CMG AdvisorCentral

Tactical investing news, views and resources for financial advisors

Notes from SIC 2017 — Updated

|

On May 22-25, 2017, Mauldin Economics hosted the 2017 Strategic Investment Conference in Orlando. Once again, the speakers and program were outstanding, making the SIC the preeminent economics conference in the world.

For the last two weeks, Steve Blumenthal has been sharing his notes from the conference in his free weekly newsletter, On My Radar.  In sum, following are Steve’s three main takeaways from the SIC 2017:

  1. Economic Power Shifts from West to East: India and China’s share of world GDP has increased six-fold since 1970. Meanwhile, the G7 nations’ share of global trade has declined from 50% to 30%. This shift in economic power presents one of the greatest investment opportunities in history… and also carries many risks.
  2. Demographics are Destiny: Populations in the West are aging rapidly. In the US alone, 10,000 people turn 65 every day… and will do so for the next dozen years. An aging population means less economic activity, which has profound implications for your portfolio.
  3. The Coming Technological Revolution will Change the World: Over one-third of US jobs are expected to be automated over the next decade. But automation and advances in technology aren’t just affecting manufacturing workers—they will impact your future investment success.

Be sure to click below to read Steve’s first two installments of his 2017 SIC notes.

On My Radar: The Great Reset – Notes from the 2017 Strategic Investment Conference (Part 1)

On My Radar: Dr. Lacy Hunt – Notes from the 2017 Strategic Investment Conference (Part 2)

On My Radar: Mark Yusko’s Ten Surprises — Notes from the 2017 Strategic Investment Conference (Part 3)

On My Radar: Investment Ideas — Notes from the 2017 Strategic Investment Conference (Part 4)

On My Radar: David Rosenberg — Notes from the 2017 Strategic Investment Conference (Part 5)

Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit Recap

|

ho92rmshLast week, Steve Blumenthal attended the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit.  In this week’s On My Radar, Steve shares his notes from the conference, as well as links to select video interviews.

Hedge fund legend Julian Robertson kicked things off on Tuesday evening. Julian sees opportunities in technology and biotech stocks and he believes there’s pain ahead for investors not properly positioned due to the bubble created by Fed Chair Janet Yellen and the global central banks.

Steve also highlights interviews with Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management and Marc Lasry of Avenue Capital Group.

READ MORE

Best Ideas from the Morningstar ETF Conference

|

ms-etf-conferenceOn September 8, I had the privilege of participating on a panel regarding portfolio construction (“Beyond the 60/40 Portfolio”) at the Morningstar ETF Conference in Chicago.  Not surprisingly, there were a lot of terrific discussions, and I took tons of detailed notes.  One of my favorite sessions was the “Best Ideas” panel, which featured Mark Yusko of Morgan Creek Capital Management, John West of Research Affiliates, and Rich Bernstein of RBA.  Morningstar’s Jeff Ptak did a great job moderating the panel.

As promised, I shared some of my notes from the Best Ideas panel in Friday’s On My Radar.  More to come from the conference later this week.  Stay tuned!

READ MORE

Inside ETFs Wrap Up

|

Steve Blumenthal at "Gold For Tomorrow" Panel, Inside ETFs

Steve Blumenthal at “Gold For Tomorrow” Panel, Inside ETFs

We had a great time at Inside ETFs in Hollywood, Florida from Sunday – Wednesday this week. The conference gets bigger and better every year as the $2 trillion ETF industry continues to grow. More than 2,000 people heard some of the brightest minds in finance talk about the markets, investing and the ETF industry.

This year, CMG Capital Management Group CEO Steve Blumenthal was on the “Gold For Tomorrow” panel. Blumenthal discussed A Gold Metric to Gauge Buy/Sell Opportunities and commented that “Gold moves when there is a loss in confidence in government leadership and the central bank.”

Blumenthal also breaks down the highlights of the conference, including presentations from Jeremy Siegel, Jeffrey Gundlach, and John Mauldin in this weeks On My Radar: The Last Bull Standing. Below, highlights of the conference from Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg.

More Intel From #InsideETFs

|

steve_lydon2

Steve Blumenthal talks to ETF Trends’ Tom Lydon at Inside ETFs Conference

CMG Capital Management Group CEO Steve Blumenthal took a lot of notes at Inside ETFs last week in Hollywood, Florida. We published a few top line thoughts from Steve last week in Takeaways From Inside ETFs.

In Steve’s weekly On My Radar – Go Ahead Angela, Make My Day – he shares more reflections on the Conference. An excerpt from Steve:

Reflecting on four days of non-stop sessions, media interviews and meetings at the Inside ETFs Annual Conference this past week, I thought I’d share several key takeaways.

Rock star advisor Ric Edelman believes older advisors will decide that making the changes to adapt to a world slowly shifting to online money management isn’t worth the considerable effort.

Read More >

Takeaways From Inside ETFs

|

We retrieved Steve Blumenthal‘s notes from Inside ETFs this week and share three top takeaways from the conference.

Rob Arnott is the founder and chairman of Research Affiliates. He is also portfolio manager on the PIMCO All Asset and All Asset All Authority family of funds and a suite of PIMCO products based on the Fundamental Index® approach.

Rob Arnott, founder and chairman of Research Affiliates, portfolio manager on the PIMCO All Asset and All Asset All Authority family of funds.

Rob Arnott’s presentation:

10-year forward expected annualized return for 60/40 is 4%

  • For equities: Beginning dividend yield of 1.80%+ real long-term EPS Growth of 1.3% + implied inflation of 2% = 5.1% expected return for equities
  • For bonds: 2.3% (10-year Treasury at the beginning of 2015)
  • 60% of expected equity plus 40% of expected bonds EQUALS just 4% expected for the traditional 60/40 allocation mix
  • The 40 year average for 60/40 is 7.1%

Rob added, “I think we should tell our clients this arithmetic”

————————-

Read More >

Dispatch From Inside ETFs

|

Michael F. Sciortino, Sr. Executive Vice President, Managing Director, Head of Distribution, CMG Capital Management Group

Michael F. Sciortino, Sr. Executive Vice President, Managing Director, Head of Distribution, CMG

Wow, what a conference!

Each year Inside ETFs has grown larger and the content continues to amaze. Why? The easiest and fastest way to instantly transform your business results is to change the strategy you follow. This is an exciting time in this space. Many advisors are hearing this message loud and clear.

Last year alone, a quarter-trillion dollars went into US listed ETFs. That is a huge gain compared to 2013 inflows of $188 billion. ETFs have truly expanded the way in which investors access various asset classes. It appears that investors have been attracted to the transparent, relatively cheap, tax efficient and highly tradeable aspects of ETFs.

Read More >

We Have Arrived

|

titiThe CMG Capital Management Group Team has arrived at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood Florida for Inside ETFs, the world’s largest ETF conference. Tito Puente Jr. regaled the crowd poolside to kick off the conference. An expected 1,500+ attendees will be here. Some are just ahead of the major blizzard expected to pound the Northeast starting Monday. Follow the conference on Twitter #InsideETFs.