Q4 2023 Commentary Q4 2023 reminded investors that the only thing constant is change. While the prior quarter saw markets fall due to the Federal Reserve’s commitment to keep rates higher for longer in its fight against inflation, the fourth quarter brought an “everything rally” with stocks, bonds, and crypto all rising in anticipation of […]

QSV Equity Investors Q3 2023 Commentary Q3 2023 was difficult for U.S. equities as the reality that “higher for longer” truly will mean higher interest rates for longer gelled in the minds of investors. The Federal Reserve is intent on fighting inflation and seems committed to keeping rates high and conditions tight for the foreseeable […]

QSV Equity Investors Q2 2023 Commentary Stocks climbed a wall of worries in the first half of 2023 that included a banking crisis, higher interest rates and inflation, the debt ceiling debate, and geopolitical concerns. Looking specifically at the “Magnificent Seven” large cap technology stocks, returns of those shares did not climb, but vaulted the […]

QSV Equity Investors (formerly Ballast Equity Management) Q1 2023 Commentary Equity markets finished the quarter with positive returns, while the path to those gains was a rocky one. January was marked by robust performance, with shares of lower-quality, higher beta companies showing significant gains. Markets were dampened in February with news that inflation, while cooling, […]

QSV Equity Investors Q3 2022 Commentary More information including since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. Stocks began the quarter during a mid-summer rally, but ended September in bear market territory, as fears of sticky inflation, potential policy errors by global central banks and the possibility of a recession weighed […]

QSV Equity Investors Q4 2022 Commentary   Q4 2022 began with a bear market rally that continued into November but waned in December. Rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and Chairman Powell’s comments that it was too soon to consider a pause tested investors’ resolve. November’s mid-term election delivered the ingredients for gridlock in Washington, […]

QSV Equity Investors Q2 2022 Commentary   More information including since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. Stocks were sharply lower during the second quarter of 2022, as persistently high inflation and the response from the Federal Reserve sparked worries over the severity of a resulting economic slowdown and risks […]

QSV Equity Investors Q1 2022 Commentary More information including since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. QSV concluded its commentary last quarter with a list of “known risks” that included a continuation of inflation, the Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle and trajectory, and the fact that attention paid by investors to […]

QSV Equity Investors February 25, 2022 More information including since-inception performance for each QSV strategy may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. War Markets have been bracing for conflict between Russia and Ukraine for much of 2022 and, on Thursday, this conflict became a reality. President Vladimir Putin has stated that Ukraine “is an inalienable part of […]

QSV Equity Investors Q4 2021 Commentary   More information including a since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. Equity markets marched higher in the quarter, with returns in large capitalization indexes outpacing those of small cap indexes. Businesses and investors faced numerous challenges – research firm Sentieo cited “supply chain,” […]

QSV Equity Investors Q3 2021 Commentary   More information including a since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. As we noted in our outlook last quarter, U.S. equity markets delivered between one and two years of expected returns in just the first six months of 2021. Equity markets pushed higher […]

QSV Equity Investors, LLC Q2 2021 Commentary More information including a since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. Further reopening of the U.S. economy fueled robust economic growth and rising markets during the quarter. In just five memorable quarters, we have gone from a severe economic contraction and uncertainty to […]

QSV Equity Investors Q1 2021 Commentary   More information including since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. Vaccines and stimulus provided a double-barreled boost to equity markets in the quarter, with particularly sharp gains in lower quality, more economically sensitive stocks. These sharp gains produced significant headwinds for the quality-biased strategies […]

Stonks, Stocks, Traders and Owners February 2021 If you owned two businesses, one profitable and growing and the other chronically losing money and languishing, to which would you allocate additional resources? Business owners are tasked with making successful capital allocation decisions that will propel their companies forward for the long-term benefit of their shareholders, their […]

QSV Equity Investors Q4 2020 Commentary More information including since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. 2020: A Long Strange Trip Investors who decided to ignore the news, leave their brokerage statements unopened and simply view the results of the full twelve months of 2020 would be both pleased at […]

To borrow heavily from Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, what a long, strange trip 2020 has been. After beginning the year with great expectations (remember images like the one below?) and with the strong market returns of 2019 vivid in the minds of investors, the world faced the reality of a […]

QSV Equity Investors Q3 2020 Commentary Additional information and since-inception performance for each of the QSV strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. QSV Strategy Performance Market participants experienced two sharply different environments during the quarter with U.S. equities marching higher propelled by stimulus fuel in July and August while renewed investor concerns, market volatility, and […]

  Investors’ Choice: Crowded House or Prudent Distancing? September 2020 Despite the recent volatility in large cap U.S. stocks, performance leadership has been driven by the top ten contributors in the S&P 500 more greatly than any other period in the past ten years. Shares of large technology companies continued to march higher in August, […]

QSV is proud to note that its Quality Value Smallcap Strategy has attained a three-year track record as of June 30, 2020 with performance that outpaced both relevant indexes. Additional information and since-inception performance for each of the strategies may be found at www.qsvequityinvestors.com. QSV Strategy Performance Investors apparently listened when, in late March, Federal […]

QSV Strategy Performance After a positive start in 2020, markets experienced a long-awaited correction during March. Each correction in history is different, but this time is quite unlike the last, the financial crisis of 2008, due to its combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi/Russia oil trade wars, supply and demand shocks and the swift fall […]

The long running bull market was punctuated by a sharp correction in major U.S. markets last week, with uncertainty caused by the increasing spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. As often happens in such corrections, investors appeared to broadly sell risk assets in the early days followed by a more discriminate selling that hit stocks of […]

Stocks and other risk assets rallied into the year-end, aided by the Federal Reserve’s third cut in interest rates, diminished trade war fears, strong labor markets and resilient consumers. The rally lifted stocks broadly, and particularly lifted those of lower-quality, less profitable and more leveraged businesses, producing headwinds for the quality-biased QSV strategies. 2019 began […]