First Quarter 2002|Jim Williams| Recall that the fundamental reason for fixed income in a diversified portfolio is to moderate the volatility of the equity component of the portfolio while maintaining a reasonable yield and a store of value. A perpetual argument exists among bond investors about the relative merits of using bond funds versus direct investments in individual bonds.
Fourth Quarter 2001|Jim Williams| With all the recent lowering of interest rates by the Federal Reserve, and with money market yields below 2% it would seem that interest rates are about as low as they can get. This is a circumstance that gives us cause to examine the role of fixed income in our portfolios. Why would anyone want to hold bonds knowing that interest rates are going to go up?
Third Quarter 2001|Jim Williams| Watching the abrupt decline in portfolio values after the terrorist attacks was disconcerting, to say the least. The horrible events themselves left many of us with a sense of loss, and a feeling that our personal security was impaired. These emotions were compounded by the reaction of the financial markets. Here's a comparative look at the market impact of several crisis events and the amount of market recovery after the end of the market reaction to the crisis
First Quarter 2001|Jim Williams| The returns for the quarter ended and 12-months ended March 2001 were disappointing in historic proportions. An examination of all of the 12-month periods ending on calendar quarters from December 1926 through March 2001 shows that the most recent 12-month period (ended March 2001) was the 15th worst. Is the decline over? Will this pass?
First Quarter 2000|Jim Williams| The pleasing results of the 1st quarter of 2000 are a bit tainted by the decline in the markets over the last week. Is it over? I don't know. Is it the end of the world? Probably not.
Fourth Quarter 2000|Jim Williams| The IRS issued new proposed rules covering distributions from qualified plans and IRAs. The new rules are aimed at simplification and appear, at first blush, to achieve that objective. While these changes appear to be fortuitous, not all of the changes in the regulations are favorable. Here’s an interesting puzzle. Note that the mania driven NASDAQ (the tech and dotcom heavy over the counter exchange) was up something on the order of 80% in 1999. In the year 2000, the same index was down by approximately 40%. What was the annualized return for the combined two year period? The simple answer of subtracting 40% from 80% leaves 40%; divide by 2 (years) leaves about 20% per year right? Wrong. Two plus two equals what?