Where Did All the Volatility Go?

Where Did All the Volatility Go?

After more than a year of wild market swings, the third quarter ended up being the calmest we have seen in quite a while.  The S&P 500 finished up roughly 3% this quarter and had less than half the volatility than the previous nine months.  Most of the quarter’s...
Record Highs – Well, Sort of…

Record Highs – Well, Sort of…

This month, the S&P 500 and Dow Industrial Average set all-time highs. And while the seems impressive, it’s also important to note that those two market averages are only 2% higher than they were over a year ago. More importantly is the fact that all of the big...
The Long Journey to Nowhere

The Long Journey to Nowhere

If you had vacationed on a remote island for the first quarter of this year and hadn’t read the news, you’d be inclined to think it was a pretty boring three months. The majority of the major U.S. stock averages finished the quarter within two percentage points...