The Transparent Advisor

Well, Q2 is on the books, and it was just as breathtaking as Q1.  S&P 500 down 35% peak-to-trough from February 20th to March 23rd, then up 45% from March 23rd to June 9th. To be clear, that doesn't mean the S&P is up 10% on the year.   $100,000, down 35%, equals $65,000.   Then $65,000, up 45%, equals $94,250... Diversification anyone? I hope we get to the end of 2020 and it's like, "Yep, made 8%.  All-in-all, pretty average year."  Here are 5 good reads from the past week: Abilities  by Josh Brown Why is Gold Valuable?  by Nick Magguilli How Ofter do Long-Term Bonds Beat Stocks?  by Ben Carlson Never the Same  by Morgan Housel The Re-education of Jeremy Siegel  by Barry Ritholtz Legal Disclosure:  This is not Investment Advice.  The commentary on  thetransparentadvisor.com  reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints and analyses of Danno Hoff and should not be regarded as a description of services provided by his employer or its affiliates. The opinions expr

by Danno We often hear about "what the market did today", but many people don't actually know what "the market" is. When people say "the market", what they are referencing is US stocks, of which 80%-82% of the weight is in US LargeCaps. There are 3 main US Large Cap indices that you probably hear on the nightly news: #1) "the Dow," meaning, the Dow Jones 30 Industrial Average.  #2) "the S&P," meaning, the S&P 500.  #3) "the Nasdaq," meaning, the Nasdaq 1000 Composite. These 3 big indices are not even close to being equal though. Index construction is everything. These are all very different, and that's never been more evident than in 2020.  Let me explain. In the chart below, ^IXIC is the Nasdaq 1000, ^DJI is the Dow 30, and ^GSPC is the S&P 500: *And now for the CYA portion of our program: This is not an endorsement to buy or sell any stock or fund, and past performance does not in any way gu

Here are 5 good reads from the past couple weeks: Same as it Ever Was  by Morgan Housel The Worst Dilemma in Investing  by Blair duQuesnay Why the Market is so Confused Right Now  by Ben Carlson An Inconvenient Fact: Private Equity Returns & The Billionaire Factory  by Ludovic Philippou How Big is the Racial Wealth Gap?  by Nick Maggiulli Legal Disclosure:  This is not Investment Advice.  The commentary on  thetransparentadvisor.com  reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints and analyses of Danno Hoff and should not be regarded as a description of services provided by his employer or its affiliates. The opinions expressed in this website are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry and provoke thoughts. The views reflected in the commentary are subject to change at any time without notice. Nothing