Market Outlook

2nd Quarter 2010

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 15:09
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The tide turned decisively negative in June, and it’s starting to feel like Chinese water torture again.  Is the market horrible, or is all this normal?  I assume most of us think the market is doing terrible.  I will concede the point that the second quarter results have been negative, but let’s look at our recent history.

1st Quarter 2010

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Fri, 04/30/2010 - 11:35
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Wow!  What a difference a year can make. On March 5th, 2009 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day at 6,594.  The perception was that the U.S. financial system was facing a complete collapse, and most everyone’s retirement outlook seemed dismal.  Popular television stock analyst Jim Cramer had just screamed a few months earlier that any money you need in the next five years should not be in the market, thus causing even more fear and panic.

4th Quarter 2009

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 16:41
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Most everyone is happy with their returns this year.  The S&P 500, which represents the broad blue-chip, the U.S. stock market posted a gain of 23 percent.  Even bonds posted a healthy gain of 6 percent.  The only sad people I know were the ones that were scared out of the markets and invested their money safely in cash and Certificates of Deposits.

What were the lessons that 2008 and 2009 taught us that we can carry into the future?

3rd Quarter 2009

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 14:29
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My 401(k) was hammered during the recent credit crisis down to a 201(k), and has recently rallied all the way back to a 301(k). This feels good for the moment, but where are we going from here?

 

2nd Quarter 2009

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Thu, 10/08/2009 - 15:03
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After a tough and unsettling fall of 2008, the stock market continues a wild ride in 2009, although the second quarter ended on a much more positive note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, after hitting a dark moment in March, recovered 28% off the lows to end the six month period at a 4% loss year to date. The broader Standard and Poor’s 500 index took a similar route and recovered 36% off the lows in March to end the six month period at a 2% gain.

I am pleased to report that most of my managed accounts did significantly better than the market.

4th Quarter 2008

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Wed, 03/11/2009 - 17:52
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Market Health Outlook

3rd Quarter 2008

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 15:38
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Market Health Outlook

Dear Friends and Clients:

This quarter’s letter will be a bit longer than normal, but I wanted to let you know my current thoughts. We are in very unusual times and I desire to help each person who has questions.

2nd Quarter 2008

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 10:28
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Quarter 2008  

 

1st Quarter 2008

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 16:34
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Market Health Outlook   

1st Quarter 2008 

If you turned on your TV or read a newspaper recently, then you know it has been a tough qua

3rd Quarter 2007

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Mon, 10/01/2007 - 13:11
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Market Health Outlook

Wow; it definitely was an interesting 3rd quarter. I was anticipating a 10% to 15% correction in the market at some point with an overall recovery to end the year in positive territory. From the high to the low there was a 10% adjustment. By the end of the quarter all of the adjustment has been recovered. (I hesitate to even call the volatility we experienced a normal healthy correction.) With the recovery occurring so rapidly the best course of action was once again buy and hold.

2nd Quarter 2007

Submitted by Ron Dickinson on Fri, 07/06/2007 - 14:18
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Market Health Outlook

My mid-April letter indicated that I believed the overall stock market was fine but I was noticing some deterioration in key variables. I reasoned that it was possible that we would see a market pull back sometime this summer. It is typical for the market to pull back in the summer or early fall and if you look at the overall returns from July 2006 through June 2007 the market is up around 20%. So far we have not seen a market correction and it now appears as if there is a 50-50 chance we won't.