This post originally appeared last spring in response to questions I had received about my investing approach.

Given what I do for a living, it’s not surprising that I have frequent conversations about investing. I was asked something recently that on the surface seemed like an easy question to answer: What core truths do you know about investing? There are endless factoids, trends, and theories, but what do you believe to be the basic constants?

Last week’s releases included consumer prices, sentiment in the housing industry, housing starts, and industrial production. Plus, of course, there was the most important one: the decision by the Federal Open Market Committee to start raising interest rates.

My colleague Peter Essele, portfolio manager in Commonwealth’s Investment Management group, is the author of today’s post, which was originally published in June 2015. With so much focus on the Federal Reserve and rising rates, it is a good reminder.

Though the media want us to believe that we’re on the verge of a cascading bond market—where rising rates will lead to price declines on bond strategies, which will lead to outflows, followed by more price declines due to forced selling—these fears are somewhat exaggerated.

This post originally appeared last spring and is part 3 of a series on what happens when interest rates start to rise.

As this is the final post in my series on interest rates, it’s time to talk about what everyone is probably thinking: What happens to investments when interest rates rise? This question is especially pertinent given yesterday’s decision by the Federal Reserve on a rate hike.

This post originally appeared last spring and is part 2 of a series on what happens when interest rates start to rise.

This post originally appeared last spring. With a Federal Reserve rate increase largely expected to happen this week, I want to take a look at what happens when rates start to rise.

Although I identified consumer confidence as a yellow light in December’s economic risk factor update, last week’s data releases gave a largely encouraging take.

I shared this post in 2014, but it’s always worth another go.

As we close out the year and look ahead to a new beginning in 2016, I thought it would be fun to repost a couple of entertaining videos from EconStories that offer some surprisingly accurate lessons in economics. Let the rap battles begin! 

I shared this post earlier this year, and as we look ahead to a 2016 that could bring ongoing volatility, I think it’s a good reminder.

When we consider market returns, we often focus on average returns, assuming the downside will take care of itself. But I don’t think averages are the best way to express how portfolios may perform. In fact, I think this points to an even bigger problem: how we measure risk.

Today’s post comes from guest contributor Peter Essele, a portfolio manager on Commonwealth’s Preferred Portfolio Services^® Select platform.

Coming out of the financial crisis, one of the darling trades for many investors was the bank loan (i.e., floating-rate) space because of its low duration and supposed ability to withstand a rise in interest rates. The selling point was that the “floating-rate” component of the investment’s yield would offer an increasing payout when rates began to rise. So why are prices declining instead?