Emerald Insights: Empowering You with Knowledge and Clarity


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James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

The Year of the Rat

On January 25th of 2020, the Chinese Zodiac Calendar flips to the year of the Rat, specifically Year of the Metal (Gold) Rat. I’m not sure why they call it the Year of the Rat, but from everything I have read on the internet,

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Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

Investment Playbook - October 2019

The first sentence of our 2019 Mid-Year Outlook read “Congratulations, you just made it through another bear market! We think the cyclical bear is heading back to his cave and that the secular bull will soon resume its charge.”

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Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

Not Making Money in Stocks? Here's Why

If your 401(k) feels flat there's a reason. A quick glance at the chart below shows that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is below its January 2018 highs. That's right - US equities as an asset class have made virtually no progress for over a year and a half.

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Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

2019 Mid-Year Outlook

Congratulations, you just made it through another bear market! We think the cyclical bear is heading back to his cave and that the secular bull will soon resume its charge.

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James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

The US Dollar - Strong and Getting Stronger

After sliding about 13% during calendar year 2017, the US Dollar seems to have broken its downtrend and it appears to want to move higher.

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Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

US Stock Market Second Quarter Review

When I first started playing and working on the Street of Dreams in 1991, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading around 3000. On January 26th of this year the Blue Chip Index peaked at 26,616.71 before dropping 3256.42 points to hit an intraday low of 23,360.29 on February 9th.

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Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

Get the Picture?

I started my career in the investment business in 1991. Back then there were a lot of great regional investment firms with still familiar names. The one I worked for was A.G. Edwards and Sons, Inc

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James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

Corrections are part of Normal Markets

The first quarter of 2018 started out much like most of 2017. That is until January turned into February. With the turn of the calendar, it seemed as though stocks fell off the side of a mountain.

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James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

Pullback, Correction or Bear Market?

People like using labels to describe stock market volatility. Generally speaking, most pundits describe a decline of less than 10% as a pullback, a decline of 10% to 20% as a correction and any decline greater than 20% as a bear market.

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Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

Watching the FANGs for an Entry Point

According to Bespoke Institutional, stocks broke a 58 day streak of trading without a market move of over plus or minus 1% on August 10th. Since then stock market volatility has picked up some but not dramatically.

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Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer Stock Market Update James Tharin, CFA – President & Chief Investment Officer

Stocks and Bombs

For the last week or so the conflict of words between North Korea and the United States seems to have changed from a rapid boil to a slow simmer, giving equities a boost during the first half of the week.

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