“The thing that most affects the market is everything.” – James Playsted Wood While it’s never fun to lose money, the past couple of weeks reminded me once again why I love the stock market. Mr. Market is basically a crazy person that takes pride in frustrating people on a consistent basis. Every investor feels…

“Investment philosophy is really about temperament, not raw intellect. In fact, proper temperament will beat high IQ all day.” – Michael Mauboussin

Millennials have been taking some heat for the past couple of years on the state of their finances. My generation needs some financial guidance, sure, but there’s no way they’re going to take it from someone that’s much older than they are. They don’t want a lecture from another generation telling them what they should or…

“People who rely heavily on forecasts seem to think there’s only one possibility, meaning risk can be eliminated if they just figure it out.” – Howard Marks

The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded this morning to a French author by the name of Patrick Modiano. Modiano has written more than 20 novels, with the first one published in 1968. What I found interesting about his story is that he said he is “always writing the same book.” Here’s more: Modiano says…

It was a tough couple of days for star portfolio manager Bruce Berkowitz’s Fairholme Fund (FAIRX) last week. The fund lost nearly 10% on the week, with much of that loss coming on a single day. Over the past month it’s down more than 13% even though the S&P 500 is down less than 2%.

The prevailing wisdom on real estate investment trusts (REITs) is that they’ll be doomed once interest rates start to rise. Because of the way REITs are structured for tax purposes they have to pay out at least 90% of their taxable income in the form of dividends. The thinking goes that higher interest rates will…

Thousands of investment professionals gathered at McCormick Place in Chicago earlier this summer for the annual Morningstar Conference. The room had a definitive buzz to it at lunchtime. Bill Gross was the keynote lunch speaker and everyone was patiently waiting to see what he would have to say after stories, rumors and gossip swirled from…

It’s not simply the news or the data itself that makes things interesting when following the markets, but the discussion and reaction that they bring about from investors. Interpretation and perception become the most important element, especially since information is so easy to come by these days.

Vanity Fair has a fascinating article in the latest issue on airplane safety and how it affects pilot error. To make planes safer these days, engineers have designed automated systems that basically allow the planes to fly themselves.