Uncategorized ARPKD Posted on September 11, 2015 By Matthew Garrott Saturday, September 19th is the Northeast Ohio Walk for PKD. Please take a minute to read about a cause that is near to my heart. My son, William, has ARPKD (autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease). This is a genetic disease that led to complications after he was born and ultimately shut… Read more
Uncategorized Taking Paper Losses to the Bank Posted on September 10, 2015 By Matthew Garrott You are probably aware that August was an eventful month for stocks – in a bad way. The S&P 500 was down 6.03% bringing year to date returns to -2.88%. A diversified portfolio would have cushioned against the drop somewhat, but allocations to Emerging Markets and Commodities hurt returns. The… Read more
Uncategorized Wild Monday Posted on August 26, 2015 By Matthew Garrott So what happened to the market on Monday? I don’t know and anyone who says they do know is full of it. Because investing involves lots of numbers and math, it is easy to assume that there are clear answers to questions like this. Math is constant. 2+2=4. Investing is not… Read more
Uncategorized Fiduciary Posted on August 5, 2015 By Matthew Garrott There is a silent struggle over the word Fiduciary in the financial services industry. I am biased not only because the firm I work for has a Fiduciary duty to its clients but because I think it’s the ethical thing to do. One of the most frustrating things is discussing investing with… Read more
Greek Crisis Translated Posted on July 13, 2015 By Matthew Garrott 2001 Greece: Hey can we join the Eurozone? Europe: How is your economy? Greece: I’d say strong to um… quite strong? Europe: Welcome aboard! 2010 Greece: Hey Europe! We’re having a tough time with the financial crisis. Could you lend us some money? Pundits: CONTAGION!!! PIIGS!!! RINGWALL!!! Europe: Sure, this should… Read more
Uncategorized Selling Greece Posted on July 13, 2015 By Matthew Garrott Photo by Eastlaketimes As has been the case for every Monday over the last X weeks, Greece is the financial headliner. It was dragged kicking and screaming back to the negotiating table this weekend. Little negotiation was had. A deal was made… but not really. Basically, Europe scolded Greece and everyone decided… Read more
Uncategorized Leaving the Gyro Posted on June 29, 2015 By Matthew Garrott It is important to note that in this post I am pronouncing the word gyro as “yee-ro”. This is critical because no one is allowed to pen commentary on the Greek situation (I almost typed ‘tragedy’) without at least a little halfhearted wordplay. The odds of a Grexit keep going up,… Read more
Uncategorized Wooden Nickels Posted on June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 By Matthew Garrott When I was younger, my parents would tell me not to take any wooden nickels. I always wondered what that meant. Are there actual people out there trying to pass off wooden currency? Would I really be tempted to accept this fake money? What kind of monster is prowling the… Read more
Uncategorized Technology Buried Peak Oil Posted on May 26, 2015 By Matthew Garrott Just before the financial crisis, peak oil was a hot topic. The theory was that demand for oil had permanently outstripped supply and that the commodity would only increase in value going forward as supplies dwindled. Talking heads raced to plant the highest price target as it shot up to… Read more
Uncategorized Grexit, Graccident, Groverload Posted on May 20, 2015May 21, 2015 By Matthew Garrott The silver lining in the European financial crisis is how the names of the various countries involved lend themselves so well to plays on words. Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain were collectively PIIGS. Greece has had the highest profile of all the PIIGS, but I’m not sure if that’s… Read more