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As you know, occasionally during our regular readings we come across material that is so on point and so well written that we feel compelled to share it with you in its entirety. Below is an article which addresses the very common issue of investing based on news headlines versus investing based on technical and fundamental data.

If you watched or listened to the financial news media over the last week or two, which normally we encourage you NOT to do, undoubtedly you heard almost non-stop commentary and predictions about last week's Federal Open Market Committee statement.

It seems hard to remember all these years later, but March of 2000 was a time of pure euphoria in the U.S.. equity markets and especially in the technology sector. The poster child for the times was the NASDAQ Composite Stock Index, which included almost all of the leading technology companies of that era.

Earlier this week, our firm attended one of the premier annual conferences for independent financial advisors. It is produced by our SEC compliance consulting firm, Market Counsel, and this year was held in Las Vegas.

With the increase in stock market volatility over the last few weeks, we thought it prudent to write a brief update for our clients. If you have not watched our 20 minute client video update from last week that covers this issue in more depth, please do so or let us know and we can resend the link to you.

This week we were reviewing interest rates and it seemed amazing that almost all major U.S. interest rate measures were at lower levels than they were at this same date range last year. The occurrence is surprising to many because, if you will recall, by mid-September of 2013 interest rates were experiencing a stunning rise that began in early May.

As part of our research, we regularly read the writings of a variety of strategists, and every once in a while we come across commentary that is just so good we feel compelled to share it. The following is such writing, originally authored by Richard Russell and paraphrased by Raymond James Chief Strategist Jeff Saut.

Richard begins:

This is the time of year when students all over the United States head back to the classrooms, so it seems like a perfect time for a brief education session on the current status of the global investment marketplace.

The beginning of summer is upon us and the last week of May had many financial media outlets buzzing with the news that the U.S. stock market was again hitting 'all-time high' levels. While that is certainly true of some market indexes, we thought it important to bring perspective to the current conditions as we enter the typically slower summer months of the calendar.

By now you have probably heard quite a bit in the media about March 9, 2014 being the 5 year anniversary of the bull market in U.S. stocks that started in March of 2009. The stock market has certainly experienced a long and powerful move upward over that time frame, with the most recent calendar year of 2013 being especially strong.