Gold’s behavior since the escalation of conflict in the Middle East has been, at first glance, counterintuitive. Periods of geopolitical stress typically push investors toward gold as a safe haven. Instead, gold prices have struggled to gain any sort of consistent traction, even amid one of the most severe global energy disruptions in decades. Understanding why requires stepping back and recognizing that gold does not sit neatly in any one asset category. It actually straddles several as gold simultaneously functions as a commodity, a reserve asset, and a currency surrogate. That overlapping identity is important, because it means the r

In Q1 2026, I stepped into the role less of an interviewer and more of an investigator, sitting across the table from 35 portfolio management teams covering mutual funds, ETFs, and SMAs in large cap growth, large blend, and large value. Each team was asked the same eight questions — no leading prompts, no room to dodge — so the evidence was clean and comparable. As the answers piled up, patterns began to surface: repeated narratives told by different voices, subtle tells that revealed where conviction was genuine versus rehearsed. Outliers stood out like fingerprints at a crime scene — views that broke from consensus, either

In investing, the goal is to find assets that appreciate. That can be accomplished in different ways. One way is to find businesses that aren’t growing very fast but can be purchased at a low enough valuation that the investment can perform well. Another way to find potentially good investments is by identifying businesses (or groups of businesses that make up an index) that are growing rapidly but the market underestimates that growth. Some refer to this as “growth at a reasonable price” investing. Whatever style of growth an investor might pursue, it’s clear that finding growth that the market doesn’t expect ma

The sharp rebound from the March lows has pushed most major equity indexes back to record highs. This upside momentum has been fueled in part by signs of de-escalation with Iran and growing expectations that the Strait of Hormuz could reopen soon. While the geopolitical environment remains fluid on a day-to-day basis, markets appear to be assigning a higher probability to a relatively near-term U.S. exit from the Middle East, alongside a normalization in global supply chains that could ultimately pressure oil prices lower.

Heading into month-end, the S&P 500 is up 9.2% as of April 29, putting it on pace for its strongest Apri