1. Record Annualized Equity Flows Continue.
2. Not Just Margin…Retail Investors are Taking Personal Loans to Buy Stocks.
Equities: Forget margin debt. Retail investors are taking out personal loans to trade stocks. This is not going to end well.
Source: MagnifyMoney Read full article
https://dailyshotbrief.com/the-daily-shot-brief-june-22nd-2021/
3. Buyback Index Outperforming S&P by 27% Since 2020 Lows
S&P 500 Buyback Index (top 100 stocks with highest buyback ratio) is outpacing the broader market by 27% since March 2020 lows [Past performance is no guarantee of future results]
Liz Ann Sonders, @LizAnnSonders
4. 10 Year TIPS Yield Negative 80 BPS
5. Junk Bond Yields are Now Paying Negative Inflation Adjusted Coupons.
6. Nasdaq New High…15th This Year.
https://lplresearch.com/2021/06/23/the-fed-calms-rate-hike-worries-daily-market-update/
Nasdaq Composite New All-Time High
©1999-2021 StockCharts.com All Rights Reserved
7. Top Global Financial Districts Still Well Below 50% Capacity in Office
Zero Hedge-Workplace activity in major cities like New York, London and San Francisco is still about 50% below pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report by Bloomberg. Other cities like Frankfurt and Hong Kong also remain less active than prior to the pandemic, as measured by office space use and use of local transit.
8. Average 21-day annualized volatility since 2017 it at 70% for bitcoin, 14.6% for S&P 500 and 54.6% for TSLA.
Bitcoin Volatility and Imposed Limitations
Posted by Michael Harris on June 23, 2021
Annualized 21-day volatility of S&P 500 is 8.8% but for bitcoin it is 87.9%. U.S. dollar index volatility is 5.5% in comparison. Volatility is the main reason why bitcoin wide acceptance for payments may be a far-fetched possibility.
The chart below shows the annualized 21-day volatility of bitcoin and S&P 500. TSLA is added just for comparison.
| 21-day volatility (ann.) | Avg. since 2017 | Return since 2017 | |
| Bitcoin | 87.6% | 70% | 3,224% |
| S&P 500 | 8.8% | 14.6% | 105% |
| TSLA | 32.8% | 54.6% | 1,359% |
Bitcoin volatility reached as high as 165% in April of last year. S&P 500 volatility peaked at around 95% during the 2020 crash.
Average 21-day annualized volatility since 2017 it at 70% for bitcoin, 14.6% for S&P 500 and 54.6% for TSLA.
https://www.priceactionlab.com/Blog/2021/06/bitcoin-volatility/
Found at Abnormal Returns Blog www.abnormalreturns.com
9. CNN-Here’s how Biden’s Infrastructure plan would impact key areas of American life
By CNN staff
How Biden’s plan may get some to warm up to green energy 03:58
(CNN)The nation’s infrastructure is sorely in need of repair. It recently earned a C- score from the American Society of Civil Engineers, which said an additional $2.6 trillion in funding is required over the next decade.
President Joe Biden is pitching his plan as an investment to benefit communities of color, rural Americans and others burdened by decay or lagging modernization.
Here’s a look at how bad things have gotten across the country.
Traditional infrastructure
Pete Buttigieg delivers infrastructure message from a bridge with a cracked steel beam
Funding improvements to roads, bridges, railways and other infrastructure has been a central piece of Biden’s recovery plans. He has said that it will create “really good-paying jobs” and help the nation compete better.
Related: The impacts from repairing the cracked I-40 bridge
The price tag to fix the country’s bridge repair backlog is $125 billion, ASCE says. And while the Biden administration and congressional Republicans spar over the size and priorities of an infrastructure bill, those bridges are rusting and corroding. Here’s what Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says about “hard infrastructure” where he hopes lawmakers can find consensus, even as they continue to squabble over the broader definition of infrastructure.
Schools
Biden calls for $100 billion to build new public schools and upgrade existing buildings with better ventilation systems, updated technology labs, and improved school kitchens that can prepare more nutritious meals.
Across the country, thousands of students and teachers find themselves in outdated, crumbling schools and what Biden calls “a clear and present danger to our children’s health.”
For instance, this school taught students before the Civil War and it’s hoping Biden’s recovery plans will bring them modern necessities.
Broadband
Biden wants to close the digital divide in the US. Here’s what that could look like
Biden wants to invest $100 billion in order to give every American access to affordable, reliable and high-speed broadband. The proposal would build a high-speed broadband infrastructure in order to reach 100% coverage across the nation.
Biden says he is committed to working with Congress to reduce the cost of broadband internet and increase its adoption in both rural and urban areas. This is what closing the digital divide did for two struggling communities, and what it can do for millions of Americans who are faced with the lack of broadband access in their communities.
Green energy
The green energy revolution is coming — with or without help from Washington
Biden wants to build a “modern and sustainable infrastructure” toward his continued goal of reaching a carbon-free energy sector in the US by 2035, citing the need for new, green infrastructure that would generate millions of jobs.
Related: Biden wants millions of clean-energy jobs. Can it happen?
Biden can’t accomplish his vast, $2 trillion clean energy plan without action from Congress. Right now the President would need every Senate Democrat on board to pass any legislation needed — and he may even need Republicans signing on too if Democrats like Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema continue to oppose eliminating the filibuster.
Here’s a look at the “greening of America” and how some of the reddest places on the map are those that stand to gain the most from a green energy revolution.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/10/politics/green-energy-infrastructure-electric-grid/index.html
10. How To Be Happy: 11 Strategies Proven Over The Past 2,000 Years
The Daily Stoic Blog
“It is clear to you, I am sure, Lucilius, that no man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom.” — Seneca
We know what you’re thinking.
What do the Stoics know about being happy?
Isn’t a Stoic resigned to whatever happens?
Isn’t a Stoic supposed to be an unfeeling, emotionless brute?
No, no, no. Stoicism is not about eliminating emotions. It’s about minimizing negative emotions like stress and anxiety and anger. It’s not about accepting your powerlessness. It’s about taking power over all that is inside your control. Your attitudes. Your wants. Your desires. Your opinions about what has happened. Your happiness.
Happiness, the Stoics tell us, comes from within. It is a choice. And, as the slave turned teacher Epictetus said, “You can bind up my leg, but not even Zeus has the power to break my freedom of choice.”
The Stoics were happy, they wrote about happiness, and they taught others how to be happy. In this article, we want to pass their wisdom along to you. We want to give the Stoic’s time-tested strategies for being happy.
This post is just a small sample of the kind of lessons, ideas, and stories we write about in our daily email newsletter. Every morning, we send a short (~500 word) email inspired by Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and more. Each email will help you cultivate strength, insight, and wisdom to live your best life.
Join over 320,000 people who start their day off with the philosophy that has guided some of history’s greatest men and women.
This is a long post. It should be saved and revisited. It can be read straight through or if you prefer, feel free to click the links below to navigate to a specific section:
What Did The Stoics Say About Happiness?
11 Stoic Strategies For Being Happy
[1] Focus On What You Can Control
[6] Take The Time To Be Grateful
[10] Let Go of Worry, Anxiety, and Regret
[11] Realize: you have everything you need
What Are The Best Stoic Quotes On Happiness?
What Are The Best Books On Happiness?
What is Happiness?
The greek word for happiness is Eudaimonia (εὐδαιμονία). It was the fruit of studying philosophy. They used it interchangeably with “the flourishing life” and “the good life.” To the Stoics, the idea of a Sage or a perfect philosopher was a direction, not a destination. And it was on the journey in that direction that one experienced eudaimonia.
As Donald Robertson writes in Stoicism And The Art of Happiness
The ideal Sage is therefore godlike, a mortal having progressed so far that his wisdom and eudaimonia equal that of Zeus. The aspiring Stoic tries to make progress towards perfect wisdom by regularly contemplating the Sage and emulating his thoughts and actions.
The Stoics believed the aim of life, the highest good, was to live virtuously. A life of virtue was one with the potential to bring us personal happiness and fulfillment. It’s the pursuit of virtue and good character that allows us to experience eudaimonia—happiness, flourishing, the good life.
For the Stoic, therefore, happiness is the pursuit of virtue. When we aim to live virtuously, a happy life follows.
What Causes Unhappiness?
“It is not the man who has too little but the man who craves more, that is poor.” Seneca
When I get what I want, I will be happy.
This is perhaps the most common of all the human myths—beyond the Hero’s Journey, beyond Icarus’s flight too close to the sun, beyond the various origin stores shared across cultures.
All of us tell ourselves some version of this myth to one degree or another. We think when we get older and free of the control of our parents, things will be better. We think that when we get rich, or famous or powerful, all our problems will go away. We think when we find the right person, we’ll stop being lonely.
We think that when we get what we want, we’ll be happy.
I’ll be happy when I get the promotion. ’ll be happy when I’m a millionaire, when this diet pays off, when I hit the bestseller list.
Conditional happiness is what psychologists call this kind of thinking. Like the horizon, you can walk for miles and miles and never reach it.
It’s a collective delusion. “It is quite impossible,” Epictetus said, “to unite happiness with a yearning for what we don’t have. Happiness has all that it wants, and resembling the well-fed, there shouldn’t be hunger or thirst.”
Locate that yearning formore, better, someday and see it for what it is: the enemy of happiness.
Choose it or your happiness. As the Stoics say, the two are not compatible.
What Did The Stoics Say About Happiness?
“Trust me, real joy is a serious thing. Do you think someone can, in the charming expression, blithely dismiss death with an easy disposition? Or swing open the door to poverty, keep pleasures in check, or meditate on the endurance of suffering? The one who is comfortable with turning these thoughts over is truly full of joy, but hardly cheerful. It’s exactly such a joy that I would wish for you to possess, for it will never run dry once you’ve laid claim to its source.” — Seneca
We throw around words like “happy” and “joy” casually.
“I’m overjoyed at the news.” “I’m happy you’re here.” “She’s a joy to be around.” “I’d be happy to help.” “It’s a joyous occasion.”
But none of those examples really touches on true happiness and joy. They are closer to “cheer” than anything else. Cheerfulness is surface level.
To the Stoics, true happiness, true joy—these are deep states of being. It is what we feel inside us and has little to do with smiles or laughing. So when people say that the Stoics are dour or depressive, they’re really missing the point. Who cares if someone is bubbly when times are good? What kind of accomplishment is that?
What the Stoics were after was the ability to be fully content with life. Can you bravely face what life has in store from one day to the next, can you bounce back from every kind of adversity without losing a step, can you be a source of strength and inspiration to others around you?
The person that can is truly and deeply happy. They have that kind of happiness that comes from purpose, excellence, and duty. The serious kind—far more serious than a smile or a chipper voice.
https://dailystoic.com/how-to-be-happy/
Disclosure
Indices that may be included herein are unmanaged indices and one cannot directly invest in an index. Index returns do not reflect the impact of any management fees, transaction costs or expenses. The index information included herein is for illustrative purposes only.
Material for market review represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results.
Material compiled by Lansing Street Advisors is based on publicly available data at the time of compilation. Lansing Street Advisors makes no warranties or representation of any kind relating to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the data and shall not have liability for any damages of any kind relating to the use such data.
To the extent that content includes references to securities, those references do not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or hold such security as information is provided for educational purposes only. Articles should not be considered investment advice and the information contain within should not be relied upon in assessing whether or not to invest in any securities or asset classes mentioned. Articles have been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. Securities discussed may not be suitable for all investors. Please keep in mind that a company’s past financial performance, including the performance of its share price, does not guarantee future results.