What we’re reading (5/22)
“'The Democratization Of Investing’: Index Funds Officially Overtake Active Managers” (Yahoo! Finance). “For the first time in history, retail investors’ index fund holdings exceed their holdings in actively-managed funds, according to new numbers from Morningstar Direct. As of March 31, Morningstar says, retail investors had $8.53 trillion invested in index mutual funds, while $8.34 trillion worth of assets were invested in actively-managed funds.”
“Stock Market Bottom Remains Elusive Despite Deepening Decline” (Wall Street Journal). “Data have continued to suggest that this year’s selloff, while painful, hasn’t yet resulted in the type of shifts in investing behavior seen in prior downturns. Investors continue to have a hefty chunk of their portfolios in the stock market. Bank of America Corp. said this month that its private clients have an average of 63% of their portfolios dedicated to stocks—far more than after the 2008 financial crisis, when they had just 39% of their portfolios in stocks.”
“Davos Is Back And The World Has Changed. Have The Global Elite Noticed?” (CNN Business). “The last two years have dramatized and clarified what has been true for some time now, which is an elite plutocratic class is not just leaving the rest of the world behind, but is thriving precisely by stepping on the necks of everybody else," said Anand Giridharadas, author of the book ‘Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.’”
“If You Expected Bitcoin to Mimic Gold, You Haven't A Clue About Gold” (RealClear Markets). “[G]old has long been viewed as the inflation hedge par excellence. If the conventional wisdom about gold is to be believed, the rising prices that some deem inflation instigate a rush into the yellow metal that exists as a safe haven of sorts against rising prices; investors once again rushing to gold’s safety on the way to bidding it up. The seeming mystery here is why Bitcoin hasn’t outperformed gold.”
“Doom and Gloom: When Will It End?” (Charles Schwab). “There is no perfect signal of when bear markets end. What we do know is that in bear markets, from a technical perspective, support becomes less relevant and resistance becomes more relevant. Assessing technicians' consensus, as an example, resistance sits somewhere between 4330 and 4400 on the S&P 500, a range (for now) that represents a key hurdle.”
