Blog Posts

What Is Indexed Universal Life Insurance (IUL)? Indexed universal life insurance (IUL) is a type of permanent life insurance that offers death benefit protection and the potential for cash value accumulation. The cash value growth of IUL policies is tied to one or more stock market indexes, providing the policyholder with the potential to participate […]

Risk parity is an investment strategy that aims to balance risk across asset classes, rather than allocating more capital to traditionally “safer” investments like bonds. The goal is to create a portfolio with consistent returns, regardless of market conditions. It’s also sometimes called balanced beta. It does not generally involve any tactical trading outside rebalancing to […]

What Is A Request for Proposal (RFP)? A request for proposal (RFP) is a type of bidding solicitation in which a company or organization announces that it intends to buy a product or service and solicits proposals from potential suppliers. An RFP typically contains instructions for how the supplier should submit its proposal, as well […]

What Is Cyclical Unemployment? Cyclical unemployment is a type of unemployment that occurs when the economy is in a recession. Cyclical unemployment can also be caused by structural problems in the labor market, such as a shortage of jobs in certain sectors. Cyclical unemployment is often measured using the unemployment rate, which is the percentage […]

The price-to-book ratio (P/B) is the ratio of a company’s market value to its book value. What Does Book Value Mean? Book value is an accounting term that refers to the value of a company’s assets minus its liabilities. Book value can be thought of as a company’s “net worth”. A company’s book value is […]

How people act with each other is the most important determinant of domestic conditions. The internal war is ultimately the most consequential type of conflict the US and other countries face. Even with the importance of US-China relations and its impact on the markets – via trade, economics, capital and currency, technology, geopolitical, and military […]

Student loan debt is now close to $2 trillion in the United States, or closing in on 10 percent of GDP.   Student Loans Owned and Securitized, Outstanding (Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US))   It’s a material line item and it is and will continue to have an impact on […]

In Part I, we covered the circumstances governing a healthy bull market and the unhealthy bull market associated with a bubble. In Part II, we covered the characteristics of the top, which leads us into part III, or the downturn phase. Recessions vs. Depressions The market dynamic is normal recessions is different from the one […]

In Part I, we covered the early stage of the bull market and the bubble phase. Here in Part II, we are covering the characteristics of a market top. Market top Markets that become driven from a lot of leveraged buying are prone to reversals. This reflects the general idea that when things are so […]

What is a Null Hypothesis? The null hypothesis is a hypothesis that states there is no difference between two groups, two investments, two economies, or two of anything. It is usually denoted by H0. For example, let’s say you are testing the effect of a new medication on blood pressure. The null hypothesis would be […]