High Frequency Trading – How does it impact you?

Posted on by
1

HTF robotsDear Mr. Market:

The markets are constantly moving from one headline to the next – some of them having a profound impact on the markets. Last Sunday night “60 Minutes” aired a topic that has been lurking in the shadows for years, suddenly it jumped up and grabbed headlines raising concerns and paranoia with investors. High Frequency Trading (HFT) has dominated headlines over the last week prompting a federal investigation and hours of debate.

Michael Lewis, author of “Flash Boys”, has been on a publicity tour claiming the U.S. Stock Market is ‘rigged’. Is the average investor at a disadvantage, on the outside looking in at the security exchanges? This week we encourage you to view a letter being sent to our clients and friends of the firm (High Frequency Trading letter) Continue reading →

MPG Core Tactical 60 /40: March 2014 Performance Update

Posted on by
Reply

MW-BB798_sm6040_20130422180557_MDDear Mr. Market:

March has turned in another month of stubborn market defiance as the investment world is waiting for a correction yet it never seems to come or fully develop! It’s without question that many of the warning signs continue to lurk below the surface but the S&P 500 has still managed to tack on about another +1%. Year to date we’re just about 1% of where we started 2014 but it sure feels uncomfortable for many.

If this is your first time reading about our MPG Core Tactical Portfolio please refer back to our first post. (click here) In short you will see what adjustments we make throughout the year on a $1 million dollar portfolio and how that performs relative to a portfolio that is rebalanced once per month with an allocation of 60% Stocks and 40% Bonds. Continue reading →

Update: March Madness: Final Four Investing Bracket 2014

Posted on by
Reply

March MadnessThe 2014 NCAA Basketball Tournament certainly had an eventful weekend!  52 games have been played across the country with 5 of them going into overtime. The $1 Billion that Warren Buffett offered to anyone that had a perfect bracket is now a distant memory. Every year there are plenty of surprises and this year has been no different:

  • 3 of the 4 teams that were seeded as #12 in their brackets posted wins over teams seeded #5! The one team that lost was beaten by only 3 points in overtime!
  • #1 seed and ‘media darling’ Wichita State lost to #8 Kentucky in the 2nd round.
  • The 2 longest winning streaks in the country have both come to an abrupt end – Wichita State with 35 and S.F. Austin with 29.

 Here are some other mind boggling numbers to take into consideration with the NCAA Tournament:

  • The odds of winning Buffet’s $1 Billion prize was 1 in 4,294,967,296!
  • It is estimated that Vegas takes in over $100 Million from bets on the NCAA Tournament – experts think this represents only 4% of all the money wagered on games!
  • The NCAA tournament costs businesses $1.7 Billion in lost productivity during the month of March.

Continue reading →

March Madness: Final Four Investing Bracket 2014

Posted on by
Reply

Unknown-2Dear Mr. Market:

What do you care about hoops? The stock market is stressful enough so why add the drama of collegiate basketball games coming down to the wire?

This is the fourth year publishing our March Madness Investing Bracket and we begin this years edition by wondering why is it one of the most popular investing articles on the internet? Every year this article gains in popularity and one of the best forms of a compliment is imitation. It’s actually quite flattering that others are now creating similar “investing brackets”! Is it that America is captivated by a single collegiate basketball tournament or is it that people want to know what the next hot stock is?

We believe the answer lies in the fact that people love excitement and surprises. It’s also human nature to root for the underdog and many times times those two themes can certainly play out on the basketball court as well as on the stock market floor. Much like two college basketball teams that never play each other our imaginations are swept up in wondering who will “win” between a relatively unknown penny stock or a popular stock that has the media in a frenzy.

You may be asking what does a basketball tournament have to do with managing your portfolio or the investment world in general? At first glance it may not, but we thought we would have a little fun and couple it with some asset allocation parallels. After all, there are many folks who have simply thrown their hands in the air at one time or simply succumb to the notion that investing is like educated gambling. There could be some truth to that depending on your approach… Continue reading →

Splitting Headaches: New Laws May Adversely Affect Your Living Trust

Posted on by
Reply

images-35

Dear Mr. Market:

On occasion you must certainly get writer’s cramp with all of your musings about the stock market. Allow us to not only give you a break this week but to also open your eyes to something outside of investments. All the attention you give your portfolio may be hampered if you neglect a few other issues. We’ve asked a guest and expert in estate planning to contribute some important information that you should be aware of:

Your living trust might be out-of-date.

Good financial planning isn’t just about stocks, bonds and other investments, it also involves looking at a client’s entire situation, encompassing family goals, tax planning and estate planning.  When My Portfolio Guide, LLC invited me to contribute an article, I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with them because of their commitment to understanding all aspects of their clients’ lives when implementing strategies and solutions.

For those of you who have prepared a living trust, it is important to have your estate plan reviewed from time to time as things change.  As you are probably aware, new Federal and State laws are constantly being implemented, not to mention any changes that may be occurring in your personal life.  Because of the constant evolution of your personal situation and the legal landscape in general, I encourage my clients to occasionally review their living trusts and associated documents to make sure that everything is still going according to plan.

In particular, there has been one major change which I want to make you aware of.  Many people have created AB Trusts over the past two decades.  AB Trusts are designed to protect more of a married couple’s assets from being taxed by the government upon their passing.  However, one drawback of an AB Trust is that it is relatively expensive to implement after one spouse passes away.  The AB Trust requires that the trust be divided or “split” into two separate trusts after the first spouse passes away.  This split requires the help of an attorney or a CPA to divide and administer the trust and can also give legal rights to children or other beneficiaries over a portion of the trust during the lifetime of the surviving spouse, increasing the potential for conflict.  Furthermore, the split requires the filing of additional tax returns after the passing of the first spouse.  The costs associated with an AB split are often several thousands of dollars.

The AB Trust was very popular because it Continue reading →

MPG Core Tactical 60 /40: February 2014 Performance Update

Posted on by
Reply

MW-BB798_sm6040_20130422180557_MDDear Mr. Market:

Let’s begin by letting you know that the MPG Core Tactical portfolio has taken the lead over the passively managed indexed approach of the 60/40 Benchmark portfolio!

We fully realize that with investing you can “live and die by the sword” and banging your chest about performance can eventually lead to this deadly truth…or death. That being said, we are actually doing such to prove a point. As early in the year as it is, we have one stock that is a huge “stinker” in the portfolio and a couple that are knocking the cover off the ball. Many advisors drool at the opportunity to show you their homeruns but quickly skip over their strikeouts. Spring is in the air and so are some baseball euphemisms but let’s get into what is working for our portfolios and what is not:

First and foremost you should take a look at our overall portfolio mix which we have updated as of this writing on March 3,2014.

Click here to see how your portfolio is doing versus the Benchmark and our MPG Core Tactical Portfolio

What adjustments did we make? Continue reading →

What’s my number?? – Making sense of Financial Planning

Posted on by
Reply

Financial Plan #2Dear Mr. Market:

Let’s be honest… the vast majority of hard working Americans have one question in common – Will I be able to retire?  The circumstances pertaining to each individual are as different and unique as the individual themselves. The one connecting point we all have however, is to know if we are going to be able to reach our goals, whatever they might be.

Have you seen some of the commercials where an actor asks you if you know how much you need to retire? Other commercials have people carrying around a huge cut-out of a random numbers …like $1,456,298 around with them.  What’s your magic retirement number? Where should an individual go to get his or her many questions answered?  With few guarantees how is anyone to know if they are on track to reach their goals?

There is certainly not a lack of financial planning services and products available to consumers today.  It can actually be a bit overwhelming and frustrating for the average person.  Any Financial Plan should be viewed as a guide or a benchmark, serving as a road map to the ultimate destination.  As with other financial service offerings there are many different elements that need to be taken into consideration. Let’s take a moment to look at some of the more important ones and put it in plain English using some common phrases we are all familiar with….. Continue reading →

Is it time to buy Gold?

Posted on by
2

images-32Dear Mr. Market:

Over the past few weeks the world has been focused on Gold as world class athletes compete at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. These athletes have dedicated their lives towards the dream of standing on the awards podium and having an Olympic medal placed around their neck. Gold is certainly used to capturing headlines over the last several years as as its returns caught major attention.

Mr. Market rarely considers gold to be a worthwhile investment or warrant a place in anyones portfolio. We’ve written a few articles about the precious metal over the last few years but honestly haven’t given it much press. Why is so little of our attention given to gold as an investment? Let’s be blunt about it… There is plenty of market chatter already given to Gold and most of it is nothing but noise. We prefer to touch on it at key inflection points and this happens to be one of them.

The first article we wrote was our most popular. This piece was written when the stock market was getting hit every week and gold was doing just the opposite; it was setting record highs and receiving all the glory. Writing a piece about why why we didn’t want to buy gold was not popular at the time but now it sure seems like our crystal ball was as spot on as it could ever have been. Here is the article, we would encourage you to read it again if you haven’t already (Click here) Continue reading →

The New “MyRA” … A Direct Route To Retirement Or A Bad Detour?

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Mr. Market:

MyRA#7

If you ask the average hard working American what their top financial concern is, it’s that that they won’t be able to retire.  We could certainly go on and on about different solutions and how people can get on track to make their dreams a reality but today we will focus on a new program offered from the government.  On January 29th President Obama delivered his State of the Union address.  One of the takeaways from this speech was a new retirement account called MyRA (short for My Retirement Account).

Currently over half of the U.S. workforce is not covered by a retirement plan through their employer.  MyRA is targeted at low to middle-income workers, encouraging them to save for their own retirement.  Contributions will be funded through automatic payroll deductions where individuals can start with as little as $25 and contribute amounts as small as $5.  Individuals would be guaranteed that their account would never go down and they will not pay any fees on the accounts.  Sounds like a great product doesn’t it?!  Well let’s take a step back and dig a bit deeper to really explore what the MyRA is all about….

The MyRA can essentially be viewed as a way to introduce individuals that have not saved or funded a retirement account to the many long-term benefits of doing so. At this point companies are not required to be involved in the program, if President Obama wants to force employers to participate a vote from Congress would be required.  The accounts would be funded with after tax dollars much like a Roth IRA.  While it will be funded with payroll deductions individuals will be able to keep their accounts when they change jobs.  MyRA is subject to Roth IRA income and contributions limits.  Individuals can invest up to $5.500 per year (or $6,500 for investors 50 or older); once the owner reaches the age of 59 ½ they can make withdrawals tax-free.  There are also no required minimum distributions (R.M.D.’s). Continue reading →

How did your Portfolio do in January of 2014?

Posted on by
Reply

MW-BB798_sm6040_20130422180557_MD

Dear Mr. Market:

Apparently you’re kicking off February much like you wrapped up January; in correction mode.

A stock market correction is actually not a bad thing and in this case it’s actually a MUCH needed one. If you’re anything close to being a long-term investor you should be hoping for at least a 10% haircut at some point before 2014 wraps up. Without a breather or some form of consolidation this market has no chance to build a base and move to higher levels by year-end.

If you had a fairly well balanced and allocated portfolio in 2013 you probably looked at your statements and saw that bonds were not just dead weight but rather a huge drag on performance. Not only did the overall bond market lose at least -2% for the year, the proverbial “writing on the wall” was being etched in permanent ink ; bonds had zero upside and only risk associated with them. If rates are to rise, as so many speculate they will, we could see bonds sting investors worse than any other time in history. Bottom line: That’s scary stuff for anyone in the typical 60 / 40 model…

The place to be in 2013 was stocks, but let’s be honest… Did you really trust them to keep going higher and higher? Did a +32% return for the S&P 500 feel “real” to you? Most people we talk to still don’t trust stocks but they ironically weren’t invested in them as much as they would’ve liked. Those that couldn’t resist a record breaking stock market finally cut bait on their bonds. Unfortunately, the reality is that our 5 year stock market party is possibly coming to an end…or at least a healthy pause. Continue reading →