Commentary

Each month, the BCWM Portfolio Management team publishes an Investment Commentary that examines the latest developments in financial markets and the economy. We filter out the noise and present the information most relevant to our investment strategies and management of our clients’ portfolios.

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Negative Interest Rates

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“Invest your money with me. I guarantee I’ll give you back less than what you invested.” This is what investors are hearing all over the world as over $10 trillion of sovereign bonds are trading at negative interest rates today. That’s right, if you invest in bonds issued by Germany, Japan and several other legitimate…
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Nuggets from Montreal

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Last week, Laura Carley and I attended the 69th CFA Institute Annual Conference in Montreal. Over 2,000 Chartered Financial Analysts gathered from 70 different countries. It was like a big global nerd convention. It turns out that nerds from other countries are a lot like nerds from the USA. There are always a few good…
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Negative Interest Rates are Not a Positive

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The first quarter of 2016 appeared to be a non-event in the stock market. The S&P 500 gained a little over 1%. Foreign stocks declined just a smidge. No big deal, right? Unless you were backpacking in the Himalayas with no internet access, you know that the first quarter was anything but a non-event. January…
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Gold and a Not So Golden Presidential Campaign

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Gold has been on a tear lately. It is exciting for all those “investors” (I use that term loosely) who perpetually think the investment world is ending to see the price of gold cease its relentless descent. Gold has frustrated doomsday investors. After peaking in 2010 at almost $1,900 an ounce, its price plummeted more…
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Blame China

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January stunk it up. The first two weeks of January really reeked. January stunk it up so badly that it made 2015 smell good. And February is starting out like it wants to make January smell good. After the first two weeks of January, U.S. markets were down about 8%. Foreign markets were slightly worse.…
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