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Hello Everyone – I want to leave you all with a positive message as we enter the long weekend.  The S&P 500 stock index bottomed back in October 2022, and continues to trend higher to this day.  It’s slow, but it is happening (see chart below). These debt ceiling negotiations have potential to be a very positive event for the country, and we should know more next week.  Regardless of party, we should all be able to agree that it’s time to reign in deficit spe

Hello Again – Today we’re gonna talk about “What could go right?”.  I have been and continue to be optimistic.  But why?  People ask me this all the time, they say Mike, I just don’t understand your level of optimism.  And I get it.  At times it is hard to maintain. But nonetheless, the story has not changed.  It has been delayed, but it has not changed. We’ve been in the soup for 16 months folks.  So really, I look around an

Hello again everyone -  We are ending this week on a very positive note!  The S&P 500 finally closed above my special indicator line.  This is the first time in 12 months that it has done this.  This is just another indication that the stock market probably bottomed back in October last year, and is now trending higher.  The media is still screaming sell, and the doom and gloomers will dig in their heels,  but be careful who you listen to. Here at Michael Traxle

Hello Again, so glad tax season is behind us.  Just a quick note to let you know that the stock market continues to act positively.  It’s up big today.  See the blue line below. The S&P 500 is right back up against it rubbing it yet again.  It looks like it intends to go through it.  If so, this would be a very positive development.  I remain very optimistic as company earnings have been coming in better than expected for the most recent quarter.  But

Hello Again - The CPI for March was just 1/10th of 1% increase month over month.  That’s a nice low reading.  Year over year it is still 5%, but that’s still the lowest year over year reading in 2 years.  In other words, the interest rate hikes are working to curb inflation. Money is coming out of the system and things are slowing.  That’s good news.Of course there is still a risk of recession if the Fed keeps raising rates and kills the economy. 

Hello Everyone – Just a reminder that the US Tax deadline for 2022 taxes is next Tuesday April 18th .  This means you need to have your taxes filed on or before that day.  It’s also the deadline for funding any IRA or Roth contributions for the 2022 tax year.  For small business owners, it’s the deadline for your SEP IRA and even any Simple IRA contributions you still need to make for 2022.  After the 18th they are null and void for the previous ye

Hello Again – It’s time to turn back to the charts because things are happening fast. This here is a chart of the S&P 500 (The S&P).  This represents the stock price of 500 of the biggest publicly traded stocks in America, and it’ my favorite barometer for the broad stock market. Remember how I pointed out the blue line awhile back?  I said if it can get through that line, then all indicators would be a go.  Look what the S&P is doing.  It&r

Hello Everyone – I will keep this very short.  Look at that S&P 500 go!We have not flashed a full fledged Green yet, but it won’t be long if this keeps up. Stay tuned.I have been waiting for this, and this is why I try to keep our clients invested. Email me if you have questions.Best Reagrds,Mike2 ½ Year Chart of the S&P 500 stock index.  A widely followed index that tracks 500 of the biggest stocks in America. 

Hello Again - Have the tides turned in the stock market?  It’s possible. You know as well as I do that we never know for sure, but we do watch the tea leaves for any hints.  We’ve been following the chart of the S&P 500 closely and I’m pleased to report that price has finally closed above the downtrend line the last 3 days in a row!  This is the first time since January 1st 2022 which is when the down trend started.  One other thing, our forward ind

Hello Everyone – Here’s a quick view of some of the changes to retirement account rules for 2023.  These limits are higher than 2022 limits.Remember that investors must qualify for these plans.  That’s where we can help.  Email me with any questions! Best regards, Mike 

Hello Everyone and welcome to the New Year!  I am so excited to be moving forward. Let’s make this the year we update our plans and get reset for the future.  That’s our goal for our clients in 2023. As it relates to the markets, take a look at the S&P 500 chart below. It looks like the stock index wants to take another stab at the trendline.  Anything is possible here folks, but if it gets over that line and stays there, that would be a good sign for the mark

Hello Again – In March this year the Federal Reserve started hiking key interest rates to try and reduce inflation.  The last 4 hikes were each .75%.  But today they raised them by only .50%.  What does it mean?  I think it means they are getting closer to their target rate at which point they would stop raising rates.  I don’t know that for sure, but that’s my hunch.Here’s the game of chicken being played by the Fed.  When they raise rates t

Hello Again – This is a chart of the S&P 500 stock index ever since May 2020.  So it covers about 2 ½ years or so. You can see the big rally after the covid shutdowns when the Fed pumped all the money into the system. Then you can see the downtrend that started at the beginning of this year as the Fed started to pull back on the support it provided, and even drain money out of the system.  That’s still happening as of now.  Hence the down trend is still inta

It’s time for a big sigh of relief right?  The election is over, and the nasty annoying political ads can finally stop. Amen to that!So what happened?  Not as much as the talking heads anticipated that’s for sure. It sounds like the house will go to the republicans in a simple majority, and the outcome in the senate is still not know.  Last time I looked it was 48 to 48 in the senate with 4 races still outstanding, and sounds like we won’t hear the final outcome

Hello Again – Years ago I used to buy a lot of Brokered CDs and bonds for client accts, but when the Fed pushed rates down close to zero, that pretty much turned things off.  But, it appears this market is coming back again. I have noticed that Brokered CD rates are getting attractive again.  So what is a Brokered CD?Banks from around the country offer their CDs (Certificates of Deposit) through brokerage firms. They are much like bank CDs but they can be bought and sold at any t

Long-term investing means just that.  Holding long-term through ups and downs.  Yes it’s challenging at times, but that’s part of the journey. There are no shortcuts, there is no free lunch, and timing and trading doesn’t work. Many of the so called successful traders that piled onto the noisy trading platforms during the frenzy are gone now, or at a very minimum are dormant. The public loves stocks at the top, and they hate stocks at the bottom.It went down further t

Hello All - Fed Chairman Powell made his intentions clear today.  That is, to get inflation back down to 2%.  How they gonna do this?  Inflict some pain on the economy by raising borrowing costs.  Ok, why raise borrowing costs?  Because when borrowing costs go up, the number of borrowing transactions goes down.  Another word for a borrowing transaction is credit, and credit is money!!  That’s right.  When someone borrows from the bank, that creates m

Hello Everyone –  Colleen suggested that I write about inflation today.  Is it really running at 8.3%?  My answer is no….not anymore, and not based on the most recent data.  She asked me to explain this, and she told me to call it Economics 101.  Ok I said, I’ll try.  Here it goes.Inflation measures the change in prices over time.  This means we need a beginning date and an ending date. The government tries to measure inflation using the CPI,

Hello Again - As many of you know, Laurie has retired, but she wanted us to tell everyone that she is feeling better than she was and she is grateful for all the prayers and well wishes.  We miss her and we pray she has a solid recovery.Today I’d like to re-introduce Ernie Pepel.  Ernie comes from the automotive business and he started here in October 2019.  He has been here nearly 3 years now.  He passed the exam quickly to become an investment advisor and was licensed

Hello, it’s Wednesday again.  Lets talk about something different today.  I’ve been pondering an idea I wanted to run by you all to see what you think. Did you know that Minnesota is home to a substantial number of large businesses? It has about 18 companies in the fortune 500, but there are actually 50 some publicly traded companies that have annual revenue greater than $200M.  That’s a nice selection of businesses to invest in. We are toying with the

Hello Everyone, its Wednesday again! I want to be clear with you on something here. Although my indicators are telling me the bottom in stocks could be behind us already, the actual trend change has still not happened.  The S&P 500 remains in a downtrend at this time.  It has some hurdles to clear yet and that could happen soon, but it has not quite happened yet. I will be the first to let you know when that changes. So today I’d like to talk about rollovers.  A rol

Hello Again - The stock market has come a long way in a short period of time.  Since mid-June it has recovered approximately 60% of the decline that happened in the first part of the year.  So what’s the outlook now? There’s two general scenarios. Scenario 1, inflation starts to recede, the Fed starts to slow it’s interest rate hikes in the near future, the economy experiences a soft landing and stocks keep trending higher from here.  That’s the good s

The Russell 2000 is a market index that tries to capture the movement of 2000 different small-cap companies.  It is a popular index and is watched closely.  Small-caps make up 10% of our all stock ETF model.The chart below shows that the small-cap index has clearly broken through the downtrend line that started last fall.  This is a positive sign in my humble opinion, and more reason to believe that the worst could be behind us. Now we are watching for the large cap index to signa

Hello Everyone and welcome to August.  My how time flies doesn’t it?  This is a huge reason why I like to just sit tight with my investments……because a year or two goes by so fast it doesn’t pay to be trading in and out.  The long-term really isn’t that long-term after all. Let’s go back in time to the last time the US was experiencing high inflation and the Fed was raising interest rates rapidly.  That was back in the early 1980&rsq

Here are a few things to consider in regards to the 2020 retirement changes, remember to speak with a professional advisor for help with retirement options and financial goals.

A quick update regarding the stock market, as of May. We know it took a 35% sharp decline, it was fast and scary. BUT now it’s climbing! What does this mean? Read more here to find out…

Don’t let your hard earned money be subject to losing its value. Talk to Michael Traxler Wealth Management, LLC financial planners to see what your options are and how you can invest your funds.

Customized investment solutions through Michael Traxler Wealth Management, LLC can help you plan for retirement and reach your financial goals. Learn about what makes us unique.