MV Weekly Market Flash: Sometimes, Good News Is Good News

The US equity market has been at one of those junctures recently that could go one of two ways. Glass half empty, or glass half full? Happily for those of us who like to see the stock prices trending in the upward direction, the glass half full crowd seems to...

MV Weekly Market Flash: A Week of Mixed Signals

Spare a thought, if you will, for the poor bond market. The fixed income crowd lives and breathes for the certainty of where interest rates are headed, only to be forever buffeted by the crosswinds of conflicting economic data that tear apart the certitude of any directional trends. This week...

Retirement Plan Limits 2024

Attached are the retirement plan limits for 2024.

MV Weekly Market Flash: Bonds in Wonderland

We continue this week with our review of 2023 at the halfway mark, today’s focus being the very strange world of fixed income. You know the mantra because you’ve heard it from us thousands of times: bonds for safety, equities for growth. We expect that will still be true in...

MV Weekly Market Flash: A Pretty Resilient First Half for US Equities

Well, here we are already, halfway through the 2023 marathon. It’s the time of year when we go back,  re-read the opinions we shared with you in our annual outlook in January, see what we got right and wrong, and adjust our outlook based on what we know now. As...

MV Weekly Market Flash: All Quiet On The Equity Front

Once upon a time, there was a quaint little thing called the “risk frontier,” a staple of textbooks teaching the theory and practice of investment management. Stocks for growth, bonds for safety was the underlying mantra. You put a mix of equities and high-quality fixed income securities into a portfolio...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Uneasy Calm as Banks Report Earnings

More than one month has passed since the Silicon Valley Bank failure gave investors something new to worry about. The health of the banking sector at large was in question, and the worries compounded as more problematic institutions trickled into the news: Signature Bank of New York, First Republic Bank,...

MV Weekly Market Flash: No Landing, Or Delayed Landing?

One of the phrases making the rounds among the financial media chatterboxes this week has been “no landing.” This is the too-cute-by-half riposte to the usual dual-choice framework of “hard landing” or “soft landing” when issuing an opinion on where the economy finds itself as the Fed finishes off its...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Our 2023 Investment Thesis

2022 was a bad year for most kinds of core investment assets, from the least-risky Treasury securities to the most volatile corners of the equity market. Persistently high inflation forced central banks to adopt an increasingly hawkish posture on interest rates as the year progressed. The Fed funds rate rose...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Year In Three Phrases

This is our last weekly commentary of 2022, so it seems like a good time to reflect back on the year that has been. Next week we will go charging head-on into the year ahead, and whatever things good, bad and otherwise that may entail. Not too many investors will...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Oil Price Surge That Wasn’t

It’s been one of the go-to conversation starters of the year – how about those gas prices huh? Prices are higher for all manner of goods and services, but there is a special place in the heart of our petrol-besotted nation for those flashing red signs at the local Shell...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Markets Wish Upon a Star

We have seen this show before, and not too long ago. In early March the state of the world looked pretty bad. Russia had just invaded Ukraine, inflation was showing itself to be anything but transitory, and the Fed was getting ready to raise rates for the first time since...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Mixed Messages from the Bond Market

If you want to know what’s in store for stocks, pay attention to the bond market. That’s something we tell our clients repeatedly. Interest rates have an outsize effect on equity valuations. The shape of the Treasury yield curve contains all sorts of information about economic expectations. Credit risk spreads...

MV Weekly Market Flash: An Unsteady Calm

Weather maps of the continental United States have been in vogue this week on account of a strange pattern in the jet stream (weird climate events, in 2021? Really?). Out west the jet stream dipped into territories south of where it normally flows, bringing an unusual blast of Arctic cold...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Return (Maybe) of the Infrastructure Trade

Conventional wisdom in the form of political forecasting failed in a big way on Election Day in 2016. It failed again in the form of a stock market thesis the very next morning. While most Americans were still processing the news that Hillary Clinton had lost the presidential race to...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Options and the Price of Volatility

There have been three discernible phases of the bull market that roared back from the depths of the coronavirus panic back in March. The first phase was, more than anything else, a reaction to the dramatic efforts of the Federal Reserve to stabilize credit markets through the implementation of novel...

Arian Vojdani on Yahoo!Finance

Arian Vojdani was featured on a segment on Yahoo!Finance today discussing markets and market outlook. The clip can be viewed here.

Arian Vojdani featured on Bloomberg Radio

Arian Vojdani was featured on Bloomberg Radio last night discussing market outlook. The clip can be listened to here.

MVF Special Update: 5/12/2020

To Our Valued Clients: We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy during these challenging times. In keeping with our commitment to help you navigate these unprecedented economic conditions, we want to share our perspective on current developments in the financial markets. As states and municipalities...

MV Special Commentary 4/13/2020

To Our Valued Clients: In the past few weeks, we have all had to contend with the immense challenges posed by the Covid-19 coronavirus and its impact on the economy, society and our personal lives. Many of you have come to us with questions – asking how you can best...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Immediate Employment Crisis

This week we got two different views on the unfolding crisis in the US labor market brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The chart below shows two different measures of job losses. By looking at them in the context of previous economic growth and recession cycles we can understand the...

Arian Vojdani on Yahoo!Finance First Trade

Arian Vojdani was featured on a segment of Yahoo!Finance this morning. The clip can be seen here.

MV Weekly Market Flash: What Comes Next

As time goes on, most weeks in a person’s life will fade into the fog of obscurity, but a small few will stand the test of time with piercing clarity. The week of March 9-13, 2020 is likely to qualify as one of those few. In the course of one...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Mayhem In Four Charts

It has been described – by patients who have contracted the Covid-19 disease and subsequently recovered – as having a high fever, some achy symptoms similar to those associated with a nasty common cold, maybe a recurrence of the fever at a lower temperature and then leaving the system. Of...

MV Weekly Market Flash: This Week, An Actual Surprise

Just when it looked like patterns were settling into a Groundhog Day sort of vibe, with Mr. Market waking up every morning to “I’ve Got You Babe” and another half-percent gain for megacap tech stocks…the past couple days have been different. Now, we are normally inclined to ignore the larger...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Europe’s Ailing Economy and Happy Markets

It may be Valentine’s Day, but there’s not much love to be found in recent economic data from the long-suffering Eurozone. Worse still may be in store given the importance of exports to China for Europe’s biggest economies, and the still-unquantifiable toll the coronavirus may have on growth prospects in...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Goliaths and Their Would-Be Davids

The HBO comedy “Silicon Valley,” which recently concluded its final season, provided its viewers with a humorous yet dead-accurate take on the quirky, cynical culture of the modern-era tech world and the characters – the larger-than-life titans and desperate start-up kids and assorted hangers-on feeding at the deep-money troughs –...

MV Weekly Market Flash: One Cheer for Phase One

Four years ago, in January 2016, world equity markets took a sharp turn lower following the release of some underwhelming economic data from China. Specifically industrial production and fixed asset investment, two of the mainstay growth drivers for the Chinese economy, performed below market expectations. While that may not seem...

Arian Vojdani featured on Yahoo! Finance

Arian Vojdani was featured on Yahoo Finance yesterday, discussing market outlook now that phase one of the trade deal has been signed. The clip can be found here.

MV Weekly Market Flash: Our 2020 Investment Thesis

Summary 2020 is upon us and it is time for our annual outlook for the year ahead. This week’s commentary will serve as a summary of the longer report all our clients will be receiving a couple weeks from now. There is an interesting dynamic at play as the year...

MV Weekly Market Flash: As Goes Tech, So Goes the Market

Well here we are, at the start of a year which should live up to that old Chinese proverb “may you live in interesting times.” Just a few hours into the second trading day of the year we have seen the S&P 500 give up most of the substantial gains...

Arian Vojdani on Yahoo! Finance

Arian Vojdani was featured on a segment on Yahoo Finance today discussing MVF's market outlook. The clip can be seen here.

Masood’s Latest US News & World Report ‘The Smarter Investor’ Piece

Masood's most recent contribution to US News & World Report's 'The Smarter Investor' is now online. It focuses on 3 things consumers should know about their financial advisers. It can be read here.

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Volatile Underbelly of Stock Prices

It’s that most wonderful time of the year…for pundits eager to tell us What It All Meant over the past twelve months. This year has the added bonus feature of being the end of a decade. Hard to believe, but the Tenacious (or Tumultuous, or just plain Terrific/Terrible, take your...

MV Weekly Market Flash: UK Election Reflects a Failure of Imagination

The United Kingdom reached its zenith of global power and influence in the last three decades of the nineteenth century. This was a period of sustained peace between the great powers (all European) of the day and fluid, free trade around the world – Globalism version 1.0, if you like....

MV Weekly Market Flash: Don’t Tempt the VIX

It’s pretty calm out there in market-land, an outcome consistent with our assessment of the current state of things in a commentary several weeks back. The stock market has made steady, incremental gains most weeks since early October on a combination of the usual driving forces: de-escalation of hostile rhetoric...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Oddly Durable Charms of the Perma-Bear

We normally do not use this column as a place to focus on the merits, or lack thereof, of a particular investment asset, be that the common shares of a publicly traded company, mutual fund, hedge fund or what have you. But we do focus from time to time on...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Earnings Kabuki and Valuation Math

In this space last week we presented the case for smooth sailing through the remainder of 2019. If anything, that case would seem even more compelling today, with investors tossing away their safe haven stockpiles of gold, Treasury notes and Japanese yen while pouring into equities. US stocks are set...

Webinar for Small DC Employers: How to Get the Most from DC Health Link (Recording)

MV Financial hosted a webinar discussing how to get the most from DC Health Link for small DC Employers. We covered the following: MV Financial Experience with DC Health Link DC Health Link Background/Issues Considerations When Designing Your Health Plan & Employer Plan Options DC Health Link Lessons Learned Since...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Calm Waters Ahead (For Now, Probably)

October is typically a month-long Halloween experience in the stock market: sometimes the month is full of tasty treats, as it was in 2017. Sometimes it dishes out some nasty tricks, which was the case last year (not to mention all-time Hall of Infamy years like 1929, 1987 and 2008)....

Arian Vojdani Featured on Bloomberg Radio Segment

Arian Vojdani was featured in a Bloomberg Radio segment today discussing market outlook. The segment can be listened to here.  

Webinar for Small DC Employers: How to Get the Most from DC Health Link (Invite)

Wednesday, November 6th 3:00-4:00 EST Most DC-based employers with less than 50 employees are using DC Health Link for its health insurance, yet many are not maximizing its potential in order to gain the most from this platform. DC Health Link, when used properly, is an excellent tool for small...

Arian Vojdani Quoted in CNBC.com Article

Arian Vojdani was quoted in a CNBC.com markets piece discussing the current state of markets. The piece can  be read here.

MV Weekly Market Flash: Melt-Up In the Making?

This past week we finalized our regular quarterly commentary, summarizing the main goings-on of the recently ended third quarter and opining as to what may lie ahead. “Lots of noise and elusive growth” roughly encapsulates our take on the global economy in the months to come. While that outlook may...

Arian Vojdani on Cheddar TV

Arian Vojdani was featured on a segment of Cheddar TV discussing market outlook, impeachment's effects on the market and IPOs. The segment can be seen below.

Arian Vojdani on Yahoo! Finance

Arian was featured on a segment on Yahoo Finance discussing IPOs, market outlook and volatility. The segment can be seen here.

MV Weekly Market Flash: Recession? What Recession?

Remember August? Just one month ago, the financial village was all abuzz about the R-word: the recession that seemed to be all but inevitable. Equity markets swooned, but the big story was (as tends to be the case in this day and age) in the bond market. The volume of...

Masood’s Newest ‘The Smarter Investor’ Piece

Masood's latest contribution to US News & World Report's 'The Smarter Investor' is now online. The piece focuses upon drawing down 5% of one's portfolio in retirement as a sustainable strategy. It can be read here.

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Limits of Crazy

Anyone can talk the crazy. Actually getting the crazy done, it seems, is a great deal harder. That is the lesson we take away from this week’s theater of the absurd unfolding in the United Kingdom, as the Grendel monster that is Brexit consumes all the time and energy of...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Recession Trade

Our title for this week’s piece, “The Recession Trade,” could mean a couple of different things. You could take it literally, in the sense of trying to plan a successful financial trade around a potential recession. You could also interpret trade as “plying one’s trade,” as in deciding that it...

Nonprofits Have the Unique Ability to Supplement Healthcare Savings in Retirement

Most retirees age 65+ haven’t saved enough in retirement to cover their expected health costs, let alone the rest of their living expenses. How Nonprofits Can Help As a nonprofit, you have the unique ability to allow your retirement program to do “double duty” by adding a retirement health savings...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Gold Bugs Go Institutional

We are writing this column on Friday morning, right smack in the middle of a speech by Fed Chair Jay Powell about the future of everything, apparently, but since we have a publishing deadline there is no opportunity to sit back and carefully consider whatever insights our chief central banker...

Arian Vojdani featured on BNN Bloomberg

Arian Vojdani was featured on a segment of BNN Bloomberg's "The Close." Arian discussed recent market volatility and MV Financial's market outlook.

MV Weekly Market Flash: What We Mean When We Talk About Volatility

In our annual investment outlook, which we published way back in January, we talked a great deal about volatility. Specifically, the following was a summation of our central thesis in assessing the year ahead: “We believe heightened volatility will be the principal characteristic of asset markets in 2019. Volatility cuts...

Webinar for Nonprofit Plan Sponsors: How to Fix Your Plans with Individual Annuity Contracts (IACs) [Recording]

MV Financial provided a webinar covering how nonprofit plan sponsors can fix their retirement plans with individual annuity contracts. The webinar recording can be found here. This webinar covered IACs within sponsors' current plan, their value and limitations, and solutions that are available to upgrade these plans. The webinar discussed...

MV Weekly Market Flash: The Economy’s Mixed Message

It’s a strange economy, this one. All of the following happened this week: several data releases confirmed that manufacturing activity is hovering barely above the threshold for contraction; US consumers appear to be more confident about the economy than at any time in the last three decades apart from the...

Building and Keeping an Emergency Fund

An emergency fund is something that I, as an investment adviser and financial planner, always stress is the first bucket of savings anyone should establish. However, I am constantly surprised when talking to others to learn that they either have not shored up enough in funds for a proper emergency...

MV Weekly Market Flash: Currency Wars, the New Trade Wars

It would appear that the Twitter-dominated world in which we live is incapable of existing anywhere below the level of five-alarm panic for any meaningful period of time. In actual fact, global economic growth has not been laid waste by the ravages of the trade war now well into its...