November, 2017

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This is Not Normal

The Irrelevant Investor

Netflix, Facebook and Amazon are each up 60% in the first 11 months of the year. Apple, is up 50%. Google, the laggard, is up just 34%. These five stocks have added over $900 billion in market capitalization in the first eleven months of the year. The tech-heavy index, of which these companies represent one third of, is up 33% year-to-date, and is on pace to close higher for the ninth year in a row.

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Balancing Act | A New Publication Series

Brown Advisory

Balancing Act | A New Publication Series achen Tue, 11/28/2017 - 13:39 We believe that investing in equities should be a balancing act, not an exercise in placing bets on one side of the market. A Series Discussing Active Management In Late-Cycle Equity Markets Many investors are worried about the age of the bull market, how much longer it can last and what might happen to their investments in a downturn.

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Balancing Act | A Stroll Down Hindsight Lane

Brown Advisory

Balancing Act | A Stroll Down Hindsight Lane achen Tue, 11/28/2017 - 14:27 Market downturns and recessions may seem easy to predict. But timing the market is extremely difficult without the benefit of hindsight. Ultimately, fundamentals drive stock performance. Over shorter periods of time, this relationship is not very reliable, as stock prices are also affected by a tremendous amount of market noise—announcements from the Fed, political angst or exuberance, fears of war, hope of peace, and a h

Economy 52
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Balancing Act | A New Publication Series

Brown Advisory

Balancing Act | A New Publication Series. achen. Tue, 11/28/2017 - 13:39. We believe that investing in equities should be a balancing act, not an exercise in placing bets on one side of the market. A Series Discussing Active Management In Late-Cycle Equity Markets. Many investors are worried about the age of the bull market, how much longer it can last and what might happen to their investments in a downturn.

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

Speaker: Duke Heninger, Partner and Fractional CFO at Ampleo & Creator of CFO System

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Duke Heninger, 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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Balancing Act | A Stroll Down Hindsight Lane

Brown Advisory

Balancing Act | A Stroll Down Hindsight Lane. achen. Tue, 11/28/2017 - 14:27. Market downturns and recessions may seem easy to predict. But timing the market is extremely difficult without the benefit of hindsight. Ultimately, fundamentals drive stock performance. Over shorter periods of time, this relationship is not very reliable, as stock prices are also affected by a tremendous amount of market noise—announcements from the Fed, political angst or exuberance, fears of war, hope of peace, and

Economy 52

More Trending

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The Worst Advice I Ever Got

The Irrelevant Investor

My first job out of college was working in a sales role at an insurance company. They liked to think they were doing holistic wealth management, but all that meant was once all your insurance needs are filled, they could also sell you a financial plan and sprinkle in some mutual funds. It's easy to look back now and see what was going on, but as a 23-year old who spent his life not taking anything seriously, I felt very lucky just to be there.

Ethics 52
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Animal Spirits- Wave Pools and Market Inefficiencies

The Irrelevant Investor

On today's show, Ben and I speak about how career risk creates inefficiencies in the market, signs of froth, the Vanguard of alternatives, and ETF price wars. Links to articles discussed below. AQR: The Vanguard of Alternative Investing Asness Says Active Management, Not Passive, Is Too Big Small IPOs are Dying Why Vanguard Isn’t Freaking Out About Fewer Public Companies Corey Hoffstein on overweighting international stocks A Reality Check on Stock-Market Anomalies WeWork's $20 Billion Journey o

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles Saving is passive, prioritizing is active. By Mike Dariano The process for producing legal filings runs like an assembly line for making widgets. By Stacy Cowley and Jessica Silver-Greenberg Everyone has an itch By Craig Shapiro We would wager that few other arguments have the power to turn off the critical thinking elements of our brain like valuation.

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Chart Crimes

The Irrelevant Investor

Stretching a linear axis vertically to prove a point. Don't do this. Some things should be shown as a level, not a percent change. The ten-year yield going from 2% to 2.1% is not a 5% change, it's a ten basis point move. The same holds for the VIX. Don't do this. So many things wrong with this one. This chart provides zero information. Comparing dollars across multiple decades have to be real, not nominal, and this should be shown as a percent change, year-over-year works.

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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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Investment Perspectives | “Undoing” the Fed’s Balance Sheet

Brown Advisory

Investment Perspectives | “Undoing” the Fed’s Balance Sheet achen Tue, 11/14/2017 - 16:18 These days, it seems like all eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Well, maybe not all eyes, but certainly a large number of investors are paying unusually close attention to the Fed as it begins to unwind its bond investments and thus reduce the size of its balance sheet.

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Investment Perspectives | “Undoing” the Fed’s Balance Sheet

Brown Advisory

Investment Perspectives | “Undoing” the Fed’s Balance Sheet. achen. Tue, 11/14/2017 - 16:18. These days, it seems like all eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Well, maybe not all eyes, but certainly a large number of investors are paying unusually close attention to the Fed as it begins to unwind its bond investments and thus reduce the size of its balance sheet.

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles An accelerating number of Americans are now recipients of independent advice and are talking to their friends about it By Shirl Penney The look we get is always the same — like they just dropped their towel and we saw more than we should have. By Dina Isola Even the bulls are scared By Joe Fahmy We are all in the same boat. So are our colleagues and peers.

Numbers 52
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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles We focus a lot on the basis points and probably not enough on the percentage points. By Jason Zweig So we write 2,000 books on how Buffett sizes up management teams when the biggest and most practical takeaway from his success is, “Start investing when you’re in third grade.” By Morgan Housel In short, nobody really knows. By Jack Vogel Fear is loud.

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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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Animal Spirits: Bitcoin, Bubbles & Bananas

The Irrelevant Investor

Why Bitcoin Matters Coinbase has more accounts than Schwab Bitcoin surges past $9,500 This poll is incredible. [link] New managers and career risk. [link] The future will look like the recent past. The New Retirementality. It's a two horse race. [link] 2017 is the year of stock market superlatives. [link] Volatility shrugged. [link] Thanks for listening!