The MercadoLibre Paradox
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Over the past five years, MercadoLibre has grown both revenue and profit dramatically — yet its stock price has gone nowhere. Could this be an opportunity?
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Insights Blog
News, insights and thought leadership from the City Different team.
The MercadoLibre Paradox
What Investing Can Teach Us About March Madness
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We've officially entered my absolute favorite time of the sports calendar year. As millions of others around the country have done this past week, I sat down to fill out my bracket for the annual Van...
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Are Treasuries Still Safe?
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Since April, I've had a lot of conversations about whether Treasuries are still a viable safe haven investment. After “Liberation Day,” 10-year Treasuries sold off by ~50 basis points, creating a...
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What is Active Management in Fixed Income?
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We believe that a strategic, actively managed approach to fixed income investing often outperforms the alternative. You might be familiar with active management when it comes to equities, but what...
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CDI's Active Management Philosophy
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Much as truly active equity investing can result in greater returns for investors (even net of fees), so too can active management of fixed income securities. We’re big believers in the power of...
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Another Turkey Drop?
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WEEK ENDING 8/16/2024 Won’t you please come to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention? Or please come to Jackson Hole for a sign. “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”
Postcard From Brazil
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City Different Investments is known for finding compelling opportunities that may lie off the beaten path of Wall Street. Last week we caught up with our intrepid portfolio manager Vin Walden, on the...
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Diversification Matters
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WEEK ENDING 8/9/2024 Diversification matters The market’s implied probabilities of future events are often wrong We’ll miss the 2024 Olympics – sure beats politics
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Gold-medal Advice for Market Volatility
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WEEK ENDING 8/2/2024 Welcome home, Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva Paris took center stage… Until the jobs report spoiled the party, that is.
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Trade Execution
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A decade ago, fixed income trade analysis was like a country club — very few people had access to it, the asymmetry of information was staggering, and so much of the market was effectively word of...
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How active is your fund manager, really?
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In the 1980s, very few equity fund managers adhered to an indexing strategy. Fund managers were actively picking stocks to generate alpha for their clients. But over the course of the 1990s and...
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Goldilocks
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WEEK ENDING 7/26/2024 Goldilocks data before the Fed meets Wednesday GDP at 2.8% in Q2, thanks to strong consumer spending A brief overview of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
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Biden's Exit
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WEEK ENDING 7/19/2024 President Biden drops out of the presidential race. Like The Who, we “Won’t Get Fooled Again” — though it seems a rate cut is in the offing. “Won’t you please come to Chicago...
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Cooling Inflation
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WEEK ENDING 7/12/2024 June’s cooling CPI makes the case for lower inflation. Probability of a Fed September rate cut of 25 basis point is currently at 95%. Former President Trump attacked at a rally.
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Debates
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WEEK ENDING 7/5/2024 When will the Fed make its next move? Costs of avoiding the “Cash Trap” are on the rise. Try not to laugh: “His Highness, the President of the United States of America and...
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Long Term Investing—A Walk in the Park
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There’s a great metaphor that describes in pretty perfect detail how you should think about investing. It comes from Ralph Wanger, a legendary investor (as quoted in The Four Pillars of Investing):...
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Summer Heats Up
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WEEK ENDING 6/21/2024 A midyear review of investment grade corporates Softening consumer data Happy Independence Day (a bit early)
AI HYPErinflation
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When it comes to share price, nothing has been quite so good to companies these past couple of years as making waves in A.I. Much of the S&P 500’s gains over that period have been powered by a few...
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Higher-for-longer
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WEEK ENDING 6/14/2024 Higher-for-longer tested by recent economic reports Supreme Court for sale CDI wishes all dads a Happy Father’s Day
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Landmark Election Year
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WEEK ENDING 6/7/2024 Wednesday doubleheader: CPI data release and Fed meeting. Strong labor market dampens probability of July rate cut. Landmark election year for the world.
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The Unknown
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WEEK ENDING 5/31/2024 “I just don’t know.” Municipal bond market underperforms prior to seasonal summer drought. 34–0
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Bespoke vs. Off the Rack
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Mutual funds are off-the-rack, SMAs are bespoke tailoring. Which do you prefer?
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The Receipts Are In
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WEEK ENDING 5/17/2024 Core CPI increases by 0.3%; softer after higher inflation prints in Q1. Receipts come back with lower retail sales numbers. Three paths to monetary policy: hold, ease, or ease....
The Big Small Business Opportunity
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The Current Landscape Small businesses are more critical to our domestic economy than you might realize —99.9% of all businesses in this country are small businesses. They employ 46% of our workforce...
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Calm Before the Economic Storm
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WEEK ENDING 5/10/2024 Happy belated Mother's Day from all of us at City Different Investments. A very quiet week on the economic release front. Next week brings another look at CPI and PPI. Mike...
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The Pendulum Swings
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WEEK ENDING 5/3/2024 Weekly rate volatility—markets tend to overreact. How do you unite Democrats and Republicans? A job nobody should want.