Articles authored by Grant Engelbart

Small Cap stocks have staged a strong rebound starting late in 2025 in both absolute and relative (to large caps) terms. Many investors are likely not aware that small cap stocks have not only outperformed large cap stocks over the past year, but done so by more than 10%! There are a few reasons this …

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continue to gather significant assets, generally at the expense of traditional open-end mutual funds (albeit not completely). In the first quarter alone, ETFs have taken in some $425 billion in net flows, while traditional open-end mutual funds have seen $92 billion in investors assets leave, according to Morningstar. Beneath the surface of …

Jargon alert! Tracking error is thrown around by investment professionals as often as “basis points”, “synthetic”, and “private credit” without a full realization of what the term means. Tracking “error” is an important concept that is only an “error” in certain situations and can be a good thing in other situations. Bear with me – …

Rising market volatility tends to lead to changes under the surface of markets, even if the headline index performance remains fairly range-bound. This is especially true today, as volatility has been steadily rising since the beginning of the year, and market leadership continues to shift. Much of the prior year’s leadership has sold off, while …

A resounding, and sometimes frustrating, feature of markets is that leadership change is inevitable over any period of time studied. The “A.I. Trade” has been prevalent for the past couple of years, absent some blips here and there (DeepSeek, Liberation Day, etc). In some ways, the A.I. trade has started turning upon itself – previous …

Like any good Midwesterner, the weather is top of mind most of the time, especially in the depths of winter. Like the stock market, there is no such thing as experiencing average temperature – just a combination of above-average and below-average. Right now, many of us are experiencing above-average temperatures and likely our first ‘false …

2026 is off and running, with an action-packed January and a further reminder that the oldest trick in the investing book still applies. That “trick” is, of course, diversification, which proved resilient in 2025 as we reminded investors in our 2026 Market Outlook. Now is an ideal time to consider the makeup and risk profile …

Wars, unemployment, the Fed…. Greenland — noise is and always will be abundant in financial markets. This noise isn’t all bad, and it’s our job to parse through it for you, but as we say time and time again, what really matters for stocks is earnings. Ultimately, a lot of factors affect earnings, but the …

The holidays are here, and so is the gift that keeps on giving. Traditional mutual funds have enjoyed three strong years of equity market returns and an even longer period of consistent outflows. Taken together, that is a recipe — as good as grandma’s pumpkin pie — for another banner year for capital gains distributions. …

The recent drawdown from all-time highs (-5% intraday at the time of this writing) has done nothing to tarnish a great year for broad equity markets. With any strong run in the market, examining where valuations end up as a result is a worthwhile exercise. Often, price appreciation is warranted on the back of strong …