April, 2018

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles Being smart or stupid didn’t necessarily determine the outcome. It’s just the way things worked out. By Josh Brown Bearing too little risk is precisely how investors end up failing slowly. By Corey Hoffstein Is the US stock market in another bubble? Yes. By Rob Arnott, Shane Shepherd, and Bradford Cornell All it takes is one small choice to compound into a large problem By Nick Maggiulli There are always trade-offs.

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Balancing Act | For Good Measure: How We Value Global Leaders

Brown Advisory

Balancing Act | For Good Measure: How We Value Global Leaders achen Wed, 04/18/2018 - 11:03 Valuation is a critical component of active investment management, yet many investors restrict themselves to a very narrow view of valuation by focusing on simple metrics like the price/earnings (P/E) ratio. In this article, Global Leaders portfolio managers Mick Dillon and Bertie Thomson discuss the dangers of oversimplifying valuation.

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Why Most Bloggers Are Not Successful, Why You Should Not Try and What You Should Do Instead

Wealth Pilgrim

Many times, you see a market that looks really promising and as such, you can see lots of young, inexperienced entrepreneurs rush in to try to make a buck. Often, in these cases, the only people who make any money are the ones selling these would-be business magnates the tools they need to get started […]. The post Why Most Bloggers Are Not Successful, Why You Should Not Try and What You Should Do Instead appeared first on Wealth Pilgrim.

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Animal Spirits: The Collaborative Podcast

The Irrelevant Investor

We talked about: Some annoying finance phrases What if Tesla were a private company? Netflix is beating all expectations.But should it be worth more than Disney? The Amazon shareholder letter Chris Bosh knows nothing about money.How Greenblatt would explain things Listen here: Charts mentioned Tweets mentioned [link] [link] Recommendations Rocket Men will probably be my favorite book of the year.

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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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How?

The Irrelevant Investor

How can Netflix be worth nearly as much as Disney? Five years ago, Disney was worth nearly ten times as much as Netflix, and over this time, Disney's earnings have been 35 times larger than Netflix. Yet the gap in company size has all but disappeared. How is this possible? Over the last five years, Netflix has seen its revenue growth surge six times faster than Disney.

More Trending

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles The most dominant creatures tend to be huge, but the most enduring tend to be smaller. By Morgan Housel We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future. By Nick Maggiulli Mr. Paulson has acknowledged making mistakes By Gregory Zuckerman The company needs to figure out how to be rewarded on Wall Street without creeping out Main Street.

Assets 52
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Any Fool Can Be a Stock Market Genius

The Irrelevant Investor

Last week Barry sat down for an amazing conversation with Joel Greenblatt, author of Y ou Can Be a Stock Market Genius (originally titled Any Fool Can Be a Stock Market Genius ). Greenblatt tells a story about when he went to a school in Harlem to talk with kids about investing. To explain how markets work and how they influence behavior, he brought a jar of jelly beans into the class room and had the kids write down how many beans they thought were in the jar.

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Evolving ETFs

The Irrelevant Investor

A few weeks ago Tadas Viskanta asked a bunch of bloggers the following question: What ETF, if it were launched tomorrow, would you invest in with little (or no) hesitation? Said another way what asset class or strategy is not currently (effectively) available in an ETF wrapper? My answer: Nothing. I’m content. Little did I know that just a few weeks before he asked this, iShares came out with an interesting new set of "evolved" sector ETFs.

Economy 52
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This Tells You Nothing

The Irrelevant Investor

The average market strategist has a 2,943 year-end price target for the S&P 500. This is at the upper range of the typical 8 to 10% return that we expect strategists to expect every year. With an annual standard deviation of 20, an 8% average return means that stocks will return between -8% and +28% 68% of the time if they follow a normal distribution.

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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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Animal Spirits: Some Things We Learned

The Irrelevant Investor

Stories Discussed Asia is disrupting Silicon Valley This guy has a $76,000 pension. Per month. Germans save a lot of money. Ben says the 200-day is bullet proof. What if the future is better than we think? Everybody expects lower returns. Borrowers are pushed deeper into debt. But the next recession doesn't have to mirror the last one. How to save more money Listen here: Tweets mentioned [link] [link] [link] Charts mentioned Recommendations: The Book of Basketball The Disappeared Dark on N

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Balancing Act | For Good Measure: How We Value Global Leaders

Brown Advisory

Balancing Act | For Good Measure: How We Value Global Leaders. achen. Wed, 04/18/2018 - 11:03. Valuation is a critical component of active investment management, yet many investors restrict themselves to a very narrow view of valuation by focusing on simple metrics like the price/earnings (P/E) ratio. In this article, Global Leaders portfolio managers Mick Dillon and Bertie Thomson discuss the dangers of oversimplifying valuation.

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At First Glance

The Irrelevant Investor

Some things look really impressive at first glance. Walking on burning wood is a perfect example, which John Allen Paulos writes about Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences: The practice has often been cited as an example of "mind over matter" and you don't have to be innumerate to be impressed initially with such a feat. What makes this phenomenon less remarkable is the relatively little-known fact that dehydrated wood has an extremely low heat content and very poor heat con

Numbers 52
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The What-Ifs

The Irrelevant Investor

Poker is a what-if game. What if I re-raised instead of just called. What if I got the Queen on the river. What if I just folded pre-flop. There are 2,598,960 possible hands, so if you ever played, you've agonized over the what-ifs. Life delivers an endless array of what-ifs, because we only experience one version of what could have been. A lucky break here, a chance meeting there.

Numbers 52
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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 Other 95%

Brown Advisory

The Other 95% achen Mon, 04/16/2018 - 13:23 The traditional goal for a nonprofit’s investment portfolio was to earn a 5% return or so that could be used to fund the nonprofit’s programs. Today, we help nonprofits make an impact with the other 95% of their portfolio. Until recently, the role of a nonprofit’s investment portfolio was straightforward: Meet a designated annual spending rate or growth rate while preserving the underlying investment capital.

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The Other 95%

Brown Advisory

The Other 95%. achen. Mon, 04/16/2018 - 13:23. The traditional goal for a nonprofit’s investment portfolio was to earn a 5% return or so that could be used to fund the nonprofit’s programs. Today, we help nonprofits make an impact with the other 95% of their portfolio. Until recently, the role of a nonprofit’s investment portfolio was straightforward: Meet a designated annual spending rate or growth rate while preserving the underlying investment capital.

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles Experience is a hard teacher because it gives the test first, and only then provides the lesson. By Carmen Sanchez and David Dunning Seeking out problems for which no solution currently exists By Amanda Cantrell It’s an uncertain business By Ben Smith Being human is being able to enjoy life By Khe Hy You couldn’t pay me six-figures to take back the experiences I had during my four years of college.

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Here We Go Again?

The Irrelevant Investor

What are the chances that the next recession looks like the last one? I guess that number can't be quantified, but I'd also guess that it's a lot lower than people expect. The banks were at the epicenter of the greatest financial crisis this generation has ever seen, so it's natural to think "here we go again" when you see headlines like this: Big Banks Find a Back Door to Finance Subprime Loans: Lending to nonbank financial firms surges to record as banks avoid direct exposure Rising Home Price

Banking 52
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2024 Lending Outlook: Innovations and Evolutions in the Financial Sector

As we step into 2024, the lending landscape evolves rapidly with technology, regulations, and market dynamics driving change. For banks and financial institutions to stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of their customers, these drivers must be understood and engaged with. Lenders can anticipate significant transformation fueled by technological advancements, regulatory shifts, and changing consumer behaviors.

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Animal Spirits: The False Breakdown

The Irrelevant Investor

Stories mentioned It's financial literacy month A little learning is a dangerous thing The value of I don't know Is college worth the cost? Investors want out of Pershing Square Did Einhorn lose his mojo? The last superstar investors This Novogratz profile is worth reading. A hedge fund bought the Denver Post. The writers are revolting. Diamonds, dude.

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The Risk

The Irrelevant Investor

Investors have been worrying about a rising rate environment for a few years now. What would that do to their bonds, and how would a normalization in rates affect stocks? The jury is still out, but so far so good. From July 2016 through February 2018, the ten-year treasury rate rose from 1.37% to 2.94%. Over this 19 month period, a broad basket of bonds (BND) fell 2.13%.

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles The book officially killed the category. By Steven Wood The growth in market capitalization at these companies is the stuff of investing legend By Aswath Damodaran The difficult part about working in a service profession is that you’re not selling a finished, manufactured product. You’re selling yourself or your firm’s ability to deliver on promises.

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Animal Spirits: The Lump Sum

The Irrelevant Investor

On this week’s Animal Spirits we discuss: There were few places to hide in the first quarter Would you rather a lump sum or an annuity? States are strapped for cash 10 years after the crisis Ben got actually'd by a Senator The case for buybacks Listen here: Charts mentioned True story Chart crime of the week Tweets mentioned [link] [link] Recommendations I Contain Multitudes Elon Musk Ted Seides and Khe Hy Adam Grant Work Life Silicon Valley looks promising Ben endorses Bill Hader's new show, Ba

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Banking on Loyalty: Holistic Financial Advice for Unparalleled Business Growth

Speaker: Joe Buhrmann, MBA, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC® Senior Financial Planning Practice Management Consultant eMoney Advisor

During an era of evolving consumer preferences, the banking sector is undergoing a profound shift. As customers continue to broaden their perspectives, banking professionals must support their customers' financial wellness by providing holistic financial advice that aligns with individual goals and circumstances. Without adapting, financial institutions will find that loyalty may crumble amid uncertainty.

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The Limits to Data

The Irrelevant Investor

On the podcast this week, Ben and I spoke about an 18 year old who recently won the lottery. She was given the choice of receiving a $1 million lump sump, or $1,000 a week for life. She chose the weekly payment. This is the wrong mathematical decision. The time value of money says that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, so opting for $1,000 every week instead of the million dollars today doesn't compute.

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The Break

The Irrelevant Investor

If you're reading this, you've probably already heard. The S&P 500 closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time 443 days, ending the third longest streak of all-time. Were we "due" for a pullback? Well, at their peak in January, stocks were trading as far above their 200-day moving average as they had since 2011. But historically, returns have actually been better when stocks were in "due for a pullback territory.

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles Overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles are what defines us. By Anthony Isola Watching markets go up and down isn’t intellectually stimulating for most regular people. It’s a burden. By Morgan Housel Repetition is difficult in this business and the replication of past success stories is impossible. By Josh Brown Momentum is the premier market anomaly By Corey Hoffstein You could end up living your life based on someone else ’s values By Nick Maggiulli Cost wasn’t a problem in the

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We’re All Selling

The Irrelevant Investor

"A.B.C. Always be closing." When I hear the word salesman, this is what comes to mind. Scenes and images like this lead us to believe that selling is a zero sum game, with all of the benefits going to the seller, and very little accruing to the buyer. There are two types of products- ones that are bought and ones that are sold. Insurance falls into the second bucket.

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Navigating Financial Storms: Strategies for Building Resilient Balance Sheets

Speaker: Carolina Aponte - Owner and CEO, Caja Holdings LLC

In today's rapidly changing business environment, building a resilient balance sheet is crucial to the survival of any business. A resilient balance sheet allows a company to withstand financial shocks and adapt to changing market conditions. To achieve this, companies need to focus on key strategies such as maintaining adequate liquidity, managing debt levels, diversifying revenue streams, and prioritizing profitability over growth.