The Conservative Portfolio climbed 1.36% in April.
The growing belief with investors is not only that the worst of the credit crisis is behind us, but that it is in fact almost over. If home prices do not decline any more (fat chance) this belief would be true.
Growing optimism for risk taking in such an environment carried the S&P 500 up 4.87% in April to within about 12% of its all time high. Larger cap stocks generally beat smaller cap stocks, and large cap tech stocks were among the strongest rebounders with a 7.6% return in the NASDAQ 100 index. Natural resource funds were the second hottest with a 9% return. Surprisingly though precious metals funds fell over 5% as gold dropped even as other commodities rose. At the top of the charts was Latin American funds, with a just over 12% return, though foreign funds in general were no hotter than U.S. stocks (and in most cases colder).
Safe investments lost their luster as long-term government bonds fell 1.73%. The overall bond market was only down slightly with a negative 0.21% return while high yield (junk) bonds were up near 4%. We were talking about increasing our stakes in junk bonds and have missed at least some of the boat here.
In such an environment all of our model portfolios were up, but less than the stock indexes (though all, except Daredevil, are beating the S&P 500 for the year).
The Harbor Bond (HABDX) benchmark-beating run was back in full swing with a 0.33% return in April. As we suspected, Bill Gross has been moving into higher-risk debt, and junk bonds beat safe bonds last month.
Nakoma Absolute Return (NARFX) took a sharp fall in April with a 3.48% fall. They explain the weak showing: “Our neutral market position, short exposure in the Energy and Materials sectors and disappointing results from several long positions combined to produce the poor April results. In the past twelve months, the fund has increased 0.18%.”
Healthcare stocks missed much of the excitement in April. Healthcare Select SPDR (XLV) was up only 1.58%.
Janus Global Research performed much better than most funds last month with a 7.39% return. This fund has a lot of Brazilian and basic materials company stocks which have been red hot. We’re starting to think it’s getting close to time to take a little money off the table here. This fund is up almost 30% in the 18 months we’ve owned it, far more than the stock market in general.
The Aggressive Portfolio jumped 2.30% in April.
The growing belief with investors is not only that the worst of the credit crisis is behind us, but that it is in fact almost over. If home prices do not decline any more (fat chance) this belief would be true.
Growing optimism for risk taking in such an environment carried the S&P 500 up 4.87% in April to within about 12% of its all time high. Larger cap stocks generally beat smaller cap stocks, and large cap tech stocks were among the strongest rebounders with a 7.6% return in the NASDAQ 100 index. Natural resource funds were the second hottest with a 9% return. Surprisingly though precious metals funds fell over 5% as gold dropped even as other commodities rose. At the top of the charts was Latin American funds, with a just over 12% return, though foreign funds in general were no hotter than U.S. stocks (and in most cases colder).
Safe investments lost their luster as long-term government bonds fell 1.73%. The overall bond market was only down slightly with a negative 0.21% return while high yield (junk) bonds were up near 4%. We were talking about increasing our stakes in junk bonds and have missed at least some of the boat here.
In such an environment all of our model portfolios were up, but less than the stock indexes (though all, except Daredevil, are beating the S&P 500 for the year).
Nakoma Absolute Return (NARFX) took a sharp fall in April with a 3.48% fall. They explain the weak showing: “Our neutral market position, short exposure in the Energy and Materials sectors and disappointing results from several long positions combined to produce the poor April results. In the past twelve months, the fund has increased 0.18%.”
Healthcare stocks missed much of the excitement in April. Healthcare Select SPDR (XLV) was up only 1.58%.
Tech stocks remained hotter than the market last month, Technology SPDR (XLK) was up 6.56%
The Harbor Bond (HABDX) benchmark-beating run was back in full swing with a 0.33% return in April. As we suspected, Bill Gross has been moving into higher-risk debt, and junk bonds beat safe bonds last month.
Janus Global Research performed much better than most funds last month with a 7.39% return. This fund has a lot of Brazilian and basic materials company stocks which have been red hot. We’re starting to think it’s getting close to time to take a little money off the table here. This fund is up almost 30% in the 18 months we’ve owned it, far more than the stock market in general.
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The Conservative Portfolio climbed 1.36% in April.
The growing belief with investors is not only that the worst of the credit crisis is behind us, but that it is in fact almost over. If home prices do not decline any more (fat chance) this belief would be true.
Growing optimism for risk taking in such an environment carried the S&P 500 up 4.87% in April to within about 12% of its all time high. Larger cap stocks generally beat smaller cap stocks, and large cap tech stocks were among the strongest rebounders with a 7.6% return in the NASDAQ 100 index. Natural resource funds were the second hottest with a 9% return. Surprisingly though precious metals funds fell over 5% as gold dropped even as other commodities rose. At the top of the charts was Latin American funds, with a just over 12% return, though foreign funds in general were no hotter than U.S. stocks (and in most cases colder).
Safe investments lost their luster as long-term government bonds fell 1.73%. The overall bond market was only down slightly with a negative 0.21% return while high yield (junk) bonds were up near 4%. We were talking about increasing our stakes in junk bonds and have missed at least some of the boat here.
In such an environment all of our model portfolios were up, but less than the stock indexes (though all, except Daredevil, are beating the S&P 500 for the year).
The Harbor Bond (HABDX) benchmark-beating run was back in full swing with a 0.33% return in April. As we suspected, Bill Gross has been moving into higher-risk debt, and junk bonds beat safe bonds last month.
Nakoma Absolute Return (NARFX) took a sharp fall in April with a 3.48% fall. They explain the weak showing: “Our neutral market position, short exposure in the Energy and Materials sectors and disappointing results from several long positions combined to produce the poor April results. In the past twelve months, the fund has increased 0.18%.”
Healthcare stocks missed much of the excitement in April. Healthcare Select SPDR (XLV) was up only 1.58%.
Janus Global Research performed much better than most funds last month with a 7.39% return. This fund has a lot of Brazilian and basic materials company stocks which have been red hot. We’re starting to think it’s getting close to time to take a little money off the table here. This fund is up almost 30% in the 18 months we’ve owned it, far more than the stock market in general.
The Aggressive Portfolio jumped 2.30% in April.
The growing belief with investors is not only that the worst of the credit crisis is behind us, but that it is in fact almost over. If home prices do not decline any more (fat chance) this belief would be true.
Growing optimism for risk taking in such an environment carried the S&P 500 up 4.87% in April to within about 12% of its all time high. Larger cap stocks generally beat smaller cap stocks, and large cap tech stocks were among the strongest rebounders with a 7.6% return in the NASDAQ 100 index. Natural resource funds were the second hottest with a 9% return. Surprisingly though precious metals funds fell over 5% as gold dropped even as other commodities rose. At the top of the charts was Latin American funds, with a just over 12% return, though foreign funds in general were no hotter than U.S. stocks (and in most cases colder).
Safe investments lost their luster as long-term government bonds fell 1.73%. The overall bond market was only down slightly with a negative 0.21% return while high yield (junk) bonds were up near 4%. We were talking about increasing our stakes in junk bonds and have missed at least some of the boat here.
In such an environment all of our model portfolios were up, but less than the stock indexes (though all, except Daredevil, are beating the S&P 500 for the year).
Nakoma Absolute Return (NARFX) took a sharp fall in April with a 3.48% fall. They explain the weak showing: “Our neutral market position, short exposure in the Energy and Materials sectors and disappointing results from several long positions combined to produce the poor April results. In the past twelve months, the fund has increased 0.18%.”
Healthcare stocks missed much of the excitement in April. Healthcare Select SPDR (XLV) was up only 1.58%.
Tech stocks remained hotter than the market last month, Technology SPDR (XLK) was up 6.56%
The Harbor Bond (HABDX) benchmark-beating run was back in full swing with a 0.33% return in April. As we suspected, Bill Gross has been moving into higher-risk debt, and junk bonds beat safe bonds last month.
Janus Global Research performed much better than most funds last month with a 7.39% return. This fund has a lot of Brazilian and basic materials company stocks which have been red hot. We’re starting to think it’s getting close to time to take a little money off the table here. This fund is up almost 30% in the 18 months we’ve owned it, far more than the stock market in general.