We want to give a big thank you to all of our attendees and guest speakers at our annual Cedarstone Investor Conference. It was a great event on an incredibly beautiful morning and we really enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces and catching up with all of you. For those of you who were unable to attend, below is a quick recap of what topics were discussed as well as copies of the presentations.
Macro-economic Outlook
Our first speaker was Cort Escherich from PIMCO and he shared with us what PIMCO’s outlook was for various parts of the global economy going forward. The primary message was that they did not see recession on the immediate horizon for the US economy. They forecast growth between 2-3% with a slight uptick in inflation over the coming year. Given that outcome, the Federal Reserve will continue to raise rates but at a very slow pace throughout the year. Emerging markets are also starting to warm up, but PIMCO still recommends being selective (caution on places like Russia). Cort also discussed how PIMCO likes corporate bonds going forward, even parts of high yield. Overall they recommend moderate caution which has played out well recently as the market has recovered nicely over the past month in both the stock and bond sectors. You can view and download Cort's presentation here.
Closed-End Opportunity
Next up was Chris Lakumb from RiverNorth to discuss one of the opportunities that we think is very attractive in the current market. Chris gave a quick explanation of how RiverNorth works in a niche of the investment world that is the closed-end market. They have developed an expertise in tracking relative valuations of these particular investment vehicles and built a fund around their strategy. Chris also let us know how closed-end valuations are at very attractive prices compared to most of history and how they are excited about the opportunities they currently see out there. For those of you who are new to closed-ends and would like to learn more, please feel free to reach out to any of our advisors and we would be happy to update you on how they work. You can learn more about RiverNorth's closed-end fund strategy here.
Modern Portfolio Construction
Our last speaker was our very own Matt Davis who spoke about how we incorporate all of the different investment options out there into a portfolio that matches each individual’s goals. He covered the six steps in building a portfolio and how each step is important in order to make sure that you are invested appropriately. The steps are:
Define investment goals and constraints.
Broad strategic allocation among the primary asset classes such as equities, fixed income, and cash.
Sub-asset allocation within classes, such as U.S. and non-U.S. equities, large-, mid-, and small-capitalization equities, and so on.
Allocation to indexed and/or actively managed assets.
For taxable investors, allocation of investments in taxable and/or tax-advantaged accounts.
Selection of individual managers, funds, or securities to fill allocations.
You can view and download Matt's presentation here. For anybody who would like to discuss any of these topics further or would like to find out how they apply to them, please never hesitate to reach out and one of our advisors. We would be happy to work with you.