Insights

Articles & Insights

The Impact of Rising Interest Rates

The U.S has been in a period of low rates for nearly a decade.  As the economy is now approaching full employment and higher inflation, interest rates have been rising from their historic lows. As rates rise, the value of existing fixed-interest bonds falls.  What...

Volatility: Same as It Ever Was

February 7, 2018 When people say “volatility is back”, what they really mean is that downside volatility is back.  Most people would not have called it “volatility” if the market was up 6.1% over 2 days at the beginning of this February, instead of down.  At Plum...

Financial Roles of a Non-Profit Board Member

Financial Roles of a Non-Profit Board Member By David Dirks and Jamie Osborn, Plum Street Advisors LLC As a non-profit board member, you take on a wide range of oversight responsibility.  Non-profit board members are expected to set and guide the mission and strategy...

Market Commentary

Q3 2020 Market Commentary

Q3 2020 Market Commentary - Oct 12, 2020 In many ways, this recession and the recovery to date has been the most uneven one ever recorded.  Housing data, corporate profits, unemployment figures, and stock market returns mask the fact that while many sectors of the...

Q2 2020 Market Commentary

Q2 2020 Market Commentary - July 8, 2020 Early on in this health crisis there was an influential paper called “The Hammer and the Dance” by Tomas Pueyo in which he called the initial period of lockdown to flatten the curve “the hammer” and the subsequent period of...

Q1 2020 Market Commentary

Q1 2020 Market Commentary - April 10, 2020 Looking back at our last quarterly report feels like reading a report from many years ago.  There was no hint of COVID-19, and we had just finished a year in which the US stock market rose by 31% (as measured by the S&P...

Chart Books

Q4 2019 Market Review Chart Book

You can download our comprehensive market review in charts and tables from the link below. Topics covered include: Q4 2019 ChartbookDownload TABLE OF CONTENTS: Market Summary World Stock Market Performance World Asset Classes        US Stocks             International...

Q3 2019 Market Review Chart Book

You can download our comprehensive market review in charts and tables from the link below. Topics covered include: Q3 2019 Chartbook TABLE OF CONTENTS: Market Summary World Stock Market Performance World Asset Classes  US Stocks  International Developed Stocks...

Q2 2019 Market Review Chart Book

You can download our comprehensive market review in charts and tables from the link below. Topics covered include: Q2 2019 ChartbookDownload TABLE OF CONTENTS: Market Summary World Stock Market Performance World Asset Classes  US Stocks  International Developed Stocks...