In recent times, we have witnessed significant market volatility that has understandably shaken the confidence of many investors. It’s important to acknowledge that while no one enjoys seeing periodic losses, these fluctuations serve a vital purpose in the marketplace. If asset prices consistently rose without interruption, they would likely skyrocket to unsustainable levels, driven solely…
Segment Wealth ranked in the “Top 20 in Texas” by Barron’s. Once again, Segment ranks among Barron’s Top 1200 Advisors in America, landing in the “Top 20 in Texas” for the second year in a row. For many reasons, Segment is a bit of an anomaly in the advice business. We just do things a little differently….
We have several clients who use cash flow as the indicator of successful wealth building. I will admit, it does feel good to “clip coupons” and deposit the checks in the bank. Investors who value this metric tend to gravitate to real estate investments because it can generate rents. Real estate is also perceived as…
Segment has always run its own strategies. We build portfolios out of individual stocks and exchange-traded funds because they have exceptionally accommodative tax results. What we generally don’t buy is open-end mutual funds. These investment products with five digits in their ticker symbol are typical of what you would find in a retirement account like…
Never has cash been so controversial in wealth management. Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, LPL, and many other brokerage firms are currently facing lawsuits over the low interest rates they pay on accounts that hold clients’ uninvested cash. The hoopla over cash sweeps—which has attracted regulatory notice as well—hinges on whether clients are entitled to the…
For over two years, economists have been predicting a recession. As their timing has proven quite poor, recent market gains were built on the expectations that they were flat-out wrong. Proper perspective is that recent market profits provide ballast to endure all the downside the market can throw at us, rather than letting our risk…
Traditional investment advice normally focuses on allocation into buckets. These buckets could be traditional mutual funds, or ETFs, or managed accounts holding individual stocks. In most cases, the allocation buckets are tactically rearranged, and the securities within mutual funds and managed accounts are also actively rearranged. This process of rearranging can easily result in realized…
Longtime readers of my musings will surely perceive me as part cynic with an optimistic bias. I would never be perceived as a pessimist. I’m a cynic when it comes to the nature of humans but an optimist when it comes to the nature of markets. To be a pessimist, I would have to believe…
It is quite fun to try to predict the future and invest in companies in the sweet spot of your prognostications. Investing in long-term growth trends with short-term dislocations is a viable strategy, and we do this often. But finding the “next big thing” is entirely different and is fraught with pitfalls. Such positioning comes…
We all know that market timing doesn’t work. It is a fool’s errand to sell it all, hoping to buy it back lower. But the temptation to do so is heady when the market is in decline. When the near future looks scary, it’s easy to think that perhaps selling now and buying back later…
Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but trending election results seem to be going my way. I’m a low-tax, pro-business supporter, and I’m unashamed about my leanings because I believe that a strong economy benefits the whole of society. With energy stocks on a tear into the final days of the midterms, I have some concerns about…
With almost 40 years of investing experience, Baumgarten is revealing how he applies keen knowledge and his eye for tracking the latest financial developments to Segment Wealth’s advisory practice. “During inflation, cash is under attack, so items such as property and investments will generally do better. Specifically assets like collectibles, ranches, prime real estate, even…
Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG Investing) is the new popular trend in investment evaluation whereby investors use non-financial factors to screen investment options. As it gains popularity for its feel-good effects, it is currently enjoying outsized results as investors jump on the bandwagon. But as ESG separates its winners and losers, as is clearly the…
Segment’s strategies have been overweight to energy since the collapse in prices drew us in back in 2020. We did trim some positions earlier this year as oil prices got lofty. Last week was a rough one for energy, and we went back to full overweight accordingly. We also raised cash in our reallocation, reflecting…
Gil penned a piece on ESG Investing in Financial Advisor Magazine! Do well by doing good. That’s the trendy, feel-good mantra of ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing proponents. It’s much the same claim as electric cars being environmentally friendly. The carbon footprint of an electric car battery is far worse than a gas-powered car’s lifetime of…
It is surely apparent by now that a confluence of events is causing energy prices to spike like none seen before. In 2008, when oil prices breached $140, the recession that followed quickly brought it crashing back down to the $30s. Prices today would need to be $200+ to match 2008 in inflation-adjusted terms. Rising…
There is nothing more mesmerizing than eye-popping percentage returns. While investors equate high returns to transactional intelligence, studies routinely show that randomness and luck are the far more likely explanations. Investors often don’t fully appreciate that all percentage returns are not created equal. These occasional high returns earned by aggressive investments give them a marketing edge when investors…
The field of economics has long assumed that people make decisions that optimize their own utility, and to derive the greatest benefit for themselves. However, psychological studies show that we humans do not do this, but rather we often make irrational choices, and we do so predictably. In this case, irrational investing choices. The reason we…
Segment is a big advocate of buying market exposure on dips. However, an investor must use this strategy within a certain context; otherwise, the tail can wag the dog. Buying the dips can have an undeniably profound positive impact on long-term results. Segment’s three primary equity strategies all had fantastic 2020 results, due primarily to…
Back in the pre-Covid glory days, when you could have charity golf tournaments, I played in the LifeHouse tournament at Carlton Woods. I’m not much of a golfer, and because it’s such a time-consuming hobby, I tend to stick with things for which I have a natural propensity. I mention this because this tournament was…
Whatever you are doing that’s working, stop it. The cyclicality in investing is profoundly impactful. Unfortunately, most investors misread the signals and misplay their hand. They look for trends that have persisted and invest late in the game, often just in time for the reversal. Therefore, investing in last year’s loser is often a better…
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