News, insights and thought leadership from the City Different team.
Bond investors have grown more sophisticated over the years, and the tools we use to evaluate bonds have evolved alongside us. For decades, yield was the primary measure investors focused on. Yield...
For the better part of fifteen years, investors have read the Fed's intentions through one number: Core PCE. It became the formal benchmark for the 2% inflation target in 2012, and ever since, the...
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There's a version of the investment conversation that goes something like this: “equities for growth, alternatives for excitement, and bonds left over for investors who've already won (and are now...
Bond investors have grown more sophisticated over the years, and the tools we use to evaluate bonds have evolved alongside us. For decades, yield was the primary measure investors focused on. Yield...
For the better part of fifteen years, investors have read the Fed's intentions through one number: Core PCE. It became the formal benchmark for the 2% inflation target in 2012, and ever since, the...
There's a version of the investment conversation that goes something like this: “equities for growth, alternatives for excitement, and bonds left over for investors who've already won (and are now...
What a New Fed Chair Means for Fixed Income Kevin Warsh took the helm on May 15, 2026, and has pledged to change the conduct of monetary policy. For fixed-income investors, this is not a transition...
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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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Most fixed income conversations spend a lot of time on what to own (e.g. credit quality, duration, sector exposure) and not nearly enough time on how the portfolio is put together. But structure...
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No one likes an alarmist know-it-all (except maybe the folks riding Michael Burry’s coattails through the 2008 financial collapse… but even a lot of those folks thought he had lost his mind). I know...
I’ve been feeling uneasy about financial markets lately… not because I think we’re headed for a carbon copy of 2008, but because a few old patterns are starting to bubble back up. Not in the same...
There’s a line from the movie The Last Boy Scout that’s always stuck with me: "Water's wet, the sky is blue..." (gunna add my own spin on it here) ... and market risks, Jimmy, they’re out there and...
Jong recently traveled to the UK with his family over Easter. And because he can never stop thinking about investing, below he describes how a trip that started out as a soccer fan’s pilgrimage to...
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you...” Rudyard Kipling Yesterday, I noticed Warren Buffet was in the press quoting this Kipling piece, one of my...
When we’re chatting with clients, we often get the same flavor of questions about bonds (we would bet if you have exposure to the bond market, you’ve wondered some of these as well…). So we wanted to...
Vanguard just dropped the hammer on ETF fees again, slashing its average expense ratio to a jaw-dropping 0.07%. That’s a big deal in an industry segment where “fees are one of the most important...
This week, a surprising announcement from China’s Deep Seek sparked a lot of market chatter (and, ya know, vaporized nearly $600B in market value from Nvidia). Deep Seek claims it developed an...
Given Trump’s upcoming policy guidance, there are reasons to believe that inflation could soon be on the rise. This begs the question, “Are we in a temporary inflation lull? To answer that, let’s...
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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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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...
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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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...
Vin Walden recently sat down with the Wall Street Transcript to discuss potential dangers lurking in the stock market. Find out which companies he thinks investors should avoid. Electric Cars and AI...
Excerpt from Hidden Value Stock Newsletter: Connor Browne and Rob MacDonald are two of the co-founders of City Different Investments. Both serve as portfolio managers, and Browne runs the firm....
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Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) have grown from 3% of the total Municipal Market to approximately 23% market share in the last decade (as of 3/31/2023). Mutual funds, on the other hand, make up...
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Size can have its advantages — when going with a bigger firm; you may be hoping to experience lower fees because of volume and scale. But, it can also leave many advisors feeling like a “drop in the...
“Don't fight the Fed” — it’s an adage for a reason, and it’s one we believe in. Why? Because history has mostly demonstrated the Federal Reserve, with its monetary policy tools, is overwhelmingly...
