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Following an explosive 9 month run, small cap stocks slowed their pace of growth allowing large cap stocks to nearly close the gap for the year. Meanwhile, international markets underperformed U.S. markets. This is not surprising. To many other nations, the U.S has had a fairly productive vaccine rollout and therefore many components of the U.S. economy are back to a semblance of normalcy. As international stocks become even cheaper (relative to U.S. stocks), at some point that may present investors with an opportunity.

After a recent phone call from my 21-year-old son, I realized that some things never change. With the advancements in technology, it has never been easier to invest with an account on apps like Robinhood, SoFi, and Stash. Many of my son’s friends (Gen Z) are using these platforms on their quest to get rich quick and retire early. For young inexperienced investors, I equate this to the euphoria around the tech bubble of the 90s or even certain pyramid schemes.

For a long time, many of our portfolios have had a slight bias towards small cap stocks (stocks with a total market value under two billion dollars). Sometimes this bias helps performance and sometimes it hurts. We believe that over the long term, in exchange for a small amount of additional risk, small cap stocks will provide better returns than their large cap counterparts.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I have no idea where that idiom originated from but it is perhaps the best and simplest way to describe diversification. Instinctively investors know they should diversify their portfolio and most do this. Having looked at hundreds, if not thousands, of portfolios, I can tell you that diversification amounts to more than just owning multiple funds. A common mistake that investors make when trying to diversify their IRA or 401k is that they, inadvertently, create a portfolio that has the illusion of diversification. Let me explain.

It feels as if 2020 produced enough headlines for a decade. A global pandemic, mass protests, an emotionally charged election and some dude named the “Tiger King” are just a few of the many stories that kept our interest. Yet, here it is the second month into 2021, and Gamestop is dominating the headlines. Gamestop, which was once a place to buy a video game, became the topic of discussion at every dinner table, group text and social media platform last week.

On January 18th, we initiated a gold position in many of our portfolios. As many of you know we are not flashy day traders. On the contrary, our investment approach has a long term outlook, is disciplined, and is built on the fundamentals of asset allocation. With that being said, we do not take a purely static approach to investing. We believe that adjustments over time are prudent and this change represents what we believe to be a prudent investment...

Well, that was a year to remember! I won’t spend too much time talking about 2020 as we are all looking forward to moving on. However, it may be worthwhile to do a short recap of what happened to markets and how they concluded in 2020.

Socially responsible investing (SRI) is a general term used to describe various subsets of investing that attempt to align your portfolio with your values. There are two categories that tend to be the most popular: ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), and BRI (Biblically Responsible Investing).