Investors have to take some personal responsibility for their own actions, but one of the reasons so many people struggle with their investments is because many in the field of finance tend to perpetuate myths, rules of thumb and assumptions that just aren’t true. Here are some that come to mind that can be harmful…

Here’s a fascinating stat from Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb (who recently sat down for another podcast interview with Barry Ritholtz): One of the figures I always love to describe to people is — in 2000 the Internet was just starting to take hold, we had about $500 billion under management with 12,000 people. Today we’re…

As of the end of 1999, it’s estimated that there was roughly $400 billion in assets under management in hedge funds. Fast forward to today and there’s almost $3 trillion in AUM, a compounded annual growth rate of almost 14% (much higher than the returns earned). I think the real turning point for the huge…

“There’s one good financial idea every decade or so, and 5 to 10 marketing ideas a week.” – Eugene Fama The Vanguard Total World Stock Market Index Fund holds a little over 7,600 securities. The Vanguard Total U.S. Bond Market Index Fund and Total International Bond Market Index Fund collectively hold over 12,400 securities. As…

I talked to Anora Mahmudova from MarketWatch earlier this week about everyone’s favorite topic in the institutional money management world lately — the Ivy League college endowment performance figures. Performance numbers for fiscal year-end 2016 were relatively underwhelming. These things happen when you invest in risk assets. You can’t expect consistent results if you wish to…

Personal finance experts are constantly trying to get people to cut back and spend less. If only everyone would pack a brown bag for lunch and cut out the lattes every day there would be no retirement crisis, they tell us. While I think that lifestyle inflation is an issue for many people when trying…

Interest rates are a huge driving force behind many investment decisions. You can call them discount rates, hurdle rates, lending rates, borrowing rates or whatever, but their level definitely has an affect on risk appetites. But I also think it’s possible for investors to put too much faith into the almighty interest rate. For instance,…

There’s never been a better time to be an investor. Expenses are coming down. It’s cheaper than ever to trade. Strategies that were once reserved for large institutional funds at exorbitant fees are now available to every investor through low-cost mutual funds and ETFs. The sheer amount of data and computing power available has completely leveled…

In my book I discussed the fact that investing is inherently an exercise in regret minimization: Everything about the investment process is a series of trade-offs. Investing itself is delaying current consumption for future consumption. […] Investing really comes down to regret minimization. Some investors will regret missing out on huge gains while others will…

Most investors assume that the only thing that matters is whether they’re right or wrong. This is an incomplete assessment of what it takes to make money in the markets. Being right or wrong all the time is more about ego than making money. Risk only matters when there are consequences attached to your actions….