The Birds and The Bees In our 2016 3rd Quarter Market Commentary, Justin wrote a wonderful “birds and bees” explanation of where stock returns come from based on Vanguard founder and investing pioneer Jack Bogle. You can find the full commentary here. The return on any stock, we concluded, is it’s Dividend Yield + Earnings Growth +
Author: Jonathan Smith
Jonathan is responsible for protecting the mission and vision of the firm, our clients, employees and their families. He listens for what’s important, looks for what hinders success and comes up with techniques to remove threats to sustainability. He likes to say that sculptors do something similar; they start with a block of granite, take away what isn’t supposed to be there and presently the statue comes into view.
Market Commentary Q4 – 2016
“Look at me, look at me, I am the Captain Now!” On Election Eve, pollsters predicted Donald Trump’s probabilities of winning at around 12%. By Election night, the world experienced a low probability, high impact event. As Mr. Trump neared 270 Electoral College votes, investors flew to safety: bond prices soared, the dollar sank, and
Our New Name
Nothing has changed except our logo... ...and the letterhead, business cards, and of course the new website. After nearly 30 years as Jonathan Smith & Co. Investment Counsel we have changed our name to Smith Partners Wealth Management. When I founded Jonathan Smith & Co., it was just that: me, breaking free from the commission-driven
Market Commentary Q2 – 2016
Lost in the Woods On June 24th, more than 30 million citizens of the United Kingdom turned out to vote on the issue off their sovereign state’s future relationship with the European Union. With a surprising 52% majority, the “Leaves” won and the “Brexit” wheels were set in motion. According to The Economist, in the
Market Commentary Q1 – 2016
You’re Hired, Here’s Your Phonebook. Not the Actual DOL Rulebook…But Close Just sit here and mumble your first name, maybe they won’t know the difference.” It was the summer of 1976 and I had recently graduated from Guilford College and somehow landed a job as a stockbroker. This was an odd thing, since I knew
Market Commentary Q4 – 2015
Never Before North Carolina joined the ranks of lottery states in 2005 by introducing the NC Education lottery. As a side note, only 29% of the revenue goes into actual education and somehow, NC still ranks 50th in the nation in teacher pay and 51st (that’s not a typo) in percentage increase in teacher pay
Market Commentary Q2 – 2015
Grinding Like a Garden Tiller The human brain works nonstop trying to figure out what the eye sees. It’s been working overtime trying to figure this one out: over the last year, the Dow has gone up one percent and down one percent 53 times. Over this time, it traveled 42,823.56 points up and down,
Market Commentary Q4 – 2014
When Justin was in high school, he and I rebuilt a 1977 International Harvest Scout II. We bought it for $1400 from Wilkes Community College where the Auto Shop students had been experimenting on it like it was a rolling Frankenstein; we had our work cut out for us. After we repaired a D+ student’s
Market Commentary Q4 – 2013
Themes for 2014 This past year might go down as one of the “worst best” years in market history. The combination of cash still on the sidelines, abysmal bond returns and a poorly attended stock rally will do that. While we stay away from predictions, we have put together our important themes for the coming
Market Commentary Q2 – 2013
Ben Bernanke probably spent at least a couple minutes reading his pocket thesaurus, looking one last time for another way to say it. When no new words came about, he stepped up to the microphone at the Fed’s June 20 press conference hoping to shed light on the FOMC Statement from the day before. Investors