Hello and happy fall! We at Columbia want to give you the opportunity to get to know us a little better, so we’ve decided to start including an employee newsletter in with your report every quarter. Enjoy! Linda Meadows, analyst, and compliance …
Who Doesn’t Like Boat Names?!
Unusual Times…..for Now GDP (gross domestic product) growth is a key factor in the health of the U.S. economy, though it’s not something a lot of people pay close attention to. Even if you don’t know or much care about GDP, I think you’ll find this …
25 YEARS!
A Quarter Century and Counting This issue marks 25 years writing the Stockboy. As is often said, time goes fast. I’m not sure how much I’ve changed from an investor perspective over that period, but it’s more than the market has changed. The …
Surprise – For Better and/or Worse
2016: A Year of Surprises Two words summarize the surprising tone of the 2016 markets: Trump and Brexit. If boiled down further: unpredictable. Nevertheless, by year’s end, most investors were reasonably content with the markets’ results, even if …
Barking Up the Wrong Trees (as the leaves fall)
Wells Failure, Inc. Recently it was revealed that Wells Fargo Bank had fired 5300 employees for opening up over a million new accounts for customers that didn’t request them. This is particularly surprising for a bank that is widely considered (and …
Summer Shenanigans
Brexit, Stage Left! The results of the recent Brexit vote stunned many, perhaps as much by how we found out about it as how the vote went. Running up to the election, and even during election day, the ‘stay’ votes were the assumed winners. English …
New Year, Same Old Market Issues
It’s Taken All of 3 Months Last quarter’s Stockboy predicted a few market changes. One, value stocks had a good chance to lead growth stocks in 2016, since growth stocks had such a strong 2015. Two, this year’s early market fall had a decent chance …
2015: A Stealth Down Year; 2016: No Stealth?
2015 in Review 2015 will likely be remembered as a ‘flat’ year in the stock market, according to the results of the S&P 500. In fact, 2015 was almost unprecedented in its lack of volatility and keeping close to where it started the year. Only a …