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October 1, 2017

by | Oct 1, 2017 | Quarterly Letters

Dear Client: Returns for the major stock indices for the third quarter of 2017 and the current bond market yields are as follows: Index YTD 2017 Dow Jones Industrial Average 13.37% S&P 500 12.53%   Fixed Income Yields 1 year 5 year 10 year 30 year Municipals 0.92% 1.37% 2.00% 2.90% US Treasuries 1.29% 1.93% 2.33% 2.86%   As you have seen in your monthly statements, the markets continue to deliver increases in asset prices.  While we hesitate to use loaded language, we recognize the markets have been very good to long-term equity investors.  The markets have plodded along in an upward trend quite systematically in 2017.  In many of our previous letters we have written about reasons to stay the course, emphasizing long-term results while advocating the words of Warren Buffett several times.  Our portfolios have never been higher and we acknowledge the good times are here; however, we have also been around the block a few times and know that markets do not rise in perpetuity without pauses, corrections or price adjustments. It is often said that “hindsight is 20/20,” implying that everything looks clear upon reflection.  We do reread our previous quarterly letters and attempt to take inventory of how we have navigated the markets and how our advice has fared over the 23 years since our inception.  We could highlight that we have often understood the current market conditions at the time, alluding most specifically to the late ‘90s when we wrote about excessive stock prices during the tech bubble as well as the inflated housing prices in the mid-2000s.  These were two of the...