During this period of extraordinary market upheaval, Appleton Group is taking the unprecedented step of disclosing our current approximate offensive vs. defense investment allocations for all of our Private Client Risk-Managed Strategies, Age-Based Hybrid Strategies, and Traditional Risk-Accepting Strategies. View Current Allocations
Mark Scheffler, AIF®, hosts this Three Minute Trend Talk™, highlighting current investment and economic issues, clearTREND® recommendations for the positions used in all Appleton Group managed portfolios, global investment trends, and more (select 1080p HD for best resolution, 720p HD for slower connections).
Due to recent market turbulence, Appleton Group continues to hold extremely high historic cash positions across all risk-managed and hybrid strategies. For our retired clients and those taking periodic withdrawals, the amount of assets that are insulated from market risk is often enough to last more than 15 years of normal sustainable distributions. This [...]
Following yesterday's steep selloff, world markets have bounced in the early going Friday. Massive fiscal stimulus packages across the globe have been deployed, most notably here in the U.S. and in Germany. Here in the States, the Federal Reserve has ballooned it's balance sheet to at least $5.7 trillion (it was only $500 billion [...]
The start of the 4th quarter is decidedly bearish, with the first two days seeing significant market losses. Our managed portfolios continue to hold extreme cash and bond positions which is helping to significantly limit the amount of deterioration seen in the first few days of the quarter. Click here to access our current view of [...]
Goodbye August, and not a moment too soon. The volatility demonstrated for the month was astounding: out of the 23 days the markets were open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved by triple digits (either up or down) 16 of those days. The best single day was a gain of +3.98%, and the worst day [...]
I'd like to talk to you for a moment about my lawn. Back in 2003, my family purchased one of the great "old ladies" of Appleton, an 1893 Queen Anne Victorian complete with a wrap-around porch, a turret, and even the ghost of a former teacher (Mae Webster). Yes, the house was in need of [...]
Earnings season is upon us once again, with a few companies schedule to release quarterly profit reports, revenues and their own forecasts in the coming week. By perhaps the best measure, the market has already priced in much of the current economic recovery: the current modified price to earnings ratio (PE/10) for the S&P 500 index [...]
Another good couple of weeks for the markets and for all of our managed portfolios. With the current market environment being quite cooperative, we continue to be nearly fully invested in all major market segments, including U.S. dividend-paying equities, U.S. growth equities, foreign emerging markets, U.S. real estate, commodity-based equities, and high-yield fixed income. Positions [...]
Generally speaking, each of the ETFs used in Appleton Group Wealth Management's core portfolios (Appleton Group Portfolio, Appleton Group PLUS Portfolio, and Appleton Group Tax Managed Growth Portfolio) is demonstrating a supportive rising price trend at the present time. The market has remained cooperative over the past four months or so, and as such we have continued to [...]
