Blaine Rollins, CFA
Blaine is Managing Director, responsible for market insight and strategy. He is the author of the hugely popular Weekly Research Briefing, which has a weekly circulation of over 80,000.
Prior to joining Hamilton Lane, Blaine was Chief Market Strategist of 361 Capital where his responsibilities
included investment research, portfolio construction and management, and hedging and trading strategies. Blaine was also a member of 361 Capital’s Board of Managers. Previously, Blaine served as Executive Vice President at Janus Capital Group (now Janus Henderson) and Portfolio Manager of the Janus Fund, Janus Balanced Fund, Janus Equity Income Fund and the Janus Triton Fund. He began his career as a financial analyst at AMG in 1989 and has three decades of financial services industry experience.
Blaine earned a B.S. in Finance from the University of Colorado and has earned the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Featured Content
Weekly Research Briefing: Memorial May
Summer begins this weekend as we observe Memorial Day to honor our fallen soldiers. For many, it will be a time to visit family and friends, attend a graduation and start up the grill for the first time in 2023.
Weekly Research Briefing: Parked
The S&P 500 has been parked in a 2% trading range around 4,100 for six weeks now. The VIX is stuck at 17 except on the days that the shorts make a run at the west coast banking stocks.
Weekly Research Briefing: Many Crossed Wires
The FOMC raised rates, but now may be done. The Fed Chairman hinted at no rate cuts in 2023. Meanwhile, the fixed-income markets are betting on a cut in the Fed Funds rate which is a bet on future economic weakness. Shouting "Wrong!" is the stock market which is priced for a soft landing with continued earnings growth.
Weekly Research Briefing: How do you like them apples?
The biggest earnings week of Q1 delivered a bountiful harvest of good reports. The bottom-line beats were accelerated by margins that did not disappoint.
Weekly Research Briefing: Trees, not the Forest
This week is all about the micro, not the macro. With 35% of the S&P 500 companies representing 45% of the index market cap reporting this week, we are going to get data and outlooks from every sector of the economy.
Weekly Research Briefing: Coming into Balance
Let me stack these rocks. Bank earnings better than expected. Inflation data coming in weaker than expected. Economic data is surprising to the upside. Credit spreads in an improving trend.
Weekly Research Briefing: Hard Landing or Soft Landing?
Friday's jobs data showed that there are still some small rays of light targeting a soft landing. Most of last week's data releases pointed towards an increasing economic slowdown (declining bank lending data, weaker ISMs and factory orders, and a rollover in JOLTs).
Weekly Research Briefing: Spring Has Sprung
Seeing fields of daffodils this weekend reminded me that the wet and cold March weather does have its upside. Ditto for the financial markets where a March banking crisis led to massive government intervention that shot risk assets higher.
Weekly Research Briefing: Frozen
Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Credit Suisse may have been taken care of, but investors, depositors and the world's central banks remain on edge. As a result, the public credit markets resemble a chunk of Arctic ice with only the U.S. Treasury able to sell debt in this environment.
Weekly Research Briefing: Still Hanging On?
It looks like I wasn't the only one without "Bank Run U." in my March Madness bracket this month. We knew that Silicon Valley Bank was sideways on its asset-liability management because it had been disclosing it in financial statements over the last few quarters.
Weekly Research Briefing: Festival of Colors
Very timely that the celebration of Holi begins next week because any chart of the S&P 500 Index today is showing a crashing of red, green, blue and yellow as the big stock index collides and bounces at its major moving averages and trendlines.
Weekly Research Briefing: Unsurety Sets In
No one said that investing in 2023 was going to be easy. But this year could stretch our brains in some new directions. While last week showed a pause in some important inflation measures (PMI on Tuesday, PCE deflator on Friday), the economic data remains healthy in many areas of the economy.
Weekly Research Briefing: Snow and Bears
While the actual bears are sleeping away from our historic snowfall, the Wall Street bears have come out in force to try and scare investors. Three months ago, there was a near consensus call for a Fed driven 2023 recession leading to lower earnings and lower stock prices. But given February's surprising economic strength, the bears have needed to adjust their calls toward higher rates for longer that will now weigh on equity valuations.