More 4% Nonsense
Whatever you do in this space, don’t ever admit that the 4% rule is nonsense. If you do, you will be publicly flogged and left for dead for being such…
Risk and Investment Returns are Positively Related
I begin with a beautiful illustration from William J. Bernstein’s book, The Four Pillars of Investing. I will quote him directly here to be sure to not take credit for…
I Don’t Have Anything to Talk About – Really?
As President of a Toastmasters club in Frisco, Texas, I often find myself asking relatively new club members about delivering a speech ASAP. I often get one of 3 common…
Expected Economic Growth and Stock Returns are NOT Related Even Though They Are
In MBA courses on Supply-Chain Management we often conduct an exercise that we call the Beer Game. In this game we set up a mock supply chain where there are…
Incentives Matter
Let me give credit where it is due up front. This blog title is not from my own mind. I borrowed it from a number of places including a presentation…
Most Funds Do Not Beat the Market
When most people read this statement they interpret it to mean that most Mutual Fund returns are below the return of a common benchmark such as the S&P 500 Index.…
Time in the Markets Beats Timing the Market
I recently received another one of those “Free Steak Dinner” invitations, where some financial advisor shares his thoughts about retirement planning. Now, I know from experience that this is either…
Market Forecasts are not useful
In order to forecast the future movements of an equity market you need to know several things, but I want to keep this discussion as simple as I can. Perhaps…
The Market is Forward Looking
As a Professor of Operations Management I am often reminded of the huge contribution of Andray Markov. Markov was a Russian mathematician who dedicated most of his professional life to…
This Time is ALWAYS Different
The US stock market can be viewed through the lens of the S&P 500 index, even though this omits thousands of smaller companies and stocks. We will use it here…