Robert Schiller, author of “Irrational Exuberance” and recent Nobel Prize winner, has been credited with predicting the last two market crashes. His preferred metric of value for the stock market is the “Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings (CAPE)” ratio. He makes… Read More >
Projecting 10 Year Portfolio Returns
Answering the following questions requires a view on future stock and bond portfolio returns: “How much can an endowment disburse and maintain its value?” “How much do I need to save for retirement?” “What is the likelihood of doubling my… Read More >
Should We Rebalance Our Balanced Portfolios?
In our last commentary (IMC 13), we looked at rebalancing an all stock portfolio. (If you didn’t read this post, you might want to review it here before continuing.) We looked at the case of an account that only included… Read More >
Get Your Financial House In Order
As the frenzy of tax season subsides, now is an opportune time to examine your financial records and make sure that everything is in order. One goal for our clients is to help them organize their financial “household,” which not… Read More >
Should We Rebalance Our Stock Portfolios?
When we manage client accounts, we typically devise asset allocation policies (or portfolio models) that specify the amount (in percentage terms) that we will try to hold of each investment option in the account. As time goes by, the investment… Read More >
Barron’s Explains Dimensional Fund Advisors
In its first issue of the year 2014, Barron’s published a cover story on Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), an investment management firm whose funds Porter, White & Company has frequently recommended. DFA funds are not generally available to the public… Read More >
How Costly is New Capital?
A lot of companies approach us to raise capital. The reasons are varied – product development, plant expansion, company acquisition, working capital –and the sources of capital available to a company depend on the size, lifecycle stage, and future prospects… Read More >
This Sucker Will Go Down
“If money doesn’t loosen up, this sucker will go down.” –George W. Bush “I believe this was the greatest economic statement of all time.” –Warren Buffett A few weeks ago, Warren Buffett paid former President George W. Bush a high… Read More >
Job Recovery – Are We There Yet?
While the great recession is starting to fade and markets are reaching new highs, the Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates at historically low levels. One explanation for the Fed inaction is employment levels. There remain fewer people working now… Read More >
How Does a “Maze” Explain What We Do?
On our investment banking home page, the image of a maze is used as a symbol of what we do as analysts and bankers. As analysts we solve financial puzzles, and as bankers we manage the process of raising capital. … Read More >
How Markets Work
The first component of our investment philosophy is that “markets work.” This statement evokes the notion that markets are good at setting prices. The recently announced Nobel laureate, Eugene Fama, who is credited with coining the term “efficient markets,” put… Read More >
The Value of Advice
In this first video, Goodloe talks about the genesis of our investment management business and the value of advice we bring to our wealth management clients. Value of Advice for Wealth Management Clients from Porter, White & Company on Vimeo…. Read More >
Managing in Troubled Times
While the “great recession” may finally be in the history books, it is a fact of life that in good economic times or bad economic times, companies may find themselves in financial distress. The potential reasons for this are countless–… Read More >
Insights for Companies in Distress
Forward-looking financial statements are associated with many significant financial transactions. Credible financial projections are particularly important when a business encounters financial difficulty, and frequently become a necessary condition of forbearance by a creditor, or of new or additional financing by… Read More >
Insights on Tax Deferred Accounts
I. Overview We are frequently asked by clients if they should pay for IRA related fees out of their IRA account or out of their checking account. At first, the answer appears simple: why would someone want to effectively reduce… Read More >
Should Spend Rates Be Reduced?
I. Introduction In an investment commentary published a year ago, we examined the cost of locking in a fixed stream of payments and found that the price of guaranteed returns had increased. Unfortunately, real interest rates have continued to fall… Read More >
Pictures of Risk and Return
The most important decision made by an investor in marketable securities is how to allocate investment capital among debt and equity. To help our investment advisory clients make the debt-equity decision, we present information in thought-provoking formats, such as the… Read More >
What’s My Company Worth?
Most owners of private businesses think about the value of their businesses from time to time. Business value is not just a measure of accomplishment for an owner-entrepreneur. It is an important factor in planning for the future, whether with… Read More >
