Prices Are Not as Random as You Think…

In the popular investment book A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkeil, the author argues that asset prices are purely random. As a result, investors should just “buy and hold.”    This thought has led the investment industry (and many investors) to simply close their eyes and hope for the best.   There are several…

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It Never Pays to Trade the Headlines

It’s always something… Today Putin, last week it was the Fed and inflation, and for so long before that, it was COVID…  the headlines du jour.  Most of it is baked into the price of stocks, bonds, or commodities by the time journalists turn your attention to it anyway.  So please tell me, when has…

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How to Earn More and Risk Less

There’s an important concept that when correctly implemented can almost assure your investing success. Get this wrong – and most investors do – and you could be doomed to financial ruin.   Asymmetric investing is the concept of investing where the probability or outcome of a trade has more profit than loss (or the risk taken…

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Country Bias Could Cost You the Gold

In the spirit of the Olympics, let’s discuss the idea of home-country bias as it relates to investing – particularly here in the United States. As part of what I do here, I’m often asked to review prospective clients’ portfolio holdings and allocations to provide feedback… And I must admit, it’s been a long time…

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What January Means for the Rest of 2022

Rather than guess at what might be happening in Global markets, let’s focus on what is happening – and ADAPT our portfolios accordingly.  So, what do we know for sure today?  We know January is in the books and it will go down as one of the more volatile beginnings to a year in recent…

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MARKETS IN TURMOIL

You fell for it didn’t you? The scary headline… works every time.  I wrote that headline to save you the trouble of turning on your TV or following your favorite fear-monger. You’re welcome. Let me sum it up for you – the bulls are currently in trouble. There’s not a lot to be optimistic about…

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Is This Signaling a Cautionary Tale?

There’s one ratio chart you don’t want to miss right now. It’s one to focus on over the coming days and weeks ahead. I’ve been saying this most of the year.  Don’t be fooled by what you think you see out of the cap-weighted S&P 500 index… Most stocks are either grinding sideways or have…

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The One Metric More Important than Performance

Traditional investment advice asks that you buy and hold onto investments… often index funds.  Unfortunately, this approach is pretty inefficient in creating actual capital. The data shows that investors spend the majority of their time simply treading water…  Or worse, riding through a market decline only waiting to get back to even.  The truth is…

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Was That a Black Friday Sale or Sell-Off?

News that a new COVID-19 variant has surfaced in South Africa spooked global equity markets this past Friday causing a frenzied sell-off.  The question coming into Monday’s open was whether that sell-off was an overreaction and an opportunity – or the beginning of a much deeper, panic-driven sell-off. My thinking was – if global markets…

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