Thoughts {06.30.16}

End of the 2nd quarter and end of the half year for investors.  Markets are trying to rally for a third day.  This probably has as more to do with marking up portfolios than anything about Brexit.  That news I think at least for the next few weeks has largely been priced into the market.  

If you've been traveling and not looked at your portfolio then you could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss has been about in the markets.  Stocks are essentially unchanged now from where they started out two weeks ago.  Of course you would have missed a 3% run up into the British vote, that big sell off afterwords and then this week's three day rally.  ETF investors were able to ride out this storm a bit better than individual stocks I think.  They certainly in the aggregate, especially those domestically based, saw less volatility than many individual issues.

Speaking of ETFs, the last 10 days of the quarter is dividend time.  ETF investors could not only take comfort in the benefits of diversification, but also knowing they were seeing dividend payouts going into that period of uncertainty.  We're going to spend some time in the next week or so talking about the impact of dividends on ETFs and on portfolios.  You can see some of what I want to talk about by reading this.

Is anybody sick of talking or reading about Brexit.  I know I am!  

Markets are close Monday for the 4th of July holiday so the next post here will be Tuesday unless there's a reason to break in.