Financial markets can play mind games with you because even periods of relative calm can turn out to be a problem when they cause investors to become complacent. Volatility can be a tricky concept because most investors confuse it with risk downside risk but it can occur on the upside as well. Here’s a piece…

I get a lot of questions from investors, advisors, and institutions for my thoughts about alternative assets. I get it. Valuations in U.S. stocks are high. Interest rates are low. Investing globally can be a scary proposition for some. People have an aversion to volatility. The strategy I’m asked about more than any other is…

The past 20 years or so have seen some massive boom and bust periods in the stock market. Many investors see this period as an aberration. Unfortunately, it’s not. See the following chart on inflation-adjusted annual returns on the S&P 500 going back to the late-1800s: Source: Bull: A History of Boom & Bust: 1982-2014/Returns…

It’s easy to put it in the back of your mind when it seems like all stocks do is rise but it’s a question of when, not if, the next bear market will hit. No one can predict when they will strike but periods of rising stock prices are eventually followed by periods of falling…

Tom Brakke recently highlighted a rather outlandish Wall Street practice that is fairly commonplace in the world of finance: As reported by RIABiz, there was a telling exchange during the last Charles Schwab earnings call.  An analyst “grilled [the CEO] about whether Schwab was damaging shareholder interests in an overzealous regard for the welfare of…

There was a crazy story in the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this month about a financial advisor named Phillip Cannella. To say that Cannella is a fan of annuities would be an understatement. He promotes them on a radio infomercial every Saturday and Sunday in the Philadelphia area and believes in them enough to compare himself…

I recently had the opportunity to have a great back and forth conversation with Morningstar’s Jeffrey Ptak on all things institutional asset management along with some thoughts and ideas from my new book. Jeff is a really sharp guy and asked me a series of in-depth questions after reading Organizational Alpha. Many of the questions…

I’m a huge proponent of index funds for a number of reasons that most people have heard ad nauseam: Low costs Low turnover Tax efficiency Easy to understand Transparency You’re basically guaranteed to beat the majority of other investors over the long-term Beating the market is extremely difficult There are plenty of people out there…

Momentum is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the investment world. Everyone intuitively understands value investing (buy a dollar for fifty cents) but few people grasp how much momentum (in both directions) impacts the markets. I wrote the following post for Bloomberg in late-January. Since this was published there have been 13 additional all-time…

“If you don’t have the discipline to stick with your underlying strategy particularly when it’s not going in your favor, it’s nothing. It’s data on a page.” – Jim O’Shaughnessy Portfolio management can be broken down into two distinct camps — macro and micro. The macro deals with investment plans, asset allocation, risk management and philosophy…