by Paul Broughton This past week the S&P 500 made a new all-time high and Apple reached $2 trillion in valuation. It would seem that the pandemic is already in the rearview mirror. After the shortest bear market in U.S. history, a brief 33 days compared to the median of 302 days for the prior twenty...Read More

ALL-TIME HIGH FOR S&P500 – A MISLEADING HEADLINE Its true, last week the S&P500 hit an all time high, surpassing the level we hit in February, before the Covid crash. However, of the 500 constituents that make up the index, only 6% of those companies are also hitting new 52-week highs.   So, what about...Read More

Like Sumo Wrestling, The Bigger You Are the More You Move the Needle I write these Monday Market Updates to provide real news, without the noise, and more importantly, to educate. Each week we will look at different jargon or alphabet soup acronyms, and other subjects in finance that are confusing and overwhelming. Last week...Read More

Do Fundamentals Even Matter? Last week the Q2 GDP reading was released and showed a contraction of 32.9% in US GDP. The headline continues, but most people stop right there, and fail to see the words on an annualized basis at the end of the headline. Saying GDP contracted in Q2 by 9.5% just doesn’t sound as...Read More

by Jeff Deiss CFP, AEP, Wealth Advisor The benefit of playing games like Concentration is to learn problem-solving, strategy, trust, calculated risk-taking, and how to adapt to unforeseen issues. From an investment perspective, concentration in a single stock is associated with the potential for massive gains. A large stock position acquired through years of executive compensation,...Read More

by Dr. Charles Lieberman Chief Investment Officer Second quarter GDP collapsed at a 32.9% annual rate, as was widely expected. Nonetheless, more timely data shows that the economy is bouncing back. It has a long ways to go and the path back will not be smooth or easy. But the recovery process is clearly underway....Read More

Is a vaccine our only hope, or is unlimited stimulus enough? Some weeks just take your breath away, and last week was one of them. Let’s touch on some of the key points, and then we can break them down one by one. On Monday the S&P500 entered positive territory for the year and stayed...Read More

by David Ruff CFA, Global Portfolio Manager Europe receives relatively little attention in the 2020 manic global equity markets led by the major markets of China and the U.S..  Ranking last of the big three regional powers in year-to-date equity performance is not an uncommon position for Europe.  In dollar terms, the pan-European STOXX 600 Index...Read More

by Kevin Kern Founding Partner Going through life searching for happiness can certainly bring some disappointment.  But going through life searching for meaning and purpose can bring serenity.  This can also be true with investing.  The purpose of your portfolio will determine the level of serenity you are having this year as the S&P 500 is...Read More

Forefront’s Monday Market Update Don’t let emotions drive the bus! I have had an increasing number of conversations with many of my clients who are asking about adding risk to their portfolios, and purchasing securities trading at increased, and unrealistic valuations. This isn’t surprising and a classic case of risk compensation. Risk compensation is a...Read More