Weekly Market Recap The markets have moved up in recent weeks, even though the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has nudged down growth projections for this year by 0.2%, to a 3.1% estimated annual global growth rate. Generally, for 2015 the IMF's outlook is one of improving economic growth in North America, Europe and Japan, but slowing growth in emerging markets, most notably Brazil and Russia. Remember that 3.1% still represents a healthy level of global growth in our view, 2013 and 2014 saw global growth rates of 3.3% and 3.4% respectively and for 2016 the IMF sees the global growth rate increasing to 3.6%. The summer has seen higher that normal tax loss harvesting activity for Premium clients. Historically, tax loss harvesting has not been spread out evenly over time based on history, and we generally see more opportunities to tax loss harvest during sharper pullbacks, just as we saw in August and September. It is important to remember that even if you don't have existing gains to offset losses, there are other useful ways to use harvested losses to help with your taxes. Harvested losses do not expire and can be "carried forward" which means that they can be used to offset capital gains in future years. Another alternative is to use up to $3,000 of losses to offset your ordinary income in a given year. These options mean that losses don't have to offset capital gains in the same year. We believe this flexibility broadens the usefulness of tax loss harvesting more than most would think. Finally, we look at the cost and benefits of every trade we implement for Premium customers or recommend for our other users. For tax loss harvesting this means that we anticipate a benefit after all costs of the trade are assessed. We also generally look to take action before a material opportunity to tax loss harvest could reverse, rather than miss it. This does mean that in some cases we will tax loss harvest more than once over a period of months to make sure that we are taking advantages of portfolio opportunities as they are presented. Note that tax loss harvesting is one benefit available to certain client accounts under our Premium service. We do not provide recommendations for tax loss harvesting trades for non-Premium users as we do not typically have access to cost basis information for those holdings. Footnote:
The full detail of the IMF's forecasts can be found here: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2015/02/ Disclaimer:
The views expressed are for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, investment recommendations or an offer to buy or sell securities by FutureAdvisor. All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market, economic, or political conditions. The investment strategies mentioned are not personalized to your financial circumstances or investment objectives, and differences in account size, the timing of transactions and market conditions prevailing at the time of investment may lead to different results. Clients may lose money. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. Any tax strategies discussed should not be interpreted as tax advice and do not represent in any manner that the tax consequences detailed will be obtained. Clients should consult with their personal tax advisors regarding the tax consequences of investing. Your Portfolio Update Over the past month your portfolio was up 4.4%, and we have no recommendations at this time to improve it. Congratulations on maintaining one of the best portfolios among all our clients. We will, as always, continue monitoring your account and alerting you if there are actions to take (periodic rebalancing is required, etc). Ways To Improve Your Portfolio | 0 Accounts with Actions | Your portfolio has no recommended actions right now. We'll watch over your investments and alert you with an email when there are actions for you to complete. Sign in to see detailed steps  | | Sign in to see your full dashboard | | 
