Phil Couture's Market Perspectives

January 2010

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!! We here at Couture Financial hope that it is starting off with good health and much happiness for you. I am pleased to report that, with the exception of recent cold weather, the year has started with lots of excellent potential for all of us.

We are currently working on the reconciliation of your portfolio and your quarterly report will be available within the next few weeks. We ended the year with very positive results and I am sure you will be pleased when you receive it. Speaking of reports and general account information, as you are aware, we have been attempting to reduce the amount of paperwork sent to you for several years now. I am pleased to inform you that we have finally succeeded and we will be able to kill a few less trees in the future! This letter announces the introduction of “e-Delivery” for two important sources of documentation! You will need Internet access and an e-mail account, which you check frequently.

The first is the Couture Financial, Inc. Quarterly Performance Evaluation – our Quarterly Report for your managed portfolio with our firm. Instead of receiving the paper report in the mail each quarter, you would receive an e-mail notification that the report is ready for download. You simply login to your account on our website, download your report, and save it in your digital archive on your computer! If you wish to continue receiving the paper copy in the mail, you also may chose to receive both paper and electronic versions.

The second area has an even broader reach. I speak of Accountholder Literature for our custodial accounts held at Constellation Trust Company (CTC). As you know, custodial accounts must deliver myriad reports to accountholders, including statements, prospectuses, supplements, annual reports, semi-annual reports, etc. While CTC still must deliver these documents to accountholders, they now offer them in electronic format! As with our quarterly report, you would receive an e-mail notifying you of the e-document’s availability. You then simply follow the web-link in the e-mail and download your e-documents!

If you are interested in taking advantage of either of these functions to help reduce our impact on the environment, I encourage you to contact – M Lance Couture, Vice President of Operations – by e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by telephone 941.366.3551 or 800.553.3385.

As you know from our conversations and much correspondence over the past year, we are tracking the markets very closely every day in an effort to determine any changes in the trends. When we recognize those changes, we will re-allocate your investment accounts automatically and quickly to maintain that safety factor you have come to appreciate from our services. Two-thirds of the technical analytical firms we work with think the current up trend in the stock market will continue for a while. I tend to agree with this assessment even though I am still very cautious, as there is a very high probability of a major correction over the next 6 to 12 months.

One of our Technical Advisors, Peter Mauthe, wrote the following and I thought you would find it interesting:

“BEWARE economic statistics! I will let my economist friends explain these stats to me: 1) Last month over 600,000 unemployed workers were no longer counted as unemployed because they quit looking for work making the unemployment rate stay at 10% instead of climbing to a much higher number. Huh? So does that mean that all we need is for all unemployed to quit looking for work and then we would have NO unemployment? Huh? AGAIN! 2) Supposedly the consumer accounts for 2/3’s of the economy. Consumer expenditures are taxed with sales tax. In Texas, which was not hurt as bad as most of the country and which accounts for 10%+ of the U.S. economy, sales tax collections are down nearly 12% over the past year. Let’s see, 12% times 2/3s of the economy means the economy should have declined more like 8% last year. The government says it was down only 3% to 4%. Huh? How does that math work? Eventually, the economy will catch up with the market or the market will “catch down” to the economy. But, it is likely to take some time to see how that is resolved.”

I am including with this letter a copy of our new brochure and business card. Feel free to give them to your friends and family. If you would like to receive more, just give us a call or send a note/e-mail. Please keep in mind that I am always available to talk with you and happily will provide your friends or family with a free consultation.

Sincerely,

Phil Couture, President, CFP®
Couture Financial, Inc.