NEWS & MEDIA

James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Sierra Investment Management, says that we are looking at 'unusually uncertain times given what the market is trying to process right now,' specifically how the increased cost of credit and the decreased availability of credit will work its way through the economy. St. Aubin – who uses a quantitative, tactical approach – says the market could go in any direction from here, but he notes that there is more downside risk here even though the economy appears to be only facing a mild recession. He says that equity markets look vulnerable now, which should make investors consider risk management to ride things out.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed in the segment are solely those of the person speaking as of 4/19/2023, and not necessarily those of Sierra and are provided for informational purposes only. Any opinion or estimate contained in this video is made on a general basis and is not to be relied upon by the listener as advice. The listener must make his/her own assessment of the relevance, accuracy, and adequacy of the information contained in this segment, and make such independent investigations as he/she may consider necessary or appropriate for the purpose of such assessment.

Carving out a chunk of your nest egg to buy debt securities that you hold until maturity offers predictable income and principal protection in an unpredictable world. When Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) blew up last month, it provided aging investors with a textbook example of what can go wrong with even the most conservative of bond holdings.

“If I have a 10-year window where I know that I’m completely safe from having to sell anything if the markets don’t go in the right direction, that’s a great place to be,” says James St. Aubin, chief investment officer of Sierra Mutual Funds and Ocean Park Asset Management, in Santa Monica, California.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the person speaking as of 4/8/2023. The discussion of individual companies should not be considered a recommendation of such companies by the Fund’s investment adviser. The viewer must make his/her own assessment of the relevance, accuracy, and adequacy of the information contained in this article, and make such independent investigations as he/she may consider necessary or appropriate for the purpose of such assessment.

Tech stocks benefited as investors flooded into the beaten-up group, expecting it to benefit from a Fed pause and move to cut interest rates. Also, mega-cap techs are seen as having fortress-like balance sheets able to withstand a serious downturn.

But the first quarter was anything but an easy ride.

“It was a quarter that saw tectonic shifts in forecasting Fed policy,” says James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Sierra Investment Management in Santa Monica, California, calling the first-quarter action a “roller-coaster ride” in which investor expectations around inflation and how the Fed would respond to it changed multiple times from start to finish.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the person speaking as of 3/31/2023. The discussion of individual companies should not be considered a recommendation of such companies by the Fund’s investment adviser. The viewer must make his/her own assessment of the relevance, accuracy, and adequacy of the information contained in this article, and make such independent investigations as he/she may consider necessary or appropriate for the purpose of such assessment.

Families are flush with cash, so higher interest rates have done less to deter them from spending than if they had been funding their purchases with credit-card debt, said James St. Aubin, chief financial officer at Sierra Mutual Funds.

“That slows down the impact of raising the cost of money,” Mr. St. Aubin said. “It could take 12 to 18 months for the full effect of a given Fed rate increase to hit the economy.”

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The thoughts and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the person speaking as of 3/9/2023. The discussion of individual companies should not be considered a recommendation of such companies by the Fund’s investment adviser. The viewer must make his/her own assessment of the relevance, accuracy, and adequacy of the information contained in this article, and make such independent investigations as he/she may consider necessary or appropriate for the purpose of such assessment.

“The consumer just hasn’t puckered up,” said James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Sierra Investment Management. Consumers’ resilience has confounded economists and retailers alike, and has been attributed to a host of factors, from the lingering effects of the pandemic-era stimulus checks to the strength of the labor market.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the person speaking as of 3/8/2023. The discussion of individual companies should not be considered a recommendation of such companies by the Fund’s investment adviser. The viewer must make his/her own assessment of the relevance, accuracy, and adequacy of the information contained in this article, and make such independent investigations as he/she may consider necessary or appropriate for the purpose of such assessment.