Towards Prosperity

The magnitude of the third-quarter gains for the major market indices is one for the record books! The rally that started in the spring gained momentum during the summer. We kissed those summer doldrums goodbye. As those of you who attended our Fireside Chats last week know, I have been bullish since early May, and have traded your accounts accordingly.Read more

There is an old phrase that says, "There is nothing new except what's been forgotten."  It has been said that "bull markets climb a wall of worry (warts) as they make their way to new highs."  And here we are at new highs for 2009. U.S.Read more

Welcome to the new CB3 Financial Group, Inc. monthly newsletter! We are excited that our new format will allow for more frequent updates on economic and market conditions. Beginning this month of July, you will now receive, by e-mail, timely updates and commentary, as well as the closing monthly and year-to-date market performance data for the Dow 30, S&P 500, and NASDAQ 100.Read more

The market low of S&P 500 = 676.53 on March 9th seems a long time ago, especially in earnings season. It was an interesting first quarter, if for no other reason than to see the earnings reports trickle in with various degrees of bad news. As I see it, the good news for investors is that, as Mr. Market seeks support, he is finding it. The bears are unable to drag down the market with dismal earnings reports from most of the reporting companies to date. It appears that “the expectation bar” has been set so low that even minimal profits are pleasing investors.Read more

As if the 2008 stock market itself did not bring enough challenges to us as asset managers, along comes Bernie Madoff to make life more difficult. Many investors now ask: are my accounts safe from fraud and embezzlement? I will spend considerable time at January and February’s Fireside Chats explaining in greater detail what I will summarize below. Please attend if you are concerned about account safety. Briefly, here is what happened: Read more

Who voiced the following allegation?

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than are standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” Read more

Here we are three months since my last writing in this space. The market had nice gains in April, gave back most of those gains since mid May, and is now in the typical “summer doldrums.” That means low-volume trading and no conviction from the big players to move the market higher. Account performance is not giving any of us much satisfaction. Understandably, I’ve had several questions from clients about this year’s market behavior. While nothing I say in these updates will fully assuage the feeling of poor market performance to which Read more

Did the market gyrations of the first quarter make your stomach churn? Does it feel like a scary world out there? Let’s first get the bad news out of the way, and then we’ll assess what, in my opinion, really happened in the first quarter of 2008. My article is a little longer this quarter since I’ve had some questions from clients about recent market behavior.

Here’s what the fear mongers (the title of last quarter’s newsletter) are telling us: Read more

Undoubtedly, you have noticed the market turbulence (volatility in Wall-Street speak) of the last three weeks. While the news media can exacerbate the problems, it helps to keep this short two- to three-week period of activity in perspective of the bigger picture. For instance, the well-regarded industry rag Barron’s recently proclaimed in huge red type “MARKET TURMOIL!” as its front-page cover. What they neglected to tell you until well into that week’s issue is that the DOW and Russell indices actually closed up for the previous week, Read more

As I write this, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (the Fed) has just dropped the “Fed Funds” target rate to 4.75%. Without a doubt, dropping the Fed Funds rate is a positive event for stocks in the U.S. and worldwide. Further, the Fed’s rate cut should benefit a real estate market that is in a nationwide recession (if not depression.) The S&P 500 finished the day up 43.13 or 2.9%. Ok, so what is next? And, what would have happened had the Fed only cut the rate by one-quarter of one percent – or not cut the rate at all? How would that Read more