Intellectus

15 posts

The SECURE Act

SECURE removed the prohibition on Contributions to a traditional IRA in the year an individual turned age 70 ½ and beyond. Starting in 2020, such contributions are no longer prohibited.

Read more

Structural reform needed and a global bond bubble set to burst?

Global Bonds are clearly in a bubble. It has been said that a bubble cannot be a bubble unless there is greed and speculation. How could that be the case in the Government bond market? Below is the graph of the TLT ETF, which tracks the price of the 20 YR Treasury bond Index. Note the comparison in the rate of change to that which happened in the real crisis of 2008-09. Generally speaking markets accelerate near the beginning and the end of a major move. This is clearly not the beginning. Even

Read more

Equity market correction historical tidbits

A few interesting historical contexts of market corrections/bears….. The header graphic shows the extreme level of capitulation that the markets have expressed through this week. This shows the percentage of stocks above their 200 day moving average. It is nearly as low as the GFC bottom and below all others. There is nothing magic about the number, but when put into historical context shows how this market action compares to previous extremes. As of Tuesday Dec 26, the current market correcti

Read more

End of the road or not, It is the new era of US-China relations to watch...

Takeaways from the Intellectus Partners Investment Committee for the week ending Nov 2,2018: At this meeting our mission was to attempt to take a hard look at whether or not we are entering the “End of Cycle” period for the economy and thus the Bull Market that begin in 2013. The Intellectus very bullish call in the Fall of 2016 positioned us well for the run that followed. To see a meaningful correction post a move like that is not surprising. Our Investments & Allocations have had excellent s

Read more

Invest with A.I. or die....

Investors throughout history have been utilizing technology to try to get an informational edge in markets.  This was true in the famous story of Nathan Rothschilds use of carrier pigeons to get information about the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo ahead of other traders.  It was also true in the more recent latency race among high frequency traders who moved from laying fiber between Chicago and New York to funding microwave towers for microsecond decreases in latency.  Until recently, the ab

Read more

Does a diversified Index protect you?

We thought that you would find this "white paper" from our long time partners at Polen Capital very interesting. At Intellectus, we need to manage risk on a daily basis. Risk can mean different things to different people. It comes in different forms and most people react to it very differently. A common perception is that diversification, is the primary and only means of reducing risk. In fact, there is an old Investor adage that says, "You make money through concentration, you keep it via dive

Read more

An argument for Bitcoin as a store of value

Bitcoin has advantages over gold, and actual currencies as a store of value. If you believe that society will spend a growing percentage of capital on "digital goods/assets" vs physical goods in the future, here is a rationale. When one considers that the cost of putting 1MB of information onto the Bitcoin blockchain is somewhere between $7,000 and $8,000 , it sounds like an expensive way to store information. It would be many orders of magnitude cheaper to store information in a database on a

Read more

Another Day, Another Estate Tax Repeal…

Most clients have seen press reports about current tax proposals in Congress that promise significant changes to the taxation of individuals and businesses. H.R. 1, titled the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” was introduced to Congress on November 2nd and is in the early stages of its legislative journey through the House of Representatives and the Senate. Prospects for the adoption of all, some or any of its current components is unclear at this point. One of the elements of H.R. 1 in its current form

Read more

Special Guest Post : The leading behavioral investment mistake

The leading behavioral investment mistake By Thomas Oberlechner, Chief Science Officer, TheHintBox!,Inc, a related company Biography: Thomas Oberlechner, Ph.D. Dr. Oberlechner is Chief Scientist at TheHintBox!,Inc, a related company to Intellectus Partners. He is also founder and partner of FinPsy LLC, a San Francisco based behavioral consultancy. He helps decision-makers in finance and investment integrate state-of-the art behavioral expertise into their decisions, products, and organization

Read more

Tax policy, growth & the next two years

What are the possible outcomes from the expected and stated tax policies of the new Trump administration? Pragmatism v. Idealogy: What are the likely economic impacts? Two years without gridlock? Given that the deck is now stacked for conservatives in that they control the White House, House of representatives and the Senate ...and likely soon the Supreme Court, expect a whirlwind first two years. Here are some of our thoughts with assists from a few of our sell side coverage friends at some

Read more

Could the global economy stall in the coming months?

The intellectus Partners Chief Economist Ben Emons on Bloomberg TV, discusses the global economy, the timing of the next Fed rate hike and the possibility of the global economy stalling in the coming months. He speaks to Bloomberg's Ramy Inocencio and Yvonne Man on "Daybreak Asia." (Source: Bloomberg) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-10-06/could-the-global-economy-stall-in-coming-months

Read more