Newsletters

2010
2010 Q1: Just over a year later from the March 9, 2009 lows, as of March 31, 2010 the S&P 500 was at 1,169.43 — that’s a 72.85% rise! However, the market is still off 25% from the October 9th, 2007 highs. Where do we go from here? Will we rally above the highs or retrace back down? Read More

2009
2009 Q4: To recap, withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxed at ordinary income tax rates. On the other hand, because deposits in a Roth IRA have already been taxed, “qualified” withdrawals from a Roth IRA are tax-free. Converting is largely an estate planning decision: one benefit of a Roth IRA is that there is no Required Minimum Distributions for the owner (although upon the owner’s death, tax-free RMD’s kick in for the beneficiary). Read More

2009 Q2: As of June 30th, the S&P 500 is up 35.88% off the March 9th lows, but it is still down over 41% from the October 9th, 2007 highs. So the question on the table is do we retest the March lows or do we move up from here?. Read More

Mark-to-Market: Let’s say you own a chain of lemonade stands – 100 stands in all. Each of these stands costs you$100 to build and they generate $10 profit per stand per year. The bank loaned you the $10,000 to build the stands because they believe due to Global Warming, the lemonade business will be a good one. The bank valued the stands at 15 times their annual profit (so each stand would be worth 15 x $10 or $150) and with that profit, you could easily pay the bank back over time. Read More

2008
Crash = Opportunity?: Warren Buffet believes so… For all intensive purposes, the stock markets have “crashed” recently, which can be defined as a sudden drop in price in a short period of time. While we may like to think the markets are generally efficient and trade on reason, during crashes (and bubbles), the markets often trade away from fundamentals and are ruled by emotions instead. Read More

BEAR bones…: From my vantage point, the biggest story of First Quarter 2008 was the almost instantaneous demise of my former employer, Bear Stearns. And while this was certainly bad for many of my friends who held substantial positions in Bear stock, the ultimate absorption of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan at a considerable discount to Bear’s assets was most likely highly beneficial to the marketplace. Read More

2007
Looking Back: 2007 was a difficult year for a variety of reasons. We were in the midst of one of the few housing declines our country has ever seen, the related sub-prime fall-out took down all of the financial stocks, our country has spent hundreds of billions on two wars, the U.S. dollar has been extremely weak, unemployment is up, oil prices peaked at $100 per barrel and under every other stone out pops another economist that is calling for a recession. Read More

What a Ride!: The first issue of KAM Comments warned about potential volatility coming. Furthermore, it was advised that should we see a pull-back, Do Not Panic! Read More

Thank You: Welcome to the first edition of the Kruse Asset Management Client Quarterly Up Date! First, I would like to thank you for joining my family of clients – I use the word “family” because that is exactly what you are to me as I invited only a small fraction of former clients to come with me to my newly formed firm – clients with whom I’ve not only developed a strong, trusting relationship, but also those who I enjoy working with. I am very excited to begin this new venture with you and look forward to many, many years of success and prosperity. Read More