I started my career on The Street of Dreams in October of 1991 as a stock broker with one of those many great regional brokerage firms that used to exist. There are still a few of them left but most of the old investment companies that used to be household names are gone. In 2004 I earned my CFA Charter. Now I own my own firm and I get to call myself a money manager. Change is inevitable. However, there are some constants in the investing world. As I start my 25th year i

…..is missing the point altogether. I’m very well aware of what many studies say but I don’t think those studies adequately address the concerns of real investors with real financial goals. The returns for the S&P 500 for the previous five years are listed below: 2009 26.46% 2010 15.06% 2011 2.11% 2012 16.00% 2013 32.39% 2014 13.69% Anybody who has been professionally managing money for any length of time knows that the value added, or to use industry jarg

Note: The comments below were sent to our clients on August 27th. Over the course of five trading days U.S. Equities as measured by the S&P 500 Index have dropped by over 11%. From the all-time high on May 21st the same index has dropped by 12.55%, not counting dividends. The Value Line Geometric Index was down from its all-time high by just over 16%. The VLG Index is important because it gives us a better gauge of how the 'average' stock is behaving than the better known

Every good stock investor that I have ever met has some methodical, well thought out system for risk management that he or she can clearly articulate. Risk management is essential to successful portfolio management because nobody can predict the future. That’s right, for all of the noise and opinions on TV or the internet, for all of the newsletters being sold and all of the stock tips from your best friend’s brother-in-law who used to be a stock broker, nobody can predict

It’s taken me awhile to get here but I do believe that the Great Recession caused by the housing crisis of 2007 - 2009 is behind us and a new Secular Bull Market in U.S. and Global Equities is well under way. However, not everybody shares this point of view. After all, the S&P 500 has increased in price by over 200% since the March 2009 lows with only one correction that came close to the 20% drop that most people use to define a bear market. And that event was way back in

If you think dividends are boring, think again. According to Stocks for the Long Run, by Jeremy Siegel, about two thirds of the real (inflation-adjusted) returns from U.S. Stocks from 1871 to 1996 were attributable to dividends, and about one third of the (real) gains were attributable to capital appreciation. Please reread that last sentence. Dividends have historically provided more profit to investors than capital gains. Now don’t get me wrong, I want my stocks to go u

by James B. Tharin, CFA Over the years we’ve learned that there is no silver bullet to investing. If you are in this business long enough and have any courage at all, you absolutely will make market calls that turn out to be incorrect. It’s okay to be wrong, but it’s not okay to stay wrong. That’s why we have stringent risk management procedures in place. The general idea in investing, in our opinion, is to identify the long term market trends and stay with them while igno

by James B. Tharin, CFA There is a relatively new investment industry buzzword that you might want to learn before your next cocktail party or investment club meeting. The term ‘Active Share’ is still unfamiliar enough to most lay people that if you can work it into a conversation you might be able impress a few friends with your command of modern investment jargon. Active Share is a statistic that measures the difference between a portfolio’s holdings and the portfolio man

by James B. Tharin, CFA On March 10, 2000, the Nasdaq Composite Index set an all-time record high at 5048.60. What followed was an unbelievable two year and seven month drop of 78% known today as the tech wreck. Almost fifteen years later after that Y2K example of Irrational Exuberance and about twelve years and seven months after bottoming at 1108.49 on October 10th, 2002, the index appears to be making a run at its old record. Old highs out of an index can often be areas

by James B. Tharin, CFA At Emerald Asset Management, we believe the foundation to building a more secure financial future begins with a plan. But how does one get started? And how should you implement the plan? Many people find that the help of an experienced, credentialed advisor makes the experience easier to accomplish than they could do on their own. Many people also find that having a professional guide them through the process can give them the added confidence and