This book is a compilation of monthly investment newsletters I wrote between 1996 and 2022. Over my career, I wrote about our culture, our country, politics, morality, hopes and fears, heroes and villains. I used quotes and inspirations from extraordinary people in history, including: Lombardi, Wooden, Lincoln, Patton, Churchill, Grantland Rice, and many others. I shared personal stories and life lessons learned building my career and my own company which I started in 2003. I shared what was in my heart and what was on my mind.

Even during periods of market turbulence, I tried to share my steadfast hopefulness in the future. That, to me, is the foundation post of our great country. There is always hope that through innovation, entrepreneurialism, and old-fashioned hard work, any challenge can be overcome.

I hope you will enjoy this journey back in time into our markets and economy. It was a period of tremendous change culturally, politically and economically. We can learn much from our past, but only if we study and understand what happened, and why.

My monthly commentaries have covered many topics over the past 27 years. My intent with each of these 210 editions was threefold. First, I wanted to identify the pulse of the market – the key current drivers of the economy and stock prices. Second, I tried to identify and quantify the current risk factors that could change the direction of the markets in the near term. I also wanted each newsletter to be unique and interesting.

When I started in the investment business in 1983, there were no computers and no Internet. What we did have was an endless supply of Wall Street research reports, legal pads and a telephone. It was the early days of faxes, which were virtually unreadable and smelled to high heaven. In my early years I was basically an apprentice and learned the business from my elder colleagues and other seasoned Wall Street analysts. Google didn’t exist, nor did Facebook, Apple, or even Microsoft. Little did I know it at the time, but an historic bull market had begun in August of 1982, and I had fortuitously stumbled into a business I would soon love and eventually work in until my retirement nearly 40 years later.

I wrote my first newsletter in January of 1996, while I was the Chief Investment Officer at Eastover Capital Management. Over the next 7 years I wrote 19 more. In October of 2003 I started my own investment firm, Willingdon Wealth Management. From 2003 until 2019 I wrote over 160 newsletters. The last 30 newsletters were written while I worked for Exencial Wealth Advisors, the firm which purchased Willingdon.

This book includes my last newsletter written on December 15, 2022. I do believe each edition was unique and that made them incredibly enjoyable to write.

As you will see, some of my predictions over the past 27 years have proved spot on, while others have missed the mark. Every edition I wrote is included. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

At the end of each newsletter, I have added a new section under the heading ‘Update’ based on hindsight and offering a few comments as to what actually happened following publication. I hope that documenting how the market unfolded will give the reader some additional context.