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Publication Archive
| Market Commentary |
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| The EBS Market Commentary is a publication which is typically published at least four times per year. Written by one of our consulting services professionals, the Market Commentary is typically 2-3 pages in length and will ordinarily cover a topic or topics relevant to the market environment at the time of publication. Whereas the EBS Research Perspective is more timeless in nature, the EBS Market Commentary is more timely. |
August 2011
In this Market Commentary we briefly discuss August's strong insider buying and what it may mean for fundamental investors like you and us.
August 2011
June 2011
In this Market Commentary we discuss inflation and monetary policy and the difficulties of forecasting these economic factors and review how these trends will impact our investment strategies in the future. In addition, we share some thoughts on why you might want to take pause if you are jumping on the wagon to invest in gold as a hedge against inflation.
March 2011
In this Market Commentary we address a potential change in market leadership, the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, and general market anxieties.
December 2010
The combination of high quality, well capitalized large-cap companies with stock prices offered up at relatively cheap valuations in our opinion make for a compelling investment opportunity today. We believe that U.S. large-caps present one of the best investment areas we have seen in nearly thirty years.
September 2010
Corporate America is producing record profits and these companies have healthy balance sheets with record levels of cash. Yet investors have seemingly shunned stocks. What gives? In this commentary we describe the reality of the strength of corporate America and discuss some of the issues that might be driving this disconnect with investor behavior; namely, uncertainty.
July 2010
As a result of the May 6th “Flash Crash”, we thought it worthwhile to address Business Liquidity v. Financial Market Liquidity. For purposes of this communication, we define Business Liquidity as “access to cash or credit facilities on a daily basis” and Financial Market Liquidity as the “ability to convert a security to cash with minimal price impact”. One is essential to daily business operations, while the other is not.
November 2009
In the November 2009 Market Commentary, we write about the importance of remaining invested in the market for long periods of time, and specifically of the dangers of timing the market. We view timing the market in light of probabilities of losing money in the stock market over various periods of time ranging from one day to 30 years. We also discuss the danger of missing out on the best trading days as a result of poorly executed market timing.
August 2009
Many financial writers have been quick to write about how stocks have underperformed bonds over very long periods of time leading up to the present day. In the August 2009 Market Commentary, we discuss the continuation of this stock/bond tradeoff argument. That is, after prolonged periods where stocks underperformed bonds, stocks have gone on to perform much better than bonds.
May 2009
In the May 2009 Market Commentary, we discuss why it is not in the U.S. Government’s, much less the private sector’s, best interests to nationalize the banking sector in the United States. There have a great many programs introduced since fall 2008 with the sole mission of stabilizing our ailing financial system. One of the ideas floated was an all-out or at least quasi-nationalization of our banking system. We believe the U.S. Government will take the actions necessary to prevent the failure of a large U.S. financial institution, but this is not to be confused with a likelihood of their nationalizing the entire industry.
October 2008
In light of the current market and economic environment and the 24/7 news coverage of it all, we are sharing our views on five drivers of current and future stock market activity. In this October 2008 Special Market Commentary, we discuss in more detail how poor investor sentiment, heightened stock market volatility, seemingly cheap valuations, much cheaper commodity prices, as well as massive global government response to this crisis should work together to set the stage for future gains in the stock market.
September 2008
September 2008 will likely go down as one of the more remarkable periods in our country and economy’s long histories. The September 2008 Market Commentary is a timely discussion of the events that have taken place in the market through mid-September 2008, including the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and Bank of America’s takeover of Merrill Lynch, American International Group’s travails and massive dilution of equity holders in that enterprise, as well as a more cursory overview of other significant points of interest as of late. The Market Commentary closes with some broad discussion of potential outcomes from this truly historic time.
July 2008
We make a constant habit of telling our investors that the most important aspect of business-like investing is valuations. In the July 2008 Market Commentary, we travel back in time to the late-1990s, when markets—and valuations—were very cheery. We then fast forward to today only to see that the markets could not shake the high valuation starting point from a decade earlier in the late-1990s. In our view, valuation should be the starting point and with that being our mantra, we are much more comfortable with our "starting point" today.
| Research Perspective |
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| The EBS Research Perspective is a publication which is put out less frequently than the Market Commentary, typically 2-4 times per year. The Research Perspective is designed to be more timeless in nature, and it is written by a member of the Research Group. Research Perspectives are usually 4-10 pages in length and are very detailed. |
January 2010
In this piece we provide our perspective on the merits of investing in companies where the founding family has a significant ownership stake. Founders and their families often have built their businesses with good old fashioned blood, sweat and tears. As a result of this, they tend to invest and spend company money like it is their own, focusing on the growth of their personal balance sheet and not the income statement. Importantly, such firms typically have a longer-term outlook which allows for better business investment decisions.
October 2009
Leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-2009, market participants had a great deal of confidence in the credit ratings agencies and their credit ratings. The October 2009 Research Perspective gives the reader an overview of how the credit ratings agencies operate. It also gives the reader EBS’s take on the importance of credit ratings in investment analysis.
March 2009
Compensation of the top executives of many public companies has come under intense public scrutiny in the recent months due to many of these companies generating enormous losses while also laying off employees. In the March 2009 Research Perspective, we provide a brief history of how executive compensation has evolved. We then go on to describe the key guidelines that we believe firms’ boards of directors should follow to improve the way executives are compensated.
November 2008
Year-to-date, 2008 has been one of the most painful years for stock market investors in the past 180 years. In the November 2008 Research Perspective, we touch on a number of reasons why, based on wide variety of data, the stock market appears attractive. Valuations are the lowest they have been in the better part of two decades; stocks have gone nowhere in the last ten years; and when Warren Buffett writes on the stock market, it is worth paying attention.
September 2008
September 2008 Research Perspective: Why It Has Paid to Weather Bear Markets and Turbulent Times
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