“There are few corners of the investment business where reversion to the mean does not hold sway.” – Michael Mauboussin

Before 1990, there wasn’t an easy way for investors to put money to work in a diversified basket of commodities. Unless you had your own seat on the futures exchange a la Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy in Trading Places or hired a broker who did, it would have been nearly impossible to include commodities…

“Successful investing is anticipating the anticipation of others.” – John Manard Keynes

“Beware of geeks bearing formulas.” – Warren Buffett Research Affiliates puts out some of the most interesting and thought-provoking research in the investment industry. Founder Rob Arnott’s work on fundamental indexing is especially innovative. The firm’s latest piece looks at smart beta and a host of factor investing data. One factor they looked into was the…

You can’t go a single day without seeing at least one news story about the Millennials. I’ve heard it all about my generation at this point — we don’t know how to invest; we aren’t buying homes or cars; we live in our parent’s basement; we have too much student loan debt; we aren’t getting…

“It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.” – John Maynard Keynes Financial theory tells us that portfolio construction is about finding a group of assets with low correlations to one another in an attempt to find the highest return for a given level of risk. This is one of the main benefits of…

“Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing. – Oscar Wilde Financial markets are complex, non-efficient and at times extremely volatile. This dynamic causes investors to forget about their long-term process during times of turbulence. Investors become vulnerable to deviations from an investment plan when short-term market pain…

“We must base our asset allocation not on the probabilities of choosing the right allocation but on the consequences of choosing the wrong allocation.” – Jack Bogle One of the most important decisions investors have to make when constructing a portfolio is how to spread their investments between stocks, bonds, cash and other investments. Asset…

“Any time anybody offers you anything with a big commission and a 200 page prospectus, don’t buy it.” – Charlie Munger These aren’t written in stone, but they give you a good idea about some of the unfortunate realities of the investment business. All else equal, a talented sales staff will trump a talented investment…

“Even investors who were guided by a quantitative stock selection system can let their human inconsistencies hogtie them.” – Jim O’Shaughnessy