Small Cap Year End 2024 Commentary
Celebrating 5-Years of Success To the clients who supported us from the beginning, thank you! Over the past five years, our portfolio has compounded at just over 16% annually (based on our composite), exceeding our 15% goal and significantly outpacing the Russell 2000, which compounded at 7.4% during the same period. This achievement required discipline […]
Small Cap Q3 2024 Commentary
5-year goal in focus! As we approach our five-year anniversary, we’re pleased to report that our goal of achieving an annualized return of around 15% (net of fees) over this period seems within reach, barring any significant market disruptions in Q4. We’re proud to be on track for these returns, especially given the challenges we’ve […]
Keeping Our Heads On A Swivel
August 8, 2024 Good morning, It seems unusually noisy in markets for an early August. Last week, we got weak enough economic data on Thursday to raise some eyebrows, followed by light employment data on Friday, which was far from a major event. But the market has been in correction mode since 7/16 and just […]
Strip Out The Exaggeration, Not The Direction
August 6, 2024 Good morning, Fortunately, it looks like “melt-down” Monday is being followed by “turnaround” Tuesday this morning. U.S. equity futures are up a percent or so across the board, and more importantly, Japan was up 10% in their Tuesday trading session. Is that it? Can we all breathe a sigh of relief? If […]
Meltdown Mode But No Proximate Cause
August 5, 2024 Good morning, Following Friday’s weak June employment report, stocks, yields, and the U.S. dollar plunged while volatility spiked higher. It was a growth scare for the market that resulted in an overwhelming call for a 50 bps rate cut by the Fed at their next meeting on 9/18. Last Wednesday the Fed […]
What the Fed Decision Means
By John Lau August 1, 2024 – The Fed met dovish expectations yesterday and reinforced one of the key supports for the 2024 rally: the idea of looming rate cuts. Powell all but said a September rate cut was coming and also (and importantly) floated the idea that the Fed could cut “several” times in […]
Back To Normal?
August 1, 2024 Good morning, Markets got back to “normal” yesterday if we define normal as the way they’ve been acting for about 2yrs up until July. Mega caps reestablished their dominance yesterday (and this morning) at the expense of 290-ish other S&P stocks and the entire Russell 2000. Rotation was yesterday and Fed rate cuts […]
It Only Matters When It Spikes Higher
July 29, 2024 Good morning, From a market analysis point of view, last week’s spike in volatility might have been the most significant development of the week. Yes, the S&P 500 Index (SPX) saw its first 2% down day in nearly a year, and the NASDAQ Composite Index saw its biggest one-day decline since 2022 […]
What Does Yesterday’s Pain For All Consensus Trades Mean
July 25, 2024 Good morning, Over the past few months, I’ve expressed concerns about the long-term health of the equity market related to a possible recession late this year or early next year. Long-term is measured in months/quarters, and it is outside the usual discounting mechanism of the market. That mechanism carries the “discount” label […]
It’s Earnings, Earnings, Earnings, Now
July 22, 2024 By the looks of the way equity futures are trading this morning (+.50% to +1.0%, broadly speaking), last week’s stock-market gyrations suddenly seem all but forgotten. On the week last week, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) moved up to a three-month high as stocks sold off, driven by overbought technicals, a global IT outage, […]
It’s About Market Cap – Or Lack Thereof
July 18, 2024 The Big Rotation, as it was labeled last week, has been less of a pivot from rally-leading equity sectors (like mega-caps) and more of a mad-dash into rally-lagging sectors (like small caps). I use the term mad-dash to underscore what seemed to be an emotionally charged scramble by traders rather than a […]
Client Testimonials – J. Michael Tierney, Jr.
Testimonials provided by current clients of Robertson Stephens. Testimonials may not be representative of the experience of other customers and are no guarantee of future performance or success. “I have enjoyed a close working relationship with Mike Tierney for over a decade. While my husband has been primarily involved with managing our family investments, he has encouraged me to […]