For two years, we have been following the Zika virus outbreak and the failure of the US government to protect its own citizens, let alone demonstrate world leadership. In total, by the time Congress managed to pass a stopgap spending bill for the fight against Zika in September 2016, more than…

As budget season comes to a close, there were 14 states joining Illinois that still had not finalized their budgets by the time of this writing. Illinois, which has received numerous downgrades because it has not had a budget in two years and has amassed a large backlog of receivables, could…

For 30+ years, Cumberland Advisors has worked with nonprofits, helping boards of directors draft RFPs, structure investment policy statements, and design investment portfolios within a separately managed account format – all in compliance with our clients’ unique state regulatory environments.…

Recognizing strengths and weaknesses among primary asset classes is the core goal of our Tactical Trend strategy. The strategy seeks to identify relative strength and trend strength in order to allocate capital to the strongest asset classes while underweighting or eliminating exposure to the…

The Sunday, June 25, New York Times article “After Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis, Worries Shift to Virgin Islands” highlights recent developments concerning the Virgin Islands territory’s lack of market access, drawing a parallel to Puerto Rico and assessing the potential for contagion to other US…

As the second quarter of 2017 comes to a close, markets have once again been dominated by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and its decision to raise the short-term interest-rate target another 25bps, to 1.00–1.25%. While this most recent rate hike was priced into the market, the decision…

“The best bond values today will not be the best bond values next year and will certainly not be the best bond values until maturity.” – Sidney Homer, January 1973, Salomon Brothers study

Sidney Homer’s statement from a study published 44 years ago still rings as true today, when the 10-…

After the VIX temporarily broke above the 15 handle in mid-April, the US stock market was quickly restored to a low-VIX environment in the second quarter of 2017. In a remarkable display of fearlessness, the VIX index closed below 10 four times in the past month – and the VIX has closed below 10…

MLPs have had a disappointing quarter and year thus far. As of June 16, 2017, the Alerian Total Return Index is 9.2% lower for the quarter and 5.62% for the year. We believe the yield on the Alerian Index of 7.37% as of that date versus the 10 year US Treasury bond of 2.152% (source Bloomberg)…

Cumberland, since its inception in 1973, has utilized separately managed accounts to execute its fixed income strategy. This was long before separately managed accounts (SMAs) were popularized in the early 2000s. The reasons for managing money in this fashion are the same today as they were then…