The late-Peter Bernstein once wrote, “The market’s not a very accommodating machine; it won’t provide high returns just because you need them.” When you do need higher investment returns because of a perceived shortfall in assets for a specific goal you generally have 3 options to remedy the situation: (1) Adjust your expectations, and therefore,…
Ben Carlson
Talk Your Book: The Low Volatility Anomaly
Today’s Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book is presented by Invesco: We discuss: What is the low volatility anomaly? Why financial theory doesn’t always translate into the real world The three behavioral and structural reasons for the low vol anomaly How often do different factors overlap with one another? How the market environment impacts low vol…
Will the U.S. Continue to Dominate?
Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh, and Mike Staunton have been publishing the following chart in their annual update for some time now and every single year it blows me away: The U.S. market share looks like Pac Man preparing to eat the rest of the world. Michael and I discussed some of the reasons for the U.S. dominance…
Daniel Kahneman on Intuition
Behavioral finance is still only a few decades old at this point because the finance industry was a little late to the game in understanding that investment decisions are driven almost exclusively by human emotions and biases. Now that human psychology has grown in importance in the field, the bible to anyone serious about understanding…
The Art of Repetition
When my wife and I discovered we were having twins I knew my time and energy management skills were going to be put to the test. We already had a toddler at home so we knew what to expect in terms of sleep (or lack thereof) and the amount of care newborns need. Multiplying that…
Animal Spirits Episode 72: Where Were You At the Bottom?
This week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben is sponsored by YCharts: Mention Animal Spirits and receive 20% off your subscription price when you initially sign up for the service. We discuss: Where we were in our careers when the market bottomed 10 years ago Star fund managers Is Bill Gross happy? Persistence in performance may be the…
Is It Worth It To Be a Famous Fund Manager Anymore?
Bill Gross had a surprisingly candid interview with Robin Wigglesworth of the Financial Times this week. Multiple times he mentioned his desire for fame as a fund manager: “I wanted to be famous because I wanted to be loved . . . so I pursued that obsessively,” he reflects at one point. “Shit, that’s why…
The 20 Percent Rule
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 14.5 million people in the U.S. are employed in sales. Considering there are an estimated 153 million people employed in the country that would mean around 9.5% of workers are in sales. While one out of every ten workers is technically in sales according to the BLS…
The Real Estate Market in Charts
A study from BNP Paribas showed close to 60% of respondents felt owning a home was one of the top ingredients in the American Dream. Increasingly, this dream is out of reach for many young people. One of the many reasons so many millennials are unhappy with their financial situation is that buying a house has…
From Chaos to Concept
Tim Ferriss recently had author and Jim Collins on his podcast to discuss his research and what he’s learned about business over the years. Collins has sold over 10 million books including Good to Great and Built to Last. Collins mentioned he was lucky enough to be mentored by the late-Peter Drucker and shared two things he learned…
