I had the privilege of hearing Karl Rove speak recently.  I know many of you follow politics very closely and I thought it would be interesting to relay my impressions from his speech.  For those of you on the younger end of the newsletter readership or who do not follow politics that closely, Karl Rove is a Republican political consultant [...]

After beginning the year with strong relative performance of interest-rate sensitive and defensive equities, the second half of the year was led by economically sensitive sectors, such as consumer discretionary, industrials, and financials, which began to outperform when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled a sooner than anticipated QE3 tapering against the backdrop of stronger economic data.  The sectors that lagged [...]

Introduction At the time of this letter, it does not make that much sense to review the past quarter.  Much of the quarter was just a prelude to the two major events of the last month—the Fed announcement in mid-September, and the actions of Congress the first two weeks of October.  Those two events received so much media attention I [...]

Introduction One of the main tenets of investing is diversification.  I have spoken of it many times in these letters.  Most managers build their portfolios with this concept in mind and over time diversification achieves steady returns with a balanced risk profile.   The past quarter, year-to-date and current rally are exceptions.  The US stock market has done very well while [...]