Tag Archives: Real estate

Is there anyone left out there who doesn’t know the rate of economic growth is slowing? The 10 year Treasury yield has fallen 45 basis points since peaking in mid-March. 10 year TIPS yields have fallen by the same amount and now reside below -1% again. Copper prices peaked a little later (early May), fell 16% at the recent low and are still down nearly 12% from the highs. Crude oil has recently joined in, falling 7% from its recent high. Energy stocks are in a full...

Until last week you hadn’t heard much about the bond market rally. I told you we were probably near a rally way back in early April when the 10 year was yielding around 1.7%. And I told you in mid-April that the 10 year yield could fall all the way back to the 1.2 to 1.3% range. The bond rally since April has been of the stealth variety, the financial press and market strategists dismissing every tick down in rates as nothing. It was a lonely trade to put on and yes...

[embedded content] Weekly Market Pulse on June 21, where we look at significant things from last week’s events with Joe Calhoun. [embedded content] You Might Also Like Weekly SNB Sight Deposits and Speculative Positions: Inflation is there, CHF must Rise 2021-06-21 Update June 21 2021: SNB intervening. Sight Deposits have risen by +1.1 bn CHF, this means that the SNB is intervening and...

One of the most common complaints I hear about the markets is that they are “divorced from reality”, that they aren’t acting as the current economic data would seem to dictate. I’ve been in this business for 30 years and I think I first heard that in year one. Or maybe even before I decided to lose my mind and start managing other people’s money. Because, of course, it has always been this way. Economic data represents the past while markets look to the future. And...

The answer to the question, “What should I do to my portfolio today (this week, this month)? is almost always nothing. Humans, and especially portfolio managers, have a hard time believing that doing nothing is the right response….to anything…or nothing. We are programmed to believe that success comes from doing things, not not doing things. And so, often we look at markets on a day to day or week to week basis and think something of significance happened and we...

There’s an old saying on Wall Street that one should “buy the rumor, sell the news”, a pithy way to express the efficient market theorem. By the time an event arrives, whatever it may be, the market will have fully digested the news and incorporated it into current prices. And then the market will move on to anticipating the next event, large or small. What prompts this review of Wall Street folk wisdom is the most recent employment report. The BLS reported Friday,...

[embedded content] Alhambra CEO Joe Calhoun and Alhambra’s Bob Williams look at data from the past month and discuss what it means for the economy. You Might Also Like Monthly Market Monitor – July 2020 Most Long-Term Trends Have Not Changed. A lot has changed over the last 4 months since the COVID virus started to impact the global economy. Asia was infected first with China at ground zero. Their economy...

Many of the weak dollar trends I noted in June’s update have moderated – even as the dollar has weakened further. US stocks surged over the last month, with growth indices leaving their value counterparts in the dust…again. About the only exception on the equity side was China, which outperformed for much the same reason as US growth – technology stocks. Generally, we expect foreign stocks to outperform in a weak dollar environment but so far any outperformance has...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Since we have been looking at buying a house, I had to do a lot of research on mortgages. In Switzerland, mortgages are not as simple as they should be!So, in this post, I will share all there is to know about mortgages in Switzerland and how they work.Before you buy a real estate property, you must know this. You do not want to go to the bank without knowing first a few things. Otherwise, it could be easy for them to give you a bad...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) We are currently in the process of buying a house. Since I shared this fact on the blog, I have been asked several times whether people should buy or rent in Switzerland.So, I wanted to share my thoughts on the buy or rent subject. I am going to go over the different considerations about buying and renting houses in Switzerland.While I am going to speak specifically about houses, most of it also applies to apartments. But since we...