Is the Volatility of Data in Hiding? - Weekly Blog # 956

 

 

 

Mike Lipper’s Monday Morning Musings

 

Is the Volatility of Data in Hiding?

 

Editors: Frank Harrison 1997-2018, Hylton Phillips-Page 2018

            

 

 

Looking at the Unhelpful Data?

When stock market followers looked at stock price volatility during the summer they saw relatively low volatility. Thus, they think not much is going to happen that will cause prices to gyrate. As is often the case, they are possibly looking at significant changes in several fluctuations.

 

Below is a list of potential change agents that occurred this week:

• Changing national strategic alliances
• Over half of US stocks fell this week
• AAII sample more negative
• Iran’s plans
• Savings rates in US and China
• 3 vs 12 months

 

Strategic Alliances

Countries and societies are changing alliances, impacting their level of support in the future. This weekend, Iceland will vote on whether they should re-engage with Europe and be less reliant on the US. Similar feelings are being expressed in numerous countries, which are trying to determine the price of dependence on the US. The armaments business is likely to grow.

 

Over Half of US Stocks Declined

Fifty four percent of NYSE listed stocks and 58% of NASDAQ stocks fell this week. Only 5% of NYSE stocks and 13% of NASDAQ stocks hit a new high this week, with the NASDAQ reaching its highest price for the year. From an employment viewpoint this raises some questions. The American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) survey showed only 32.9% of participants being bullish for the next six months vs 35.5% bullish the prior week.

 

Iran’s Plans

Apparently, the Iranian leadership believe that they are winning the war and are using the low level of fighting to expand domestic counter- intelligence. (I wonder if this suggests an increase in secret subversive activity in the US and other countries?)

 

Imbalance of US and Chinese Savings Plans

According to Greg Ip in Saturday’s WSJ, the US level of savings is insufficient and is causing us to rely on increased debt levels. In China however there is too much savings, which keeps the amount of debt down and creates a problem of low import prices for many western countries. These trends reversing would be good for US companies already selling into China, like Apple*. (* Held in personal and client accounts)

 

3 vs. 12 Months

Fortune Magazine’s newest contributor is George Calhoun, an entrepreneur turned professor who also serves on board committees at the Stevens Institute of Technology, where I also serve. He raised the question of the Federal Reserve relying too much on 12-month numbers (produced by the government) vs 3-month numbers, or shorter. The markets react much faster than in even the shorter period. (I believe the new Chairman of the Fed has a somewhat similar view)

 

As usual, I would like to hear from you so I can learn.

 

 

 

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Fears On a Quiet Summer Weekend - Weekly Blog # 955

 

 

 

Mike Lipper’s Monday Morning Musings

 

Fears On a Quiet Summer Weekend

 

Editors: Frank Harrison 1997-2018, Hylton Phillips-Page 2018

             

 

 

Is Disruption Ahead?

A quick late August trip to London to attend a great Proms concert by the Academy of St. Martens in the Fields in London seemed like a good idea to us earlier in the year, as not much happens in late August. As is often the case, I was proven wrong when a few worries raised their scary head this week.

 

Potentially the Biggest Problem

The self-appointed job of this blog is not to precisely predict the future, but to consider issues that may happen which few investment professionals are focused on. My concern for the repayment of debt in a rising interest rate environment is rising. Among my concerns are the sharply increased funding of data centers, wars in Iran and Ukraine, and the budding desire for retail investors to provide funding for new private ventures, both on earth and in space.

 

I do not know the level of care and consideration the corps of young financial bankers and their associates are performing, nor the experience of the investors they are interacting with. What concerns me is that few players have experienced a significant recession, and only a tiny fraction of the buyers of this paper have any knowledge of a depression. Morgan Housel states in his book Psychology of Money, “some lessons have to be experienced before understanding”. Few people appreciate the possibility of some loans not being repaid with interest on time when due. While I don’t know the conditions of every loan made by individuals, companies and governments, I do know that higher interest rates make it more difficult. On Thursday, Guggenheim Partners’ $1.2 Billion loan traded at $0.78 vs $0.96 the week before. (Price declines happen when the market recognizes that repayment of the loan on a current basis becomes questionable. How many other loans will be similar? I remember this kind of paper eventually selling substantially below $0.50 in a brief discussion of bankrupt investments in Professor Dodd’s class in the 1950’s. Graham & Dodd are well known for writing Security Analysis in 1934, one of the most respected investment books ever published.) The ECRI Industrial Price Index rose to 142.74 this week from 141.60 a week earlier. Considering the Index has risen 25.93% on a year over year basis, one would expect to see more distressed loans.)

 

This week, the Secretary of the Treasury more than doubled the purchase of 10-30-year US Treasury bonds on offer in reaction to the 30-year yield rising significantly above 5%. Some have already said that Bessent is putting a Band-Aid over a bullet hole. After declining following the Bessent intervention, rates have risen again. Increased rates are likely to make borrowing more difficult or expensive for the data centers, mortgages, and individuals. Prior to this announcement, the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) sample survey raised its six-month estimate by 0.8% and its bullish projection by 2.0%. Their bearish projection is now 4.5% higher than their projected bullish guess.

 

Some Other Quotes from Morgan Housel

• Nothing is as good or bad as it seems
• Earth has on multiple occasions been covered with water. (Geology is a good history teacher)
• Snow White made up for 400 losing cartoons.
• No one makes good decisions all the time.
• Wealth is what is left after taxes and expenses you don't see.
• Wealth is accumulated after spending.

 

What do You think?

 

 

 

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Mike Lipper's Blog: What Could Go Wrong? - Weekly Blog # 954

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What Could Go Wrong? - Weekly Blog # 954

 

 

 

Mike Lipper’s Monday Morning Musings

 

What Could Go Wrong?

 

Editors: Frank Harrison 1997-2018, Hylton Phillips-Page 2018

 

          

 

To Predict is to Accept the Risk of Being Wrong

I read “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan House, which an investment friend suggested I read. The book suggests that the first task is to properly understand that most people view the future through the lens of their personal experiences in their early years. I try to broaden out my early experience of being born in the middle of the depression to a subsequently divorced working mother. Additionally, I’ve spent a great amount of time reading the history of many countries and cultures.

 

My view of the future is also influenced by my enjoyable time at New York racetracks, where I tried to end most days with more money than I started with. In essence, that meant comparing the posted odds versus the probabilities of winning, or at least coming in second, which has its own pool of bets that pay off separately. To accomplish that goal, I needed to guess what could go wrong for each of the horses in the race. I had to accept that the payoff was reduced by the track taking a portion of the winnings, along with various taxes and other expenses. The track-payoff was therefore less generous than the mathematical odds presented. Nevertheless, there was the occasional opportunity to leave the track with more money than when I arrived.

 

Using this approach, along with what I learned from both teachers and other students at Columbia University, I developed an understanding of the chance of specific future outcomes for various investments. The first thing I learned was to eliminate most securities, most of the time. (This was like Warren Buffett’s three sorting boxes of yes, no, and too difficult.) The formation of my investment philosophy evolved from these experiences, allowing me to earn more profits over time than losses taken.

 

Next Major Downslide

A study of financial history, and geology through the study of rocks, reminds me that we are always subject to up and down cycles, which come at irregular times. Since the earliest time humans have attempted to find a reason for the cycles, either through supernatural causes, the elements Gods, or men.

 

I begin with the view that the up and down slices of cycles are in part a reaction to past opposite extremes, as well as new elements. We are facing both today. The most frequent human reaction is the funding of expansions. Initially, expansions are paid for by the reinvestment of past profits, either by savers or revenue generators. Downslopes are often caused by the unexpected requirement to pay back loans, like the type described in William Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”, which may have been a comment on Tudor spending.

 

My analysis suggests that the growth of debt is a general precursor to a depression. We may be in such a phase now, considering the combination of recognized and unrecognized government debt and the growth of private debt supplied by retail investors. This may be the reason the 30-year US Government Debt auction reached a level this week not seen since 2001. It may also suggest that foreign investors need higher rates to accept an increasingly unpopular government.

 

Typically, an event brings these types of worries forward. Perhaps something like this week’s announcement of the quick sale of the Los Angeles Lakers to cover other financial problems. Broader and more distressing to me is T. Rowe Price’s statement that it will take a couple of years to stem the net redemptions of their passive fixed income funds. The final sad note is an IBES projection that the net income of the S&P 500 will only rise by 0.3% a year from now at the end of the second quarter of 2027, before rising 17.3% the following quarter.

 

Since we are approaching 90 years since the last depression, the odds maker in me thinks the odds of another Depression is increasing.

 

What do you think?   

 

 

 

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Mike Lipper's Blog: Are History & Economics Books Closed? - Weekly Blog # 953

Mike Lipper's Blog: Dead Cat Bounce > Last Chance - Weekly Blog # 952

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Are History & Economics Books Closed? - Weekly Blog # 953

 

 

 

Mike Lipper’s Monday Morning Musings

 

Are History & Economics Books Closed?

 

Editors: Frank Harrison 1997-2018, Hylton Phillips-Page 2018

  

 

 

The Reward for Analysis is Prediction

The payoff for analysis is plausible prediction, whether correct, wrong, or part of each. As this is an investment guess as to the future, it will at worst beget an emotional reaction, or possibly thoughtful disdain. On the other hand, it might suggest a future looking distinctly different than extrapolating the present, including the desires of those presently in power.

 

This may be an appropriate time to look forward to something different than the present and begin investing on the chance something different happens. The reason this is an appropriate time to express these thoughts is that those in power are only focused on the immediate and have closed the political and economic history books.

 

The following items point to a different kind of future:

Political Disruptions

• There is hardly any national government that is universally popular, which is different than being tolerated by a diverse population. At the moment the majority is not unified and lacks dynamic leadership.
• The current renter of the White House is waging a war which he believes he can end and in so doing can generate a political victory for him and his party. He should study the greatest UK leader of modern times, Winston Churchill, who lost power immediately after WWII to the Labor Party.
• While office holders are getting older, voters are getting younger and richer.
• While some media are controlled, increasingly more are not. Anyone, anywhere, may be able to reach individuals and groups.
• Both ancient Greece and Rome lost total control to an enlarged population. China had similar problems.

 

Financial/Economic Changes

1. The impact of air conditioning is coming to Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. (In the US, the one thing the founding fathers did not foresee was the federal government existing in the humid swamp of Washington DC.)
2. The population of the US is likely to shrink without immigration, causing the national debt, social security, and Medicare to fall under pressure.
3. The rotation of the relative ranking of investment performance is likely to change. Over the last ten years only domestic and international science and tech funds have beaten the average large-cap growth fund average. This is from a universe of over 100 mutual fund category averages. (It is my bet that this will not be the case over the next ten years. None of the initial stocks in the first DJIA are in the current index.) The common denominator of successful funds is essentially the inclusion of computer-oriented products or services with substantial sales in the US. It is this concentration in a dynamic global world that will eventually lead to a rotation to other segments of the market.
4. Evolution has been part of life on our planet since the beginning of time. I believe only change agents have a chance of surviving longer. My accounts have two good examples of successful change agents, along with some mistakes. (These are not recommendations that should be made with complete knowledge of an investor’s needs, wants, and understanding.) Each of these companies began life pursuing other businesses and made significant purchases. Berkshire Hathaway started as   a money-losing textile mill. After Warren Buffett’s hedge fund bought it, Charley Munger taught him how to buy good companies at reasonable prices, which resulted in them building a great holding company. Recently, Warren appointed Greg Able as CEO of the firm. He is in the process of slowly turning Berkshire into more of an operating company by doing the following things:

• Appointed a Senior Executive over groups of single companies.
• Purchased Alphabet stock for cash, making it one of the firm’s 5 largest holdings.
• Purchased a home and community construction company and combined it with an existing builder of factory-built homes and a mortgage provider. (The country needs a major increase in the building of homes, and they will be part of the solution.)

Berkshire has not said anything yet about paying a dividend, although I think they will do so in a number of years. My thinking is based on Mr. Buffett’s statement that he and Charley were not running the company for the shareholders, but for their heirs. (It is already happening. I believe that a good bit of the stock owned by individuals for 50 years or more has been inherited on a step-up basis. These new owners of the stock will have different attitudes toward the company as they consider their own retirement needs. In order to keep this growing number of shareholders happy, it makes sense to pay a reasonable dividend.

 

The second stock already pays a mid-level dividend. The Thomson family controls roughly 70% of all shares of Thomson Reuters through their private holding company. They have made a number of dissimilar investments over time, including a commanding position in the North Sea oil field. Their principal business today is distributing critical data to law firms, accounting firms, corporations, and governments in the US, Canada, the UK, and Latin America. Thomson is the largest provider of this type of data, and they have taken their time converting their products to utilize “AI”. Their customary careful management has recently introduced “AI” driven products which have been well received, making good progress with both old and new customers. (Disclosure: For a few years Thomson owned the data of my firm, Lipper Analytical Services, but they recently sold it to the London Stock Exchange Group.) Thomson Reuters is similar to Moody’s, S&P Global, and other commercial data providers that we own.

 

Working Conclusion:

Change is inevitable and risky, but necessary, and worth the risk most of the time. 

 

Please share your thoughts

 

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Mike Lipper's Blog: Dead Cat Bounce > Last Chance - Weekly Blog # 952

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Dead Cat Bounce > Last Chance - Weekly Blog # 952

 

 

 

Mike Lipper’s Monday Morning Musings

 

 Dead Cat Bounce > Last Chance

Editors: Frank Harrison 1997-2018, Hylton Phillips-Page 2018

 

          

 

We appear to be in a normal trendless summer, with relatively low volume on hints of fall upsurges and declines. This poses a big risk for

investors with large gains in their portfolios who could be subjected to major moves from stampeding investors selling for fear of a big decline or speculative surge.

 

I am therefore suggesting that this is the time to build cash reserves so that you are in a position to take advantage of large future declines. The trick is to have a reserve large enough to shelter the portfolio from meaningful losses, but small enough to protect against being out of the game following the next rise. The next decline could be major and last for a long time, which might encourage those who have too much cash to stay out of the game. That is the real risk facing careful investors.

 

My suggestion is to treat your account as a long-term pension or endowment account with annual flows of about 10%. This would require a two-year buildup of short-term cash reserves under normal investing conditions. This suggests a target equity commitment of 70%, with a short-term reserve of 20% and an emergency reserve of 10%. The key to this strategy is avoiding a down market that reduces the equity commitment below 50%. One way to accomplished this is to begin an orderly reinvestment program in the declining market.

 

Reasons for Concern this Week

• The Consumer Confidence survey fell to 50.8% vs the expected 52.4%.
• Estimated GDP for the second quarter came in at +1.5%, below the estimate of +1.8%.
• Chinese tech stocks fell -8.6% in July. On Friday, Apple (personally owned) fell -7.4% on rising earnings.
• Barron's 10-year high grade bond yields slipped -0.03% while yields on 10-year mid-quality bonds rose +0.04%. (The bond market is more concerned about the future of the US Government and the currency than commercial credits.)
• There were 286 new highs and 189 new lows on the NYSE, versus 468 new highs and 692 new lows on the NASDAQ*. Suggesting there is presently more opportunity in industrial and financial stocks on the "Big Board" than tech-driven stocks on the NASDAQ. (*NASDAQ stock owned in managed accounts and personal portfolios)
• Warren Buffett is quoted as thinking the market is gambling, not investing. (In the past his general warnings have proven accurate.)

 

What Do You Think?

 

 

 

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Mike Lipper's Blog: Long-Term Money Via Telescope, Not Microscope - Weekly Blog # 951

Mike Lipper's Blog: Before Focusing on Shorter-Term Reactions - Weekly Blog # 950

Mike Lipper's Blog: Little Occurred During the Trading Week - Weekly Blog # 949

 

 

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Long-Term Money Via Telescope, Not Microscope - Weekly Blog # 951

 

 

 

Mike Lipper’s Monday Morning Musings

 

Long-Term Money Via Telescope,

Not Microscope

 

Editors: Frank Harrison 1997-2018, Hylton Phillips-Page 2018

 

          

 

Historical Perspective

One lesson from studying history, including geology, is guessing the very next move in a series, which is more likely to be random than consecutive. The news business is an exception, selling a detailed description of what just happened. For example, the weekend chronicles might point out that more stock prices went down than up for the latest week and did so with higher volume. They’ll mention that only 58% of the NYSE stocks declined for the week, including 38% on Friday, compared to the NASDAQ where 64% fell for the week and 55% fell on Friday. Not one of these pundits mention that in the earlier part of this year and most of last year a greater portion of the stocks traded on the NASDAQ rose. More importantly, these stocks were bought much more recently than those on the NYSE. This suggests that both the purchase and sale of the NASDAQ stocks were speculative, not long-term oriented investments.

 

Switching to the telescope for longer time periods. Long-term investors should focus on the changing structure of the US population, where more than 1.8 million people left the workforce (169 million in June 2026 vs 171 million in September 2025). Some of these people trade stocks and participate in the weekly sample survey of the American Association of the Individual Investors (AAII). This week they turned bearish on their outlook for the next six months, with only 29.6% now being bullish, down from 44.9% the prior week. Bearish beliefs have risen to 42.3% from 32.9% the prior week.

 

Investors have generally missed gains in some global and international funds, as well as commodity and alternative funds. To understand the current performance of diversified funds you need to recognize the increased concentration in a limited number of sectors. The history of making money in the stock market often goes along with being lonely during changing long-term future trends.

 

One advantage of devoting time to investing is occasionally seeing some occurrences replay. On Thursday there was the rescheduled White House Correspondents Dinner with the President speaking, which reminded me of my time as chair of the program committee of the New York Society of Security Analysts. I suggested to the President of the Society that we invite President Gerald Ford, the only non-elected president of the US to speak to the analysts. I was given permission to invite him, with the deep belief that it wouldn’t happen. I called the White House and spoke to the lead speech writer who thought it was a great idea, agreeing to speak to the higher authorities. Surprisingly, they were looking at opportunities for the President to speak to the financial community about his “Whip Inflation Now” or “WIN”. I was invited to visit the White House to meet with the speech writer and go over the President’s thoughts on the subject. It became clear that they didn’t really care about my political views, but what jokes would be appropriate. I rejected most of the jokes. Shortly thereafter President Ford came to our meeting quarters on Williams Street. He came with Alan Greenspan and Frank Zarb, who had just joined the Cabinet after a career of turning around several brokerage firms. A topic I would have liked to hear more about. When the President came to the NYSSA, he was the first President since George Washington to speak on “Wall Street” while still in office. He included all the proposed bad jokes.

 

When President Trump spoke to the correspondents this week, he also told jokes that did not go over well. It seems as if Presidents speak about what they want and not about what their audiences want to hear. Like many investors, they don’t learn from history.

 

Those of us who pay attention to future liabilities for clients and ourselves should focus on the long term. What do you think?    

 

 

 

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Mike Lipper's Blog: Before Focusing on Shorter-Term Reactions - Weekly Blog # 950

Mike Lipper's Blog: Little Occurred During the Trading Week - Weekly Blog # 949

Mike Lipper's Blog: Searching for Future Long-Term Picks: Gathering Assets, Reasons to Search - Weekly Blog # 948

 

 

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Before Focusing on Shorter-Term Reactions - Weekly Blog # 950

 

 

 

Mike Lipper’s Monday Morning Musings

 

Before Focusing on Shorter-Term Reactions

 

Editors: Frank Harrison 1997-2018, Hylton Phillips-Page 2018

 

          

 

 

We should recognize that several topics that arose this week will have longer-term implications and impact results for many years, if not future decades. None of these contributions to our thinking will influence things directly, but some or all may influence our future.

 

Smoke from the Canadian wildfires has blanketed much of the US. Sports activities were delayed in Philadelphia, and the World Cup game in Miami was also influenced. The important message is that the US is not an isolated country, activities in both Canada and Mexico have measurable impacts on us.

 

The World Cup competition introduced real America to many sports fans from all over the world. Prior to traveling to the games many people looked at the US as Manhattan below 60th street, a few government buildings in D.C., and some sound stages in California. Costco, Brooklyn, and our national parks have awakened them to the country’s beauty, its friendly people, and a large population of many talents. It also showed athletes playing their game better than those representing America. I suspect by the next World Cup we will produce better results too. The biggest change is likely to be in women’s soccer.

 

Our media and our President comment on “the stock market” as if it were singular. Furthermore, the direction of the market is aligned with the economy. Increasingly, “the market” is made up of several smaller markets moving differently from each other. For most of this year, important sections of the market have been pointing down compared to a limited number of tech companies going up. The stocks of some of the nation’s leading healthcare companies are selling at 1990 or 2000 prices. These companies are rarely mentioned by pundits or politicians. In future it would be wise for investors to participate in the growth of Asia, and later Africa and the Middle East.

 

The final US input may be a collection of groups in Congress having only titular relations with the two main parties. The main battle will be in the Senate, which takes 60 votes for most legislation to pass. However, neither party will be able to count on all its members due to some issue specific deserters. This could lead to the only functioning group being a conflicted White House ruling through executive orders in all agencies except the Fed.    

 

Clues To the Future

The Three Jobs

Security Analysts essentially have three jobs. The first job is to avoid being tagged with losing money, or worse, having a negative relationship with a paying client. The second, and most common function, is to be associated with winning positions or clusters of winners. The third job is to successfully support the sales effort of the organization.

 

What is our Role?

First and foremost, our first loyalty is to our investment management clients. If we are reasonably successful, we then earn the privilege of sharing our views with others through this blog.

 

We Use this Blog to Shape our Thinking

The price action of common stocks did not give us much help last week. In general, the daily moves were equally balanced between gains and losses. However, the latest sample survey of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) had their six-month expectations swinging a bit positive. (The AAII survey does not cover the end of the week, and many market analysts treat it as a contrary indicator at “turning points”.)

 

Our Biases

We think we do a good job over an extended period for long-term investors. In our longest multi-generational account of sixteen positions, five holdings represent over 50% of the gains. This demonstrates that most of the time we prefer both a small list of holdings and the ability to let winners exceed the SEC’s definition of diversified. Our accounts consist of both common stocks and mutual funds, or the manager’s portfolio. We also own securities that invest overseas, which are appropriate positions for this account, but may not be for others.

 

Some Hints for Long-Term Buyers

Two very popular stocks, IBM and Space X, which we do not own, declined this week. Both have lessons we believe are important for long-term investors. The fall in IBM was caused by the company’s disclosure that their software, consulting, infrastructure, and main frame computer customers are switching to buying “chips”. While pundits focused on what they were not buying from IBM, the item that struck me as even more important was the decline of items tied to main frame computers. IBM was responsible for selling some 60% or more of these expensive devices. In future there will be some consulting and infrastructure sales, plus an ever-decreasing number of mainframes. Furthermore, they no-longer have the advantage of being the first computer company with “sales engineers”. IBM is not the company that my grandfather loved. The lesson for all of us is that even one-time great companies can have economic difficulties. There is not a single company remaining from the original Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), with the majority of them no longer in business.

 

At the other extreme, Space X is a business with exciting future products and services which also declined this week, selling below its original public issue price. In our role as portfolio manager we do not invest in highly sought after IPOs.

 

Despite the problems associated with these two leaders, the number of advancing prices on the NASDAQ exchange were higher than the number of decliners this week. However, on the older New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) the reverse was true 46% vs 59%.

 

Question: What if anything I have said do you agree with? 

 

 

 

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Mike Lipper's Blog: Little Occurred During the Trading Week - Weekly Blog # 949

Mike Lipper's Blog: Searching for Future Long-Term Picks: Gathering Assets, Reasons to Search - Weekly Blog # 948

Mike Lipper's Blog: What is Pending and When - Weekly Blog # 947

 

 

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