Ben Carlson

Some People Will Never Learn

China’s economic growth has been unheard of over the past few decades, but it has yet to translate into stock market gains. Here’s a nice chart from Alliance Bernstein comparing the GDP growth and stock market gains between China and Mexico since the early 1990s:

What Happens to Stocks and Bonds When the Fed Raises Rates?

Now that the economic data is picking up, investors will turn their attention to the what the Fed will do with short-term interest rates. People have been contemplating when the Fed will raise rates for some time, but improving employment numbers and GDP growth have really ramped up the speculation on that first rate hike….

“I have a high tolerance for repetition.”

Esquire is the only print magazine I still subscribe to. They always seem to have a good cover story, usually an interview with a big movie star. I base my reaction about the movie star on one question: Would I want to have a beer with this person? In the most recent interview from the…

How the U.S. Dollar Affects Your Portfolio

A funny thing happened as the end-of-the-world crowd was busy predicting a collapse of the U.S. dollar caused by the Fed’s monetary policies – the dollar has rallied mightily. Karen Damato at The Wall Street Journal ran a very telling chart this week that shows the effect the dollar’s rise has had on foreign stock…

What Caused the Great Depresssion?

The price of oil is down nearly 40% in five months, a swift fall in one of the most important and visible commodities in the world. After seeing such a crash in price, investors and pundits are quick to trot out the specific reasons for the decline. I’ve heard many people this week give the…

Not All Active Funds Consistently Underperform

There was a mind-blowing stat flying around last week that showed less than 10% of all U.S. stock funds are currently beating the S&P 500 in 2014. Over longer time frames, the fact that most index funds beat the majority of actively managed funds is a given at this point, but indexing always looks even better…

How Actual Returns Differ From Average Returns

It’s easy to lose sight of the longer-term movements in the stock market when we’re in the midst of such a strong bull market. As Charles Ellis once said, “The average long-term experience in investing is never surprising, but the short-term experience is always surprising.”

Portfolio Management & Decision Fatigue

“Finance is not about beating the market, necessarily. It’s about managing risks in such a way that we can be a productive society and we can achieve our goals.” – Robert Shiller In his latest Master’s in Business podcast for Bloomberg Radio, Barry Ritholtz asked Nobel Prize winner Robert Shiller about how he manages his…