Last night I hosted the third annual Stocks, Suits, Scotch event at the Cambridge Club. This special annual event is always a hit and features my top analyst, Matt Barasch, who shares his brilliant thoughts on the world markets and which direction we are heading; Alan Whitfield, National Director at Harry Rosen, who shares his secrets on how to look great and which trends to look for in this fall’s fashion line up; and the one and only Marc Laverdiere, as he educates us on the intricate process of how scotch is made followed by an appreciation for the final product as he guides us through a proper nosing & tasting.

If you weren’t able to join us this year, here is a quick re-cap of what you missed:

 

Stocks
One of Matt’s key messages was that the U.S. is still in fine form (from a growth and stability perspective) and that had Janet Yellen taken his call, she may have raised rates, which most analysts and economists are arguing should have happened yesterday. Furthermore, Matt shared some “factoids” with us that helped illustrate that stocks go up in most years (about 3/4ths of the time) and have an even better track record when we focus on years in which the U.S. is not in recession (rises to about 80% of the time). In fact, going back 89 years, the stock market has had 65 positive years (73%) and 24 negative years (27%). Of those negative years, about half (13) have ranged between 0% and 10%, while a total of 6 have seen losses of more than 20%. Think about that for a second, while we spend an awful lot of time worrying about market collapses, if we defined a collapse as a loss of 20% or more, they happen about 7% of the time or about once every 15 years. And that’s if you start in 1926. If you started in 1937, the number of 20% down years would drop to 3, meaning in the past 77 years they have occurred about 4% of the time or once every quarter century. One other note, every one of these big down years has been associated with a U.S. recession, so getting the recession call right is of paramount importance.

 

Amid the volatility that we’ve been experiencing so far this year, investors should continue to concentrate on the long term outlook and stop letting the News' day-to-day headlines (who by the way are in the business of selling you news about how we're all doomed) affect their long term investment goals. Reminding us that markets trend in cycles, Matt's best tip to being a good investor is to simply turn the noise off and hire a professional that you trust for the long term (like yours truly). Click here for more commentary from Matt & his team.

 

Suits
The suits presentation by Alan Whitfield, Harry Rosen’s National Director and personal friend of Harry himself (and mine), was not only educational and interactive but practical to those in the audience providing tips on your staple suit must-haves (the Tom Ford suit attracting special attention), fit-to-measure trends and what not-to-dos when it comes to your pants, blazers, shirts & ties and provided a sneak peak at the latest fashion trends & colors to look out for this season; such as wool ties, jean dress shirts (for the weekend or evening) and the deep burgundy shoe. Click here for Harry’s latest trends and you might look as good as Alan does on a daily basis…

 

Scotch

The scotch tasting and history was presented by none other than Marc Laverdiere. With a glass of scotch in his hand, Marc brought the stocks and suits presentations back full circle with a tasting of 4 very different scotches to help us compare and contrast. We started with a Glenlivet 12 and compared it to a Glenfiddich 21. Then we moved onto the peat smokey Laphroaig 10 and ended on our usual high note with the Macallan Sienna.

 

People have different palates and can each discern different flavours – and the same can be said about your personal style and investment portfolio. Driven once again by the media, most whisky consumers believe an 21-year old is better than a 12-year old, but it’s really all down to personal taste as confirmed earlier today in conversation with a client of mine who was at the event last night and still perplexed by the notion that he preferred the Glenlevit to the Glenfiddich.

 

Special Thanks
Special thanks to Spearhead Brewing Company for sponsoring their delicious Sam Roberts Band Session Ale and Moroccan Brown Ale brews for us to drink in-between scotch tastings (they make quite the pairing) and to the Cambridge Club for making the logistics of the event flawless.