth of a company, a piece of real estate or even an idea, where “true worth” equated to the future value or price that others would pay, success would be almost certain to follow. Those opportunities that were priced significantly lower than the future value would be automatic buys. The one’s with higher prices today than the future price would be ones to avoid. If only it were that simple!

August 24, 2021 Financial Perspectives

Is it possible to be too smart? Can a problem or set of circumstances be overanalyzed? Is there such a thing as too much information? There’s some evidence out there that this is indeed possible! Kent Kramer shares our perspective on what’s been happening in and around financial markets recently and what we think successful investors should be thinking about – without overthinking it!

Equilibrium Markets in the Time of COVID

Over the years, Foster Group has utilized a number of mutual funds and exchange traded funds managed by Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). DFA was founded in 1981 on the idea of making academic investment research and empirically based portfolio management accessible to investors. In this article, Professor Kenneth French describes how markets responded to the events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

October 25, 2021 Financial Perspectives

Kent Kramer recaps his top take-away moments from our event last week with Morgan Housel. Morgan used stories to illustrate lessons to help us understand behavioral finance and psychology and how that affects the way we invest.

November 8, 2021 Financial Perspectives

You know the old saying, “What goes up must come down.” How is it that currently everything seems to be going up at the same time? Signs of inflation like oil prices, labor prices, trade deficits. And yet markets are going up with stocks at all-time highs. Bond prices are rising this week when often, bond prices move inversely to stock prices. Government spending is certainly going up, consumer spending is going up and tax rates seem to be poised to rise as well. What do all these upwards mean for investors?

Still Searching for the One?

You do not need to pick the next big winner in order to have a successful investment experience. As a matter of fact, behaving as if this were possible is an almost certain way to have a terrible investment experience. What are the hallmarks of a more successful approach?

New Year – Rates are Rising | Financial Perspectives

Welcome to 2022 where the news seem to focus, again, on rising rates –for COVID infections due to Omicron, inflation, and interest rates. The markets seem to be most concerned about interest rates. This week Kent Kramer looks at why that might be the case and what may be in store for interest rates in 2022.

Happy New Year? | Financial Perspectives

Market returns for the first three weeks of 2022 have not been full of happy reports. US stocks, especially some of the biggest names and winners of 2020 and 2021 have fallen into what is called “correction” territory. Is inflation and the concern with rising interest rates the whole story?