Polygon Investment Management: Market Commentary
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Market Review
Most global equity markets rallied strongly during the first half of 2024. In the US, the S&P 500 was up 15.6%, with its growth once again super charged by the performance of a handful of tech stocks. Amazingly, the market capitalization of the three largest US tech stocks is now equivalent to that of the combined valuation of all publicly traded companies in either Europe or Asia. The Dow Jones average gained a more modest 4.9% and the broad US b…
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Dear Friends,
For most investors, 2023 was year of many ups and downs. Despite some early choppiness, it closed with a flourish with US equity markets once again leading the parade in terms of gains among the major markets, albeit with a high degree of concentration among the so called magnificent 7 (Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia), which accounted for 50% of the 24% gain recorded by the S&P 500. Returns for other US indices were less robust, with the …
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March 1, 2022
While the facts on the ground with respect to the Russian invasion of Ukraine are constantly changing, I wanted to share a few thoughts about the implications of the unfolding crisis. Putin has now mobilized 120,000 active Russian troops and shows no signs of backing down. There is little evidence so far to suggest that peace talks are going to make a sizable difference, and the risk of further escalation remains significant. Putin also may be less m…
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February 24, 2022
Dear Friends,
It’s hard to believe that it was 20 years ago that I moved back from London, where I had primarily focused on very large institutional clients, and started Polygon, which has tried to apply some of the same principles to individual, and smaller corporate, clients. While we have by no means gotten it all right, since inception our primary strategy, Global Growth, has outperformed its benchmark of 70% global equities (MSCI All Country index…
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To say that 2020 was a year like no other would probably be a significant understatement. With COVID running riot across the globe, and political uncertainty in the US at an all-time high, global stock markets were subject to more than their usual dose of chaos and confusion.
In the US, GDP growth plummeted by over 30% in the second quarter, only to rebound by a similar amount in the third quarter. Stock markets followed a broadly similar path with US equities wit…
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