With the U.S. presidential election called, and promising news of a COVID-19 vaccine announced, a U.S. market surge reminds us how keen investors are for a sense of closure. That said, who knows how long the mood will last? Come what may between the U.S. presidential election just ended and the inauguration yet to occur, the results will undoubtedly be attention-grabbing and action-paced. To counter all the excitement, we offer three calming insights.
In a recent piece, we explored how to invest available cash: Should you invest it all right away as a lump sum? Or are you better off wading in more gradually with dollar-cost averaging? In round one, we discussed why lump-sum investing is generally expected to generate the highest returns over time. That said, general rules don't always apply to you. Let’s look at when dollar-cost averaging may be preferred after all.
Good news – you have an extra $24,000, and you’ve decided to invest it in the stock market. It’s always nice to have investable cash on hand. But you also might feel as if the pressure is on. Nobody enjoys seeing the market take a dive shortly after they jump in. Unfortunately, we never know when it might do exactly that. What's an investor to do?
Third Quarter 2020|Jim Williams| Looking back at the year 2020, and forward to year end, we can be sure that this is one for the history books. By almost any measure, 2020 has been a year to test one's resolve as an investor. In times of market turmoil, investor resolve is clearly the difference between success and failure.
Second Quarter 2020|Jim Williams| When we establish the investment policies we use to drive decisions about the investment portfolios we manage, we include in those conversations a discussion of premiums; most notably, the equity premium, the value premium, the size premium, and the profitability premium.
First Quarter 2020|Jim Williams| The last few months have presented a rapidly changing financial landscape for those in the investment management, financial planning, tax return preparation and tax advice world. In a series of fits and starts, a number of changes took place. Needless to say, these abrupt changes have created a good bit of thrashing.