Uncategorized

In Pursuit of Improved Risk-Adjusted Concerns, as 2022’s Uncertainties Roll Over into 2023

by Plotinus Plotinus No Comments

As US stock market investors watch 2022 draw to a close, the ‘big three’ global macro-economic factors that impacted volatility this year will still be at large in 2023: Inflation, Russia, and Covid. They will continue to drive hard-to-time downward volatility spikes in 2023, impacting, at a minimum, an investor’s short to mid-term risk-adjusted returns.

Read more

Who Priced In What In Their Stock Market Trades?

by Plotinus Plotinus No Comments

The Federal Reserve meeting this month was keenly awaited to see if the hardline message on inflation control materialized into the expected 75bps rate increase or the less probable 100bps. It was the indeed the former, accompanied by a strong message of staying the course to control inflation long-term, at the cost of short-term pain.

Read more

Summertime and the Living Is Queasy

by Plotinus Plotinus No Comments

The beginning of summer has brought with it a bear market and much uncertainty with the looming prospect of a US and global recession.

The Dow and S&P 500 ended basically flat for May, but those month-end figures belied the brewing unease that was reflected in a turbulent month for the markets. For the S&P 500 to end the month flat, for example, required that it recover from hitting a May 20 low of -8%. Alas, the month-end was but a temporary respite as the market fall reinvigorated itself with the start of June.

Read more

The Geopolitical Chimera

by Plotinus Plotinus No Comments

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the most profound challenge to date of the post-Cold War world order. With the looming specter of what an expanded conflagration might potentially mean, there has been a very heavy de-escalatory stance by the West, most specifically by NATO members, that would probably be best described as anti-brinksmanship. President Joe Biden’s pledge to defend “every inch of NATO territory” can be taken as the current, literal demarcation line, where threat will be met with threat. Until that line is reached, threat will be met with acceptance (sanctions, military support, and condemnation of humanitarian atrocities).

Read more

Sobering Times

by Plotinus Plotinus No Comments

Regardless of all the unknowns associated with war there is one absolute certainty, profound human suffering.

As is oft the case, conflict-at-a-remove, produces endless, expert speculation and prognostication on the current and future pattern of the war and its geopolitical and economic ramifications. So, rather than add to that speculative melee, with our take on the investment implications of the conflict, we would prefer to reflect on how the current Russian invasion of Ukraine has highlighted how fragile the interpretation of information can be.

Read more