Remember when some fans of cryptocurrencies called them non-correlated assets? They were supposed to behave differently from the stock market, not affected by traditional economic, political and fundamental forces? Cryptocurrencies were also dubbed digital gold, in the expectation they would hold their value in inflationary times. Neither has turned out to be the case. Bitcoin, the dominant cryptocurrency has fallen far more than the S&P 500 year to date, and in the face of higher inflation ...
Jun 24, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 52
75 basis points: the biggest rate hike by the Federal Reserve since 1994 with additional aggressive moves expected. It looks like Fed Chair Jerome Powell is proving the naysayers wrong, who doubted he had the stuff to fight inflation. As influential Fed watcher Paul McCulley told WEALTHTRACK months ago Powell will “do whatever it takes” to fight inflation, just like Paul Volcker did in 1979/1980. Volcker succeeded, setting up conditions for the great bond bull market of the last 40 years but cau...
Jun 17, 2022•26 min
In a WEALTHTRACK exclusive legendary financial thought leader, Charles Ellis explains why after decades of searching for outstanding money managers he has become a big believer in indexing. WEALTHTRACK Episode 1850 published on June 9, 2020 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/legendary-investment-consultant-charles-ellis-makes-a-compelling-case-for-indexing/
Jun 10, 2022•24 min•Season 18Ep. 50
Part 2 of 2 Candid career advice from three super successful women portfolio managers. Causeway Capital’s Sarah Ketterer, Capital Group’s Karen Choi, and Canyon Partner’s Robin Potts share their victories, setbacks, and strategies as they tear down the pink wall. WEALTHTRACK #1849 published on June 3, 2022
Jun 03, 2022•36 min•Season 18Ep. 49
Part 1 of 2 The investment opportunities surfacing in the volatile stock, bond, and real estate markets. Causeway Capital’s Sarah Ketterer, Capital Group’s Karen Choi, and Canyon Partner’s Robin Potts share their perspectives. WEALTHTRACK #1848 published on May 27, 2022
May 27, 2022•31 min•Season 18Ep. 48
2022 has been a rough year for investors as financial markets have declined across the board. No matter what the market performance, investors continue to favor passive index funds over actively managed ones. Investors continue to favor ETFs, and exchange-traded funds over mutual funds. The vast majority of funds in ETFs are in passive strategies, but there’s an interesting divergence occurring. One of the fastest-growing segments in the ETF universe is actively managed ETFs. This week’s guest i...
May 20, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 47
If you were to ask investors to name the biggest headwinds facing the markets, higher inflation and interest rates and their potentially negative impact on corporate earnings would top the list. Just about everyone on Wall Street agrees we are in a new era of higher levels of both. But this week’s guest believes there is another area that poses even greater challenges to the global economy and markets: energy. Energy is under enormous pressure on numerous fronts: geopolitical, production, distri...
May 13, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 46
Are you feeling at all overwhelmed by the pace and degree of change we are experiencing in the world, the economy, the markets, life in general? A series of head-spinning turns in events ranging from rising inflation and interest rates, Russia’s relentless and brutal assault on Ukraine, and a surprise leak of a draft of a momentous Supreme Court opinion are perfectly encapsulated by the dramatic market action of the last two days. After the Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates by hal...
May 07, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 45
What do you do when your flagship fund goes from the top of its class to close to the bottom in a matter of weeks? From market trouncing to market lagging? That is the challenge facing this week’s guest. Alex Umansky, Portfolio Manager of the Baron Global Advantage Fund which he launched at the firm of legendary growth manager Ron Baron in 2012. Umansky oversees about $2.4 billion dollars in assets at Baron Capital including $1.7 billion at his flagship Baron Global Advantage Fund. However, in m...
Apr 23, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 43
We are in a new era of higher inflation and the pressure is on the Fed! Inflation is running at 40-year highs and it’s coming from every angle: food, energy, services, goods, rents, and wages which are all increasing. Is the Fed up to the challenge? Can it rein in inflation without causing a recession? What can we expect as borrowers and investors? We have lots of questions to ask this week’s guest but we know from his past performance he can take them all in stride. Paul McCulley is currently a...
Apr 15, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 42
The new era of higher inflation and interest rates is already proving to be a challenging one for investors. The first quarter of 2022 was the worst one in two years for the stock market. Inflation reached 40 year highs, and in response, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2018 and is signaling an aggressive policy of multiple rate hikes in the months ahead. Then there are all the other disturbing and disruptive developments to consider: the extended impact of Covi...
Apr 09, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 41
As bonds suffer the worst quarter in more than four decades we are exploring one of the fastest-growing segments in the fixed income markets where demand is still accelerating. It's in ESG, environmental, social, and governance standards being applied to corporate and government bond issuers and specific issues themselves. In part 2 of our interview with industry pioneer Steve Liberatore, we explore both ESG fixed income investing, as well as the relatively new area of impact investing where bon...
Apr 01, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 40
Part 1 of 2 The direction of inflation and interest rates are key to the performance of bond prices and they are in the midst of a massive change. The shift in direction has been most dramatic for inflation. After a decade of staying mostly below the Federal Reserve’s long-term 2% target, the Consumer Price Index recently soared nearly 8% year over year. Meanwhile, until very recently interest rates have remained near historic lows. Despite telegraphing it would for months, the Federal Reserve j...
Mar 25, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 39
The first interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve since 2018 happened this week, with the central bank planning six more of 25 basis points or one-quarter of a percent each this year. The lending market is already ahead of the Fed. The average fixed rate 30 year mortgage topped 4% for the first time since 2019 in the latest reporting week. It's happening in a hot housing market. The median listing price for homes hit an all-time high of $392,000 in February and the inventory of homes for s...
Mar 18, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 38
Russia’s brutal, unprovoked assault on Ukraine is dominating the news headlines, but so far its market impact has been short-lived. ClearBridge Investment strategist Jeff Schulze says what really matters to the markets in the direction of the economy and Federal Reserve policy. According to his proprietary Recession Risk Dashboard, the vast majority of his twelve key indicators remain positive. More info: https://wealthtrack.com/ukrainian-invasion-impact/
Mar 12, 2022•28 min•Season 18Ep. 35
Since the future is essentially unknowable, this week’s podcast guest focuses on what is knowable and controllable, mainly our own reactions. He is veteran personal finance journalist Jonathan Clements, a former colleague of mine at The Wall Street Journal who was its personal finance columnist for nearly 20 years. The author of several books including From Here to Financial Happiness and How to Think About Money, Clements is the Founder and Editor of HumbleDollar, a free weekly newsletter devot...
Mar 05, 2022•23 min•Season 18Ep. 36
Target-date funds have $3 trillion dollars in assets. Millions of Americans are enrolled in them, mostly through company 401(k) plans. They have a track record, multiple products, plenty of competition and fees are declining as a result. In an article titled “In Praise of Target-Date Funds,” one of our favorite WEALTHTRACK guests, Morningstar’s Director of Personal Finance, Christine Benz described them as “...nothing short of the biggest positive development for investors since the index fund.”...
Feb 19, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 34
Yankee legend Yogi Berra famously said, “It’s deja vu all over again,” one of his many memorable expressions. That’s the way I feel this week. The “deja vu all over again” is the theme of “Don’t fight the Fed.” The Federal Reserve's recent pivot from inflation promoter to inflation fighter puts that adage front and center in the current debate between the bulls and the bears. This week’s guest has been following that dictum during his 40-year investment career. He has been bullish since the Fed ...
Feb 12, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 33
We appear to be in a new investment era, one of higher inflation and higher interest rates. It is a huge change from the “great moderation,” the multi-decade stretch of low inflation and falling interest rates since the early 1980’s. With consumer prices soaring to 40-year highs the Federal Reserve has pivoted from its unusual role as inflation promoter to its traditional role of inflation fighter, which signals higher interest rates ahead. Major macro shifts like these are always turbulent. How...
Feb 05, 2022•27 min•Season 18Ep. 32
One of the biggest changes of the past year has been the record number of Americans who are quitting their jobs. It’s so pronounced that it has a name. It’s called “The Great Resignation.” What The Great Resignation means for retirement planning is just one of the items on Christine Benz’ financial to-do list this year. Another major area of focus is adjusting to much higher inflation. Consumer Prices increased 7% in December versus a year ago, the fastest increase since 1982 and the third month...
Jan 15, 2022•27 min•Season 18Ep. 29
Part 2 of 2 Legendary value investor Bill Miller is betting big on bitcoin. The digital currency and some related crypto investments now account for half of his personal investment portfolio. In part two of our interview with Miller, he discusses his rationale for taking such an outsized position, including why he has converted from being a self-described bitcoin “observer” to a bitcoin “bull” and why he is adding to his holdings when the currency has big declines. Since Miller is also celebrati...
Jan 08, 2022•26 min•Season 18Ep. 28
Great value investor Bill Miller remains the only fund manager to beat the market for 15 consecutive years. He discusses his current core holding winners and some recent promising additions to his legendary portfolio. WEALTHTRACK #1825 broadcast on December 17, 2021
Dec 18, 2021•26 min•Season 18Ep. 25
Since WEALTHTRACK ’s inception, it’s been an annual tradition to sit down for a rare in-depth interview with Ed Hyman, Wall Street’s number one-ranked economist for an unrivaled forty-one years. Hyman is a Wall Street legend known for his comprehensive, yet succinct daily bullet point reports on the economy covering multiple data points including his team’s proprietary company surveys covering a wide range of businesses. Last year at this time the U.S. was emerging from lockdowns, vaccines hadn’...
Dec 10, 2021•22 min•Season 18Ep. 24
Three successful women portfolio managers discuss what it takes to succeed in money management, including their best and worst decisions and crucial career advice. WEALTHTRACK #1823 published on November 30, 2021 More Info: https://wealthtrack.com/how-to-make-it-on-wall-street-advice-from-three-successful-women-portfolio-managers/
Nov 30, 2021•13 min•Season 18Ep. 23
Part 1 of 2 Only 11% of U.S. portfolio managers are women. Three of them describe how they are “tearing down the pink wall” starting with their educational and job choices in part one of our two-part series. WEALTHTRACK #1822 published on November 24, 2021 More Info: https://wealthtrack.com/from-education-to-job-choices-how-3-women-have-become-successful-portfolio-managers/
Nov 24, 2021•19 min•Season 18Ep. 22
It's hard to keep a roaring bull market down. The S&P 500 marked its 66th record close of the year today and the NASDAQ Composite also hit a new peak. The strong performance once again raised the question: what to do with the dominant position mega-cap tech stocks have in most of our stock portfolios. It is a particular challenge for growth fund managers because that’s where the growth and performance has been for the last decade, especially the past few years. This week’s guest, Margaret Vi...
Nov 20, 2021•26 min•Season 18Ep. 21
Worried about inflation, especially after October’s big consumer price number? The CPI’s 6.2% increase from a year ago was the fastest 12-month gain since 1990 and the fifth month in a row of +5% inflation. What about rising interest rates? How about America’s economic standing in the world? Be prepared to question many of the negative assumptions you have been hearing and listen to some other data that shines a different light on the outlook. Our guest is a highly respected economist who is no ...
Nov 13, 2021•27 min•Season 18Ep. 20
The demand for socially responsible investing strategies is growing and the cash flowing into them shows it. Exchange-traded funds with ESG characteristics - ESG of course stands for environmental, social, and governance - have attracted the lion's share of equity money in recent years. In true “follow the money” form, Wall Street has taken notice. There are now many different kinds of socially responsible investment products to choose from. One you don’t hear a lot about is values and faith-bas...
Nov 06, 2021•27 min•Season 18Ep. 19
There's a saying on Wall Street that the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. And there’s a widely held financial theory called “Reversion to the Mean” that asserts that eventually asset classes will return to their long term average in terms of several factors including price, price/earnings multiples, and their performance relative to other asset classes like U.S. stocks. Reversion to the mean for emerging markets stocks has been a long time coming. This week’s gues...
Nov 02, 2021•27 min•Season 18Ep. 18
Talk about a seismic shift! Inflation is back with a vengeance. Higher prices are being felt throughout the economy by consumers and businesses alike. The Consumer Price Index, the most widely followed measure of price moves at the retail level, has just experienced its biggest year-over-year increase since the early 1990s. Are these price increases transitory as the Federal Reserve would lead us to believe or are we in a new era of higher prices not seen since the late 1970s? This week’s guest ...
Oct 22, 2021•26 min•Season 18Ep. 17
