2022 In Review
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz On February 2nd, 2022, we wrote the following to our clients: “…we expect continued turbulence as the markets adjust to hawkish monetary policy. In other words, we will keep the “seatbelt sign” on!”. In hindsight, this now seems overly optimistic as we close out a historically brutal year for financial […]
Rushing for the Exits: When Alternatives “Break”!
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Earlier this month, Blackstone Inc. restricted withdrawals from its private real estate income trust “BREIT”. The curbs came due to a surge in redemptions that hit the fund’s quarterly 5% withdrawal limit. Now, BRIET investors who want all their money back, can’t, and, arguably worse, investors now know that BREIT […]
Light at the End of the Tunnel
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz It’s been a long and difficult year for markets. Investors have had to endure several peak to trough falls, bear rallies, elevated volatility, and high correlation across asset classes. And now, a disappointing growth outlook has spooked analysts into cutting valuations for next year, with CFOs even anticipating negative YoY […]
FTX and Crypto: A House of Cards
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz A preface: Like many, we have been cautiously monitoring and tracking crypto over the last decade. We seem to understand that the underlying technology has the potential to make our world more efficient, but to what extent? How many of you reading this article use your “crypto” to pay for your […]
The Future is LIV, Not PGA
By Kelvin Lee, M. Blake Fortune, II In the world of golf, there has been a rebellion. And, like most rebellions, it’s a strife of ideas between traditional systems and the neoteric revolters. On one hand we have the well-established kingdom of the PGA Tour. Founded in 1929 by the Professional Golf Association of America […]
Fear the VIX
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz With 2-3% daily swings in markets this past quarter, the word “volatility” seems like an understatement. However, it’s been one the most consistent characterizations of this cycle, with equities, bonds and foreign exchanges seeing abnormal intraday price fluctuations. But investors don’t just see volatility, we measure it quantitatively. You’ve probably […]
How Much Further?
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz On August 22, 2022, we called the end of a bear market rally after a ~20% increase in equity markets. Since then, the S&P 500 has fallen 25%, breaking through the June lows. So, the question on everyone’s mind is: how much further can we go? Ok, bad news first. The […]
Markets Slump, a Brutal Q3
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Wow, what an eventful last week to end the quarter with. In case you were thoughtful enough to turn off the news, here were the headlines: Hurricane Ian – Hurricane Ian hit Florida last Wednesday as a category 4. Major flooding and winds are expected to cost the state up […]
The Fed- Too Fast, Too Furious
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz The Federal Reserve raised rates by another historic 75bps last week. That’s the third time this year and pushes the federal funds rate to a 3-3.5% target. As anticipated, equities have reacted negatively, and bond yields have spiked. The market is now pricing our earlier call of a 4.5-5 percent […]
Hot Alternatives: Cars & Watches
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Investing can take many forms. You can buy stocks, bonds, real estate, and the thousands of other financial products that work to cover financial markets. But do you enjoy owning these assets? Are you excited and enthusiastic about owing a mutual fund or treasury note? Probably not and that’s where […]
