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January

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – January 2019

If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, could it actually be something entirely different? While this question appears entirely nonsensical on its surface, it epitomizes the challenges associated with making tactical investment decisions around potential market inflection points, when major trend changes may be underway. As […]

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December

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – December 2018

The just-released CNBC survey of economists, market strategists and money managers placed the blame for the stock market decline that started in late September on a variety of catalysts including, as prioritized in the survey: 1) tariffs and trade wars, 2) a weakening global economy, 3) the risk that the Fed raises rates too much, […]

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November

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – November 2018

Ice hockey great, Wayne Gretzky, famously said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” That is great advice, when you are standing on an ice rink, and can see in advance every potential impediment that stands in the way of a successful pass. It is an entirely […]

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October

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – October 2018

The dictionary defines a “perfect storm” as “a detrimental or calamitous situation or event arising from the powerful combined effect of a unique set of circumstances”. It is also, in our opinion, an appropriate and pragmatic way of describing the wide and diverse array of catalysts for the ongoing correction in the equity markets. Like […]

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September

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – September 2018

One of our all-time favorite quips came from Mark Twain, who noted that “while history does not repeat itself, it oftentimes rhymes”. With that particularly pithy caveat as a disclaimer, there are some strong and notably persistent tendencies in the capital markets that are unique to midterm election years, and which can create both challenges […]

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August

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – August 2018

Almost exactly twenty years ago, in the midst of the so-called “Asian Contagion” financial crisis, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan used the occasion of a 1998 Speech at the University of California at Berkeley to offer a perspective that was as prescient in 1998 as it is relevant in 2018. The Chairman noted that, “It is […]

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July

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – July 2018

One of the most important concepts in investing is that nominal macro-economic and company-specific data is only made relevant to investors when it is considered in contrast to what expectations existed for the data prior to its release. This is because securities are discounting mechanisms that are priced based upon what data is expected to […]

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June

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – June 2018

In light of the almost surreal trade-related headlines that confront us on a daily basis, it seems only appropriate to invoke the words of philosopher George Santayana, who famously remarked that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If the founding fathers of the world’s various democracies knew then what we […]

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May

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – May 2018

Warren Buffett has long been a great source for market perspective that is both pithy and insightful, and one of his very best adages is that, “only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked”. In this instance, it is the tide of monetary liquidity that is “going out”, and some […]

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April

Per Stirling Capital Outlook – April 2018

In many regards, the words President and Trump, when put together, become an oxymoron of sorts, because he rarely conforms to the common perception of what we, as Americans, consider to be “presidential”. However, the fact that President Trump is bombastic and unorthodox should hardly be a surprise. Those are probably the very personality traits […]

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