Highlights
Muni Bond Ladders: An Oversimplified Approach
**This post was originally published in July of 2024. Given current market valuations, we felt it was timely to revisit the topic in anticipation of better opportunities.** A Traditional Approach Municipal bonds are a popular investment option for individual investors. They are primarily sought ...
Concentration Risk in Focus
Diversification in Decline The S&P 500 was once a gateway to broad exposure across the U.S. economy: banks, energy, manufacturing, and consumer goods. It served as a built-in diversification tool, helping balance risk across sectors. However, what was once broad-based beta is increasingly tethered ...
The Dollar’s Future: What Investors Should Know
For decades, the U.S. dollar has been the cornerstone of global finance, supporting international markets and investments. But that dominance is no longer assured. As technologies and global systems evolve, digital currencies gain traction, and the global landscape shifts, the dollar’s influence is being ...
Navigating the Storm: Embracing Volatility as a Driver of Value
When it comes to investing, volatility isn’t just a buzzword – it’s an inherent and powerful force in capital markets. While many investors fear volatility as a sign of risk or instability, it should instead be embraced as a catalyst for opportunity. Volatility creates ...
Behavioral Finance: Hidden Forces Behind Investing
Investing is not just about numbers, market trends, or economic forecasts. It’s also deeply influenced by human psychology. Behavioral finance, a field that examines how psychological biases impact financial decision making, plays a significant role in how investors react to market changes. At CapRidge ...
Asset Allocation: Recalibrating Risk
The Evolving Landscape In today’s market environment, effective asset allocation requires a discerning view of risk and return. For investors seeking to balance portfolio risk while positioning for future returns, understanding the relative value of equities and credit is critical. While equities have historically ...
Duration and Interest Rate Risk: A Rule of Thumb
Interest rate risk is a key factor to consider when managing an investment portfolio, especially in a volatile economic environment. Changes in interest rates can have an impact on the value of various asset classes. This risk is particularly relevant for fixed income investments like ...
Preferreds: An Unfamiliar Corner of the Market
What Are Preferred Securities? Preferred securities are a hybrid asset class, combining elements of both stocks and bonds. They provide income like bonds but represent ownership in a company like stocks. Preferreds rank higher in the capital structure than common equity, though they remain ...
Understanding Spreads: A Measure of Risk and Opportunity
Compensation for Risk The bond market consists of various sub-asset classes, each reflecting different characteristics and types of risk. One key risk for investors is credit risk – the risk that an issuer may fail to meet its debt obligations, either by missing interest ...
CLOs: Expanding Access and Participation
The Evolving Landscape The CLO market has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. Initially, access was limited to institutional investors who had to navigate complex structures to participate. Since then, the asset class has grown not only in size but also in popularity, ...