Plan By Numbers Blog

Financial Planning simply illustrated by numbers, at our companion blog written by Denis Smirnov.

2021 Mid-Year Review

Posted July 14, 2021 by Denis Smirnov

S&P 500 has been steadily trending up all year and hasn’t been too far from all-time highs.

2020 Review: Economy Edition

Posted February 4, 2021 by Denis Smirnov

Now that full-year GDP numbers are out I can finish the 2020 year-in-review series by taking a look at major economic indicators. Needless to say last year’s economic datapoints will be massive outliers on long-term charts for years and decades to come.

2020 Review: Sectors, Stocks & International

Posted January 20, 2021 by Denis Smirnov

Let’s take a look at 2020 performance of the U.S. sectors and industries. Technology stocks had a banner year lead by semiconductors.

2020 Review: Significant Events and Major Asset Classes

Posted January 7, 2021 by Denis Smirnov

Reviewing major stories of 2020 and how they affected the major asset class performance

COVID Stocks versus Reopening Basket

Posted November 13, 2020 by Denis Smirnov

To analyze impact of major COVID developments, I created two baskets of stocks. Each is a simple equally-weighted 20-stock basket with 5% allocation to every company. I chose the stocks subjectively and tried to represent various “angles” of the COVID trade without having too many airlines, online retailers or medical plays.

Tucson Monsoon – 2020 Update

Posted October 19, 2020 by Denis Smirnov

2020, true to form, gave us plenty to write home about on the weather front as well! Just a few unpleasant milestones from this summer in Tucson.

COVID Impact On Company Fundamentals

Posted September 11, 2020 by Denis Smirnov

There were 38 companies in the S&P 500 with Q2 revenue decline of 50% or more. It makes sense that concerts, cruise operators, hotels/casinos, airlines and travel sites are heavily represented. There was very little activity in those areas in April, May and June. Energy sector is also featured prominently.