Author: Smead Capital Management

The Federal Reserve Board reported its most recent Z-1 on household assets. It revealed that households directly own 27% of their assets in common stock and indirectly own 13% through funds/ETFs/401ks. They also have 14% of their household assets in defined benefit programs, which are currently 50% invested in common stocks. Add it all up, and you get 47% of household assets held directly and indirectly in common stock. […]

As the investors of the strategy look back at the first half of 2024, we believe it is important to understand where we sit and what our edge as investors is. With the barrage of news and noise today, we want to focus in on how we can take advantage of the markets. […]

There are four main educational disciplines that are important to us in the investment process. We believe investors need to understand economics, the history of the stock market, the mathematics of investing and the psychology of investing. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, we’d like to expound on the psychology of today’s U.S. stock market. […]

As we finish the first quarter of 2024 and look ahead, global stock investors are looking for lower short-term rates from central banks. The question remains whether they will get them. Looking back since the beginning of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve Board and its Fed futures market have been bad predictors of central bank policy. This debate has been better served in the psychological or intellectual realm. In this letter, we would like to explain part of the reason why we think it will be tougher to tackle inflation and why we have to deal with Higher Natural Rates. […]