January, 2016

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Will This Volatility Continue?

The Irrelevant Investor

The S&P 500 has been up or down 1% in 7 out the first 11 days (63%) of 2016. We're only 5% through the year but I feel pretty confident saying this volatility will not persist. However if it does, the good news is that the last time more than 60% of all days was +/-1% was 1933, when stocks gained over 50%. If history rhymes, we could be looking at 2800 on the S&P 500 by the end of the year, so cheer up.

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NOW 2016 | Taking Courage in the Face of Disruption and Rapid Change

Brown Advisory

NOW 2016 | Taking Courage in the Face of Disruption and Rapid Change. jsayo. Mon, 01/18/2016 - 12:46. A revolution from new technology is creating ways to generate, access and learn from data that will sweep many businesses into obsolescence and clear the way for the rise of digital powerhouses. The new technological paradigm—perhaps the most profound shift in history—will generate massive amounts of wealth, but require courageous decision-making, according to Manoj Saxena, founding partner of T

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It Was The Best of Days, It Was The Worst of Days

The Irrelevant Investor

"Time in the market, not timing the market" is the rallying cry for buy and hold investors. Charts like the one below show the damage an investor would have done if they missed out on just the best 25 days (out of 11,620) since 1970. If you somehow managed to do this, your returns would have gone from 1910% down to 371%, or 6.7% a year down to 3.4%.

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Money of the Mind

The Irrelevant Investor

Joseph Ellis's The Quartet tells the fascinating story of the birth of our nation. After the Revolutionary War, the states faced enormous challenges and as he tells it, Hamilton, Washington, Jay and Madison were among those most responsible for bringing it all together. I wanted to share with you an interesting passage about Robert Morris, one of the most forward thinking financiers to ever live.

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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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What’s Going On?

The Irrelevant Investor

"What the hell's going on out here?" Vince Lombardi The S&P 500 began the first ten days of the year with an 8% loss, it's worst opening performance ever. While there are 475 different 10-day periods worse than the 2016 open, the 8% decline was still pretty bad, faring worse than 98% of all ten-day returns. So here we are, not even through January, and already we've experienced a 11.3% drawdown in the S&P 500.

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What if You Were the World’s Best Market Timer?

The Irrelevant Investor

Most of the time I'm writing for the laymen investor. Nothing I'm sharing is particularly actionable as I believe 99% of investors are better off thinking than acting. Traders and hedge fund managers don't need my help, but hopefully the average investor who reads my blog is able to learn a few things about common sense investing. Many of us who watch the market all day long take for granted our level of knowledge and it's easy to take umbrage with a very simple message somebody is trying to con

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The Worst Start Ever

The Irrelevant Investor

If you're reading this, you probably already know.Stocks are off to their worst start ever. But is it really THAT bad? What if we remove the January 1 anchor? The 7.52% drop is the just the 395th worst eight-day period on record. To quote the great Rocky Balboa. [link] The post The Worst Start Ever appeared first on The Irrelevant Investor.

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Probably Everything You Need To Know About Bear Markets

The Irrelevant Investor

10%= correction, 20%= bear market. I know these arbitrary numbers sometimes seem silly, but when looking at the data, you have to draw the line somewhere. Get over it, let's move on. The S&P 500 has been in a drawdown for the last eight months. Stocks are currently 9.2% below the highs made in May 2015, just a hair away from official correction territory.

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The Biggest Loss Ever

The Irrelevant Investor

The S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index (XBI) just experienced its worst drawdown ever. The 38.9% decline since July of 2015 (slightly worse than the fall in 2008) is unlike anything these investors have ever witnessed. While the carnage going on in these stocks is ugly, these charts only show the losses over time, as if there is not a mirror image to these drawdowns.

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Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

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WILL WE EVER GO GREEN?

The Irrelevant Investor

Investors haven't had much to be excited about through the first week of 2016. At no point has the S&P 500 been positive YTD. If this were to continue for the rest of the year, it would be the fourth time that this has happened since 1928. Those years were 1962, 1977 and 2008, or 1982.33 on average. Of course nobody knows whether stocks will tick into the green, or whether in fact we are heading into a 1982.33 style bear.

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The Known Unknowns

The Irrelevant Investor

Well that was an exciting day to start the new year. The S&P 500 (SPY) opened down 1.66%, fell another 0.95% and then rallied 1.2% into the close. When all was said and done it fell 1.4%, making today the worst opening day since 2008. While it may be interesting to look back at what opening days like this have historically meant for the rest of the year, the reality is these numbers have absolutely no bearing on what will actually happen.

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Investment Perspectives | Unicorns: Beyond the Myth

Brown Advisory

Investment Perspectives | Unicorns: Beyond the Myth. achen. Mon, 01/04/2016 - 13:57. According to legend, the unicorn is a large, horselike beast with a spiraling horn protruding from its forehead. Numerous writers, particularly in ancient times, have described it, but contrary to popular belief, most accounts occur in the literature of natural history rather than mythology.

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It’s All Good

The Irrelevant Investor

When the wackos come out in markets like this, spewing all sorts of ridiculous investment commentary, it makes you appreciate even more the people that are writing thoughtful pieces day in and day out. I wanted to acknowledge some of the best posts I've read lately. Taxes are the silent killer. (Morgan Housel) You already have plenty of commodity exposure.

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Back to Basics with Reconciliations

Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid. Learning Objectives: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements.

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The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Leg Bone

The Irrelevant Investor

What happens to markets and the economy when the Federal reserve raises rates? This has dominated all financial news for most of the last two years. Of course, in the real world where everything is interconnected, if-then statements are utterly useless. Wilbur Wright, in McCullough's fantastic The Wright Brothers , nails this concept when talking about the difficulties of designing a propellor.

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