Month: May 2024

Does A Portfolio Need Alternatives?

There are a number of ways to answer this question and the topic requires more than two minutes, so please look for follow-up and further information on the topic of alternative investments from TGIF 2 Minutes.

For starters, the key word in the question, “Does a portfolio need alternatives?” is need. And for reference, alternatives investments are often nicknamed “Alts” in conversations. Finally, “alternative investments” is a name mainly given by the financial services industry for:

  • non-public investments
  • private equity, private debt, and private real estate
  • venture capital (VC)
  • hedge funds
  • and a whole host of other longer-term, less liquid and illiquid investments.

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10th Anniversary Edition!!

Hooray! TGIF 2 Minutes has entered its 11th year! It has been an absolute joy to hear from readers over the past 10 years and be part of your Friday morning cup of coffee or weekend reading time. For kicks, below is an excerpt from the very first edition in May 2014:

Good morning and TGIF,

In my efforts to give you Short & Sweet messages that make a POSITIVE difference in your LIFE, I am starting a “TGIF 2 minutes”. It will not be every Friday but when there’s something to say, it will be on Friday when you may have an extra 2 minutes in your day- or weekend- to read it. It will be worth reading! Please let me know your thoughts.

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Lack of Clarity = Volatility

Markets prefer certainty. In times of relative economic certainty, market trends can be more defined and steadier. In times of economic uncertainty, markets react with volatility similar to the past 6 to 7 months. Two simple pieces of data:

  • The 10-year US Treasury yield was as high as 5.0% in late-October, then as low as 3.79% just after Christmas, then back up to 4.28% in March and very recently higher to 4.68% a mere few days ago. These levels – and the speed with which they have changed – represent fairly massive volatility based on historical 10-year US Treasury rates.
  • In the US stock markets, there has been similar volatility in both small-company indexes and the larger-company S&P 500 since last year with a noticeably weak 3Q 2023 and then all-time highs taking place just this past April 2024.

Continue reading “Lack of Clarity = Volatility”