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February 2012 Insights NewsletterFebruary Client SpotlightThe City of Scottsdale enjoys a well-deserved reputation as a leading tourist destination and a highly desirable community in which to live, work and play. The arts are essential to that image, and the Scottsdale Cultural Council plays a vital role in fostering the arts in Scottsdale. The Scottsdale Cultural Council was established in 1987 as a private, nonprofit management company contracted by the City of Scottsdale to manage its arts facilities. Since then, the Cultural Council…Read More » Embracing ImperfectionNew Year’s resolutions often involve making promises to ourselves we can never keep. But instead of tilting at windmills, we can often generate better results by merely resolving to be less dumb in certain areas. And money is a good place to start. One human tendency is to judge the effectiveness of our retirement savings strategies by looking at performances on one-, two-, or three-year horizons. We do this because we are wired to be more sensitive to short-term losses than to…Read More » Why Miller/Russell Doesn't Pick StocksBy: Nathan Erickson, CFA®, Portfolio Manager From time to time we are asked why we don’t pick individual stocks. Our response answers the question, and gives meaningful insight into our investment philosophy. The father of Security Analysis is the British-born American economist Benjamin Graham. Graham was considered the first proponent of value investing, and along with his colleague David Dodd, wrote one of the most renowned books on analyzing…Read More » Fourth Quarter Market ReviewAfter a 3rd quarter that saw the S&P 500 down 13.9%, the 4th quarter rebounded significantly, delivering an 11.8% return. Small Cap outpaced their large cap counterparts, returning 15.5% for the quarter. Despite this positive 4th quarter volatility, the S&P 500 ended the year up 2.1% on a total return basis (including reinvested dividends). After such a year of uncertainty, most investors are breathing a sigh of relief about their domestic stock…Read More » |