There were two stories this past week about Fidelity Investments that seem to be very much related and could signal how things may play out in the asset management industry going forward. The first was about a price war among the discount brokerages. Here are the details courtesy of ThinkAdvisor: A price war has erupted among…

“Become more humble as the market goes your way.” – Bernard Baruch Lately, it feels like every time I time I log into check my investment accounts the market values are higher than the previous time I looked. The stock market continues to hit all-time high after all-time high. I have to admit, it feels pretty…

I’ve always thought it’s insane how personal finance isn’t a mandatory subject taught in every school to our young people. Your finances can have a huge impact on your life in a number of ways — your family, your stress levels, what kind of life you lead and much more. Personal finance is one of the…

I’ve done a lot of reading and studying about quantitative investment strategies and investors over the years and one of the running themes I’ve found in the various books and articles I’ve read over time is the name Ed Thorp. Thorp is a pioneer in the quantitative investment world who was so far ahead of…

I finally got around to watching the Warren Buffett documentary on HBO last week. It was a tad on the slow side but if you’re a Buffett fan it’s worth watching. At one point they showed a picture of his office which is fairly plain for one of the richest people on the planet. On the…

I had the pleasure of giving the keynote presentation at the American Banker’s Association Wealth Management Conference in New Orleans earlier this week. It was my first time in New Orleans and I really loved the city. The architecture, the people, the food and the pre-Mardi Gras parades were a few of my favorite highlights. The…

Barry Ritholtz, Kris Venne, and I will be traveling to Texas at the end of March with planned stops in both Houston and Austin. I’ve never been to either city so I’m looking forward to this trip. Technology makes it easier than ever to communicate with people all over the place but a few times…

The S&P 500 was originally created in 1957 and it only contained 233 stocks (results going back further than that have been recreated to reflect historical performance numbers). The first index fund seeking to track the S&P 500 wasn’t created until the early-1970s when Wells Fargo put something together for pension funds to invest in. The…

The stock market was closed yesterday in observance of the President’s Day holiday. Markets are also closed every year on New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, George Washington’s birthday, Good Friday, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Beyond holidays the stock market has a history of extended shutdowns for various reasons including…

This past week Vanguard surpassed $4 trillion in assets under management. This is impressive on a number of levels, especially when you consider they just passed the $1 trillion mark less than ten years ago and that time frame includes the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression. Here are some more stats to that…