WEALTHTRACK

Berkshire Hathaway stock has underperformed the S&P 500 for the past decade. By a recent calculation Berkshire’s stock has risen by nearly 260% versus the market’s more than 300% advance in the decade ended in 2018.   Despite Berkshire’s stunning record since 1965, 21% compounded annualized gains, this is not the first time that the company’s shares have underperformed the market for a decade. It’s happened several times in recent years.  This weeks guest: "The advice is stay put, and then you’ll get the returns from the S&P because 90 percent of the investors in the S&P 500 funds don’t earn the return for that fund because they’re out when the market is most cheap, and they’re overexposed when the market is too expensive." Are Berkshire Hathaway’s best years behind it? Great investor and long-time holder, Tom Russo responds.  WEALTHTRACK #1553 broadcast on June 21, 2019. https://wealthtrack.com/follow-buffetts-investment-principles-great-investor-tom-russo-continues-to/

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint” describes the investment time horizon of Tweedy, Browne’s senior portfolio managers William Browne and John Spears.   Wall Street is haunted by the ghosts of brokerage firms past. Names such as Dean Witter, Kidder Peabody, PaineWebber, and Smith Barney were thriving independents. No more! Even the Merrill Lynch name is being gradually erased by parent company Bank of America.   There is one old-line firm still standing however with an impeccable investment pedigree that is carrying on its deep-rooted value traditions. It is Tweedy, Browne Company   Although they are both traditional long-term value investors there is nothing old fashioned about their performance.  Buffett’s partner Charlie Munger once described Tweedy Browne as “…absolute spiritual descendants of Ben Graham… they are like Buddhists or Tibetan monks who absolutely bought into the catechism.” Classic value investing – delivering modern outperformance.  In a WEALTHTRACK exclusive, Tweedy, Browne’s senior portfolio managers explain their Ben Graham/Warren Buffett approach. WEALTHTRACK #1552 broadcast on June 14, 2019. https://wealthtrack.com/the-culture-of-value-investing-from-ben-grahams-warren-buffetts-former-brokerage-firm/

As it’s currently fundraising season on public television WEALTHTRACK might not be airing on your local station,  so we are revisiting a recent interview on the topic of impact investing.   NEW THIS WEEK:  In this week's extra feature we’ll share a link to a report about how you apply socially responsible investing principles to your portfolio from the forum for sustainable and responsible investment. It is a roadmap for professional investors which is also useful for individuals and anyone managing money. You can find it here: https://wealthtrack.com/how-do-you-apply-socially-responsible-investing-principles-to-your-portfolio/

It’s the first week of the spring fund raising season on Public Television we are revisiting a recent exclusive interview with Fund Manager of Year winner David Giroux on the growing secular risks in companies. NEW THIS WEEK: A large group of T. Rowe Price’s portfolio managers and analysts recently returned from the firm’s annual trip to Silicon Valley where they pick the brains of top executives of leading tech-oriented companies. The firm is sharing its findings with us in their recently published report, “Technological Innovation and Disruption.” It’s a fascinating read. https://wealthtrack.com/secular-risk-threats-to-longterm-t…/

 International investing star Mark Yockey joins us in a WealthTrack Exclusive to discuss his global stock picks. With episodic exceptions the U.S. has been the place to invest since the global financial crisis. There have been occasional bouts of outperformance by European and emerging markets, specific geographical locals and individual countries but overall, the U.S. markets trajectory has been higher, the U.S. economy stronger and the dollar dominant.  The past year is a case in point. No matter where you looked around the world currencies weakened against the dollar. From the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc, to the Indian rupee and the South Korean won, to the British pound and the Euro to the Chilean peso and Brazilian real.  It’s been a challenging time for global investors, especially those running international funds. This week’s guest is up to the challenge and has been investing overseas for nearly three decades. It’s been a challenging time for global investors, especially those running international funds. This week’s guest is up to the challenge and has been investing overseas for nearly three decades. International investing star Mark Yockey joins us in a WealthTrack Exclusive to discuss his global stock picks. WEALTHTRACK #1549 broadcast on May 24, 2019. More at WEALTHTRACK

Our focus this week: The challenge facing most of us! Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist Richard Thaler recently called the drawing down of money in retirement “way harder” than the saving phase because of the uncertainty of how long we will live.  He is proposing adding 401(k) funds to social security to increase monthly payouts.  This week’s guest, Mark Cortazzo, wholeheartedly agrees with Thaler about the difficulty of the spend-down phase and says another largely unrecognized danger is portfolio volatility, which can mean the difference between solvency and insolvency at the end of life.  He has the research to prove it.  Cortazzo has done a number of studies showing how the accumulation phase of investing assets for retirement if done regularly and systematically over many years can make just about anyone feel like a genius.  However, once the withdrawals begin, what the pros call the decumulation phase, it’s a whole different ball game. What worked so well in building up a nest egg can be a disaster when taking it apart. WEALTHTRACK #1548 broadcast on May 17, 2019.

Market volatility is back.  The roller coaster trade negotiations between the U.S. and China are lurching downward again causing a multi-day market sell-off rivaling declines in December of last year. The much bigger question is how stable is the world financial system?  A decade ago in the midst of the global financial crisis, it appeared to be on the brink of destruction.  Massive and unprecedented monetary stimulus by central banks and fiscal stimulus by governments stabilized financial markets and supported banks and businesses. There was a huge unwinding of debt in the financial, corporate and household sectors. Fast forward and the U.S. which was the epicenter of the financial crisis has led the world out of it. Since 2009, we have experienced the longest bull market in our history and are just weeks away from setting a record for the longest economic expansion. Why then is there a sense of unease? Two economic thought leaders assess the still challenged stability of the global financial system. WEALTHTRACK #1547 broadcast on May 10, 2019. Learn more at WEALTHTRACK

Short term interests remain steady. The Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark federal funds rate at the same 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 percent range it had since January when it put its previous series of rate hikes on hold. Two percent is of course the Fed’s target rate for inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell described the Fed’s view of price weakness as “transient” but said if it continued it would be “something we would be concerned about.”   As far as the stock market is concerned growth is back in a big way and it continues to outdistance value.  Tech is providing the leadership. According to Strategas Research Partners the S&P 500 technology sector has risen 27% so far this year versus the market’s 17.5% gain.  And the famous FANGs are part of that tech dominance.   Last year’s fourth quarter rout had decimated shares of the extended FAANG family.  Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet all suffered significant declines. They have made up for much of that lost ground this year.   FAANG stock fever seems to be increasing globally as well.  Owning  the tech giant group was considered to be the second most crowded trade, i.e. most popular, in the financial markets along with their Chinese equivalents, known as the BATS: Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.  Of note, shorting European stocks was voted the most crowded trade. The FAANGS will continue to flourish, even in a late cycle market says market-beating portfolio manager Howard Ward who owns them in his GAMCO Growth Fund.  WEALTHTRACK #1546 broadcast on May 03, 2019.

This summer will mark the longest economic recovery in U.S. history. The bull market already made it into the record books for longevity in August of 2018. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ reached new record highs just this Tuesday. Rather than a cause for celebration many economists, business leaders, consumers and investors have viewed these unparalleled achievements as cause for concern.  Their thinking: this must mean the end is near. This week’s guest is not in the end is near camp. Anything but!  She has been a believer in the U.S. economy’s recovery capabilities since it emerged from the global financial crisis.  Nancy Lazar is Co-Founding Partner and Head of the Economic Research team at Cornerstone Macro, a leading independent macroeconomic investment and policy research firm she launched in 2013.  Lazar was one of the first economists to recognize what she dubbed, “America’s Manufacturing Renaissance,” the re-emerging competitive advantage of the United States as a manufacturing base once again. And as China’s economy slowed and America’s strengthened, she saw the U.S. assuming a key role in driving global growth once again, a role ceded to what many concluded was China’s unstoppable ascent. WEALTHTRACK #1545 broadcast on April 16, 2019 More at: WEALTHTRACK

  Remember the expression, “Follow the money” from the Deep Throat character in ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN? We are following the money for you. We also want to, “Show you the money,” Tom Cruise’s mantra in JERRY MAGUIRE. We can do both with one investment approach. Socially responsible investing, also known as ESG (for Environmental, Social and Governance), sustainable or impact investing. It is attracting massive amounts of investor dollars - follow the money - and is performing as well if not better than non-ESG investments - showing you the money! The latest evidence comes from Morningstar. In its most recent “Sustainable Funds U.S. Landscape Report” Morningstar found that the ESG fund group “attracted record net flows in 2018,” its sixth year of “ever higher annual net flows” while non- ESG U.S. funds “collected less than half their historic annual… average” of the last 10 years. And sustainable funds relative performance remained strong, even in the challenging environment of 2018.  Environmental impact investing is attracting dollars and delivering results. Two experts share their investment strategies. WEALTHTRACK #1544 broadcast on April 19. 2019. More at WEALTHTRACK