ETFs are one of the greatest financial product inventions investors have ever seen. They’re low-cost, tax-efficient and transparent. Maybe best of all they’re extremely convenient, offering diversified or niche strategies that would have been nearly impossible for most investors to put together themselves in the past. Investors have taken notice based on the fact that…

I’m constantly amazed by the number of stories I read each year about wealthy people getting swindled in a Ponzi Scheme or being taken advantage of by a shady financial advisor. The wealthy are by far the biggest targets for fraud and scams and yet they are still far too trusting and nonchalant about who they give their…

Since the end of 2014 there has been plenty of movement in the stock market but the S&P 500 hasn’t really gone anywhere: These periods can be very frustrating for investors because most people tend to think in terms of being bullish or bearish. They’re constantly looking for the end of the bull market or…

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” – Warren Buffett One of the amazing things about the financial markets is that a single investment idea can either make or break your reputation for years to come. Take John Paulson for example. During the financial crisis Paulson made what…

One of the things that never made sense to me while attending business school was how to apply all of the theories and case studies we were learning to the real world. In most management books you read about successful companies and try to figure out their recipe for success. But the real world is complicated…

Rob Arnott from Research Affiliates caused a bit of a stir in the fund world a few weeks ago when he called for a potential crash in smart beta funds. Here were the main takeaways from his recent research paper: 1. Factor returns, net of changes in valuation levels, are much lower than recent performance suggests….

A few things I’ve been pondering lately… Why has the average credit card rate remained at ~15%? Interest rates on mortgage, bonds and car loans have all fallen drastically since 2007. Why not credit card rates? I understand these rates need to be higher but why has the spread compared to other credit instruments not…

I recently watched the movie Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks. It was an excellent true story about a lawyer who was brokering deals for hostages with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1950s. Hanks played the main character, James Donovan, who was tasked with the unenviable job of defending a Russian…

Elon Musk is one of those rare successful businessmen who has crossed over into pop culture because of his lifestyle and personality. Not only has the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX been called the Thomas Edison of our day and age, but he has reached celebrity status as the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal…

The latest SPIVA numbers are out and once again it doesn’t look too pretty in terms of active management’s ability to outperform their benchmarks: The passive management revolution, the zero-sum nature of investing, the fact that markets are so competitive these days and the high cost of active management are the prime suspects for these…