Client Letter - Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd.

Good Economy, Strong Earnings, But Markets Struggle

June 1, 2018

May 2018 Client Letter

The unemployment rate matched an almost five-decade low of 3.8% in May. The only other time in the last 48 years unemployment has been this low was at the height of the dotcom bubble. We are experiencing a best-of-the-best labor market. Economic growth remains strong as well. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, GDP is forecasted to rise more than 4% in the second quarter. Industrial production is again humming, and corporate earnings are booming. Bloomberg data shows that, with 97% of S&P 500 companies reporting, earnings are up over 23% from the first quarter of last year.

Predictability and Consistency

April 25, 2018

April 2018 Client Letter

Recently, I spoke to a long-time client who has been with Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. since August 1995. When we have telephone conversations to review his portfolio, there is often no need for me to schedule the appointment on my calendar. That’s because for the past 12 years we’ve spoken on a Friday at 10:30 a.m. Naples, Florida, time and 7:30 a.m. Orange County, California, time. While our phone appointments are both predictable and consistent, the markets have been anything but.

The Rise of Automated Trading and Fall of Fundamental Analysis

March 26, 2018

March 2018 Client Letter

Did exchange-traded funds (ETFs) cause the February stock market correction? “Nonsense,” is the response of many experts to that question. ETFs, provide access to baskets of securities that mirror indexes and can be bought and sold throughout the day, just like stocks. “ETFs are the future of investing. Just ask anyone!”

Volatility Returns

February 28, 2018

February 2018 Client Letter

It’s wise to remember that investing in the stock market is not a strategy guaranteed to make you wealthy. In fact, the stock market at times can decrease your wealth. Twice over the last 19 years, once between 2000 and 2002 and again from 2007 to 2009, the stock market declined by more than 50%.

Do You Have an Investment Game Plan?

January 31, 2018

January 2018 Client Letter

History has a way of repeating itself. In early 1995 my dad wrote about a math professor named Tom Nicely, who worked at Lynchburg College. Nicely was examining prime numbers using a group of five personal computers. While four of the computers gave Nicely the correct answer to a problem, 1.2126596294086, the fifth turned up a slightly different answer, 1.212659624891157804.