It Passes: The Coronavirus, Economic Stimulus, and the Market
March 27, 2020
Congress passed and President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act, which at $2.2 trillion (9.2% of GDP) is the largest fiscal stimulus package in U.S. history. By comparison, the Recovery Act of 2009 was $831 billion (5.7% of GDP at the time). Federal Reserve In addition to fiscal […]
One Week Later: Revisiting Thoughts on The Downturn
Markets have turned into a bear market and negative news keeps coming. We had a video last week touching on this, and here is an update on what’s happened since. As has been seen, markets can turn unpredictably and quickly. For more information on how the markets are being affected by the Coronavirus: Thoughts on […]
Rebalancing For the Future
March 26, 2020
Tax Loss Harvesting As both the news and market continue to be volatile, trading opportunities can present themselves. One area is tax-loss harvesting. This creates a tax asset that is there going forward by selling out of an investment at a taxable loss while reinvesting the proceeds at the same time to capture future market […]
Handling the Hard Times
March 13, 2020
Yesterday, the market continued its nasty descent. Not only was it a bad day, it turned out to the be the 4th worst day in Dow Jones history, falling by -9.99% in a single trading day. Travel restrictions, continual event closings, and other matters weighed heavily on the minds of investors. The Fed attempted to […]
Coronavirus Uncertainty Leads to a Bear Market
March 12, 2020
This Coronavirus (COVID-19) has continued to bring not just volatility to the market, but negativity. With the classification officially moving to pandemic on Wednesday, we’ve seen even more worry. This week alone we’ve seen the biggest point decline of the Dow ever followed immediately by over a 1,000-point jump and then another day of volatility […]
Coronavirus and Market Volatility Revisited
March 5, 2020
The wild ride that has been the market as of late continues. Driven by a surge in cases of the Coronavirus in South Korea, Italy, Iran, and the United States, last week was the worst week for the stock market since the financial crisis. U.S. equities dropped by double digits with the Dow Jones Index […]
Coronavirus – The Market Says It’s Supposed to Get Worse
February 25, 2020
The year 2020 has started with quite the lineup of geopolitical issues. The one stealing all eyes as of late has been the Coronavirus. This past weekend, news got worse. South Korea, Italy and Iran all reported new and escalating cases with Italy now reporting to be the largest impact area outside of China. All […]
It’s Comp Season – What Should I Do With All This Cash?
February 18, 2020
For many law firms, we are in the thick of “comp season.” For many lawyers, the first couple of months of the year are when you receive the lion’s share of your compensation for the prior year. This creates some degree of consternation and begs the question – “what should I do with my cash?” […]
Factor Primer Series: Multifactor
February 13, 2020
All good things must come to an end, and this piece concludes our series on factor investing (What is a Factor?; Small-Cap; Value; Momentum; Profitability). Here we’ll look at bringing all the factors together, in what we will refer to as multifactor investing. As a reminder, we have defined factors as a source of excess […]
Mind Over Markets
January 24, 2020
On January 16th and January 23rd, BDF held its Annual Client Event in Itasca and Downtown Chicago, respectively, with over 400 clients and guests in attendance. For those not able to attend, here is a recap of the event. Market Review Chad Carlson, Director of Investment Research, reviewed 2019 – an excellent year for the […]
Factor Primer Series: Profitability
January 9, 2020
As we ease into not only a new year but a new decade, we continue our series on factor investing (What is a Factor?; Small-Cap; Value; Momentum). Today, we dig into the profitability factor. As a reminder, we have defined factors as a source of excess return that is sensible, persistent over long time periods, […]
Good 2019, Good 2020?
December 26, 2019
The year 2019 has been filled mostly with joy from a market perspective. Most days, weeks, and certainly months you could look at your statement and feel quite good about the progress made. So good, it leads many to ask whether the gifts the market has been giving can keep on coming or has the […]