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October continued the historic trend of being a volatile month. Read our recap of the month's economic and market activity. Highlights include:

• Historically volatile October did it again.

• Mortgage rates rise to seven year high.

Tradition's Chief Investment Officer, Benjamin C. Halliburton, is featured in U.S. News and World Report recently published article, "Knowing the Art and Science of Asset Allocation." Here is an excerpt from the article:

The MSCI Emerging Markets index is down 23% from its January peak and the valuation gap between the U.S. and the rest ot the world has not been this large since the 1990s. However, this may present a opportunity for investors. Barron's assembled a roundtable of four investors who are active in global markets for their assessment of the situation.

• Stocks generally do better in a rising interest rate environment.

• Strong economy and rising inflation drive earnings higher and interest rates higher.

• We think both earnings and interest rates are headed up.

• Inflection point for stocks would be 4.5% yield on treasuries.

20 years ago, Carhart published a now famous research study that suggested passive management of funds, especially the use of index mutual funds and ETFs, was better for investors. This helped create the idea that active management did not provide value to investors.

Interest rates are heading higher as the Fed raised rates for the third time this year. Read our recap of the month of September. Highlights include:

• Major equity indices all posted gains for the third quarter.

• 30 year treasury now at 3.4%.

• Nominal GDP near 5%.

• We expect the 30 year treasury to move towards 4.5% to 5%.

CNBC.com published an article, "Use this Charitable Contribution to Receive Immediate Tax Benefits," discussing the advantages of using donor advised funds to gain tax benefits for 2018. 

• US equities are being powered by strong earnings. We expect 25% earnings growth in S&P 500 for 2018.

• Possibility that trade talks and tariffs will turn into a trade war.

• Concerned that bond interest rates might go higher and the actions of the Federal Reserve might invert yield curve.