CNBC had a piece this week that looked at how top heavy returns in the stock market have been this year. They showed 3 stocks — Amazon, Netflix and Microsoft — alone make up more than 70% of the gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes: When you include Apple, Google (I refuse to…

On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Implications from the trade war. Why it’s so difficult to trade based on economic uncertainty. Tech IPOs are so hot right now. The consumer balance sheet is in surprisingly good shape. Household net worth is breaking out in an uptrend. Housing is relatively affordable these days…

At our EBI West Conference a couple weeks ago in Dana Point, CA, we were treated to a chat between Ken Fisher and Barry Ritholtz. Fisher talked about how he built his firm, Fisher Investments, into one of the largest RIAs on the planet, now managing upwards of $100 billion. If you don’t know who Ken…

Now that everyone and their brother has a podcast I’ve noticed some of the lexicon making its way into everyday life. I’ve gotten a few of the following questions more than once in recent years: If you had to put one sentence on a billboard what would it say? What advice would you give your…

There are really only four different stories that are written about fund managers: The huge success story The huge fund failure The redemption story The can’t-figure-out-what’s-wrong story John Paulson was the huge success story coming out of the financial crisis. Fund failures seem to occur on a regular basis, especially in the hedge fund community…

In my last post I looked at a short history of drawdowns in foreign developed stock markets. Investing in international markets may seem like a kick in the pants at the moment. Not only have U.S. stocks been outperforming for some time now, but the losses have been more severe and commonplace overseas. Markets are…

On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Some things you may not have known about index funds. Why average hedge fund fees are declining (and why most investors will still pay higher fees). Hedge funds and private equity looking to monetize the poor. Why pension funds don’t attract better investment talent….

Since stocks topped out in late-January, U.S. stocks have moved around a lot but haven’t really gone anywhere. The S&P 500 is down roughly 5% from those levels but is still positive on the year (up around 2-3% depending on when you last checked). International stocks have gotten hit even harder in recent months. The MSCI…

The Forbes 400 list of the world’s richest people looks fairly similar at the top every year. Buffet, Gates, Bezos, Bloomberg and the Walton family are at the top of the list in some order year in and year out (they’ve been joined by Mark Zuckerberg in recent years as well). But this list isn’t…

In 1961, John F. Kennedy made the audacious goal to land a man on the moon and have them return safely by the end of the decade. NASA analysts put those chances at 1 in 10 of actually happening. Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission would never have achieved that…