Friends,
What a quarter we had of ups and downs in the markets. As I stated in our commentary in January “2025 is shaping up to be a year of Fed cuts, earnings growth, and Volatility.” I’ve also reminded many of you in the last 6 months that this market was due for a pullback/correction since it’s been a while. Like other corrections in the past, I don’t feel this is much different and “tariffs” this time were the catalyst that began and will end this correction period. Our active/trading institutional manager philosophy has outperformed the indexes as expected and I’m happy to see that for our private clients in this environment. Our fixed income we’ve added to portfolios over the last 2 years are paying out nice yields and could provide some buffer from stock volatility. Infamous hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman, expressed some thoughts yesterday that may sound familiar to my thoughts: "VDHanson makes a compelling case for the @realDonaldTrump tariff strategy, but gets one issue incorrect. He describes the Trump tariffs as reciprocal and proportional to those other nations have assessed on us. In actuality, the Trump tariffs were set at levels substantially". I’ve also emailed you out a piece from some of my other strategists and research.
As always, my team and I will be here to answer your questions, tactically manage your portfolio, and take advantage of tax opportunities this year.
See the quarterly results: Quarterly Market Review Q1 2025
SWM Team:
Jeff continued serving on the advisory board of the Atlanta Community Food bank this quarter. The ACFG serves over 200 HH’s monthly in the greater Atlanta area combating food insecurity. He is the chairman of the golf fundraiser in May and here’s a picture from his recent volunteer day in February.
Clarke had a blast celebrating his mom’s retirement recently in Florida. He credits her with having a tremendous impact on his life: “I’ve been lucky to have many great role models in my life, but no one has taught me more about how to treat people, both personally and professionally, than she has. Her joyful attitude was infectious with both her peers and her clients over the years, and I know they join me in wishing her the happiest retirement!”
In February, Caroline participated in the Daughters Against Alzheimer's keynote fundraising event, Battle for the Brain in honor her friend's mom. After weeks of practicing, her team, Julie's Groove Crew, won the Fundraising Award and Fan Favorite! The event raised 1.8 million dollars for Emory Alzheimer's research. She also spent lots of time with her nephew who just turned 2 and loves being an Aunt.
