I understand it may seem odd to devote a Dividend Cafe to the particular subject of the Energy sector in a week of surreal market volatility and media obsession over the Fed. But in fairness, I write about the Fed almost every week, plus four days a week in The DC Today, and the entire subject of monetary theory underlies all that we do in capital allocation at The Bahnsen Group. Our nuanced views on the role the Fed currently has in financial markets are known, and to co-opt my planned Dividend Cafe subject yet again to cover the thrilling story of the Fed moving interest rates exactly how we knew they would, is not going to happen.

But the Fed was not the only story (non-story) this week. Markets are in a pattern of daily incoherence as traders, algorithms, novice investors, speculators, and other such inconveniences work through the challenges of a paradigm shift. What the futures say at night has nothing to do with what they will say in the morning which has nothing to do with what they will say at the open which is fully disconnected from intra-day activity which then leads to a totally unpredictable market close. Then, rinse and repeat.

So I’ve written about our low opinion of “shiny object” investing, and the avoidance of such has a lot to do with the way our January has (thus far!!??) gone. But the energy sector is up +18% this month as of press time in a YTD market that has a Nasdaq down -15% and S&P 500 down -10%. We need to look at that. Is Energy becoming a new “shiny object”? Is the sector a trade or a long-term opportunity? What aspects of energy investing appeal to us right now? Where do environmental, political, and macroeconomic concerns fit in? These subjects all deserve their own Dividend Cafe, and that day is today.

So jump on into the Dividend Cafe …

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