Our very first blog post...

posted by Julie on November 13, 2008

So Nikki tells me we have a NorthStar blog, and it is now my job to think of bloggish things while I watch the market gyrations. Some days I think, "Wow, I got a great price on IBM!" And then a week later, I find myself saying, "Rats, I wish I had bought more than a third of a position!" followed by the next week: "Good thing I only bought a third of a position, now I can pick up the rest even cheaper!" Market timing rarely truly works; thank goodness we are long-term investors.

Unfortunately, selecting bonds hasn't been a whole lot easier and in many ways has been more complicated. It would be nice to invest in World Bank bonds now, but we have found that rather than supporting developing nations - as they describe on their website - they are in fact actively involved in eroding the well-being of women and children in developing worlds. The reason I was interested in them at all was that I liked the idea of spreading the risk of default among several different well-funded nations rather than relying solely on the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government. Thankfully, Barack Obama was just elected President so I feel more faithful and hopeful about the U.S. government than I did three months ago, when I was forced to buy 30 day treasury notes at almost no interest because money market funds were imploding around the country.

Despite all this, I have found myself surprisingly optimistic during all of this volatility, and I want to include with this post our outlook statement that we sent to clients with the latest quarterly letter; we have received a lot of positive feedback on it and thus it seems right to immortalize it in my first blog post. Stay tuned for more...