Yesterday the Fed hiked short-term interest rates for the ninth time since 2015. The stock market did not seem to care for this fact, as the S&P 500 fell more than 1.5% while the Nasdaq was off over 2.1%. Considering stocks are already in the midst of a double-digit drawdown, this result didn’t exactly provoke feelings…
Ben Carlson
Animal Spirits Episode 60: Everyone Should Earn 3%
On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Robinhood’s debacle of a rollout for their checking & savings accounts Or was this all a PR stunt? What does Ashton Kutcher think? Do millennials even care about banking regulations? Where can you find higher interest rates for your savings? What can fund flows tell…
Disruption in the Bond Market
Last week I wrote that the one constant in the stock market is losses. And not just minor losses but losses of the double-digit variety. The S&P 500 has experienced at least one double-digit drawdown in half of all years going back to 1950. The bond market tells a different story. Investors in high-quality bonds…
Talk Your Book – International Investing
Today’s Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book is presented by iShares: We discuss: Why diversifying overseas still makes sense. What matters more — valuations or mean reversion? Does value investing work better overseas? BUT WHAT ABOUT JAPAN?! Is market cap weighting really suboptimal? Can factor investing replace old-school active management? Why should investors bother diversifying internationally?…
Prediction vs. Preparation
We’re coming up on that time of year when professional pundits and investors alike trot out their annual forecasts for the upcoming year. I have nothing against forecasts. It can be a fun exercise and if we want to get into semantics, we’re all forecasting in one way or another based on how our portfolios…
What I’ve Been Reading Lately
I’ve been on the road a couple times in the past two weeks so I’ve been doing an above average amount of reading lately. My standard rule for plane travel is no in-air Internet for two reasons: (1) The wi-fi rarely works so it just ends up being a huge waste of time trying to…
8 Questions As We Head Into Year End
Some random questions I’m pondering as 2018 comes to a close… 1. Is it becoming a contrarian position to be optimistic about the future? I’m getting a little sick of the “2016 2017 2018 is the worst year ever.” Our society is far from perfect and things could always be better but if you honestly think humanity has reached…
Animal Spirits Episode 59: Late Cycle
On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Why every market correction feels different. 2018 stock market losses are in line with historical drawdowns. Why I’d like to see a shallow recession and run-of-the-mill bear market. How pretentious is it to say, “I will say this…”? Why aren’t rich people happier? Would…
The One Constant in the Stock Market
Something rare happened in the S&P 500 this year. The index has experienced a double-double-digit drawdown (kind of like double secret probation?) for the first time since 1990. That means the S&P 500 fell 10%, made those losses back, only to fall 10% yet again. The only other years on record I could find when this happened…
Good News & Bad News About Saving For College
I was having drinks last week with a group who were all in a similar situation as me — working in the wealth management field with young children at home. The topic of saving for college came up since many of us have multiple little ones to plan for continuing education some day. We all…
