Nerd's Eye View

MAY 24, 2023

Screening calls are a common part of the prospecting process for financial advisory firms, particularly those that receive a large number of inquiries, and can help determine whether a prospective client might be a good fit. At the same time, these calls can be awkward for both the prospect and the advisor, as the prospect might be asked to discuss personal information about their finances with someone they have never met before, and the advisor has to ask potentially thorny questions, such as w

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The Big Picture

MAY 25, 2023

Of all the cognitive errors in behavioral finance and human psychology , the one that creates the most confusion is the Dunning-Kruger effect. (Perhaps its rise in pop culture is to blame). Regardless, I find DKE to be an incredibly useful tool that helps explain many of the individual errors we see in investing. It’s useful to think of Dunning Kruger in terms of metacognition : One’s ability to self-evaluate a particular skill set.

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The Reformed Broker

MAY 26, 2023

Welcome to the latest episode of The Compound & Friends. This week, Michael Batnick, Dror Poleg, and Downtown Josh Brown discuss Nvidia’s ascent, the AI explosion, the future of work, and much more! You can listen to the whole thing below, or find it wherever you like to listen to your favorite pods! Listen here: Apple podcasts Spotify podcasts Google podcasts Everywhere else!

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Abnormal Returns

MAY 26, 2023

The biz Test-driving the New York Times audio app. (lefsetz.com) AI-generated podcasts are coming. (wired.com) Startups Eric Newcomer talks with Sarah Tavel of Benchmark Capital. (newcomer.co) Carolyn Levy and Jessica Livingston talk with Y Combinator founder Paul Graham. (open.spotify.com) Patrick O'Shaughnessy talks with Henry Schuck is the founder and CEO of ZoomInfo.

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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.

Accounting

Nerd's Eye View

MAY 23, 2023

Welcome back to the 334th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! My guest on today's podcast is Meg Bartelt. Meg is the Founder and Lead Financial Planner for Flow Financial Planning, a virtual RIA serving mid-career women in tech that oversees almost $60 million in assets under management for 60 client households. What's unique about Meg, though, is how, over the span of 7 years since launching her firm, she has evolved the business by repeatedly adapting her niche focus, iterating

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The Reformed Broker

MAY 23, 2023

Join Downtown Josh Brown and Michael Batnick for another round of What Are Your Thoughts? On this week’s episode, Josh and Michael discuss the biggest topics in investing and finance, including: ►Corporate Bonds – “One of Vanguard’s Biggest Credit ETFs Bleeds Record $5.5 Billion” ►52-Week Highs – “the NASDAQ-100 made a new 52-wk high after going at least 6 months without one.

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Abnormal Returns

MAY 21, 2023

Top clicks this week 10 things we get rid of as we age. (physicianonfire.com) Money buys independence: the 16 levels of wealth. (collabfund.com) People looking to buy a house right now have three options. (awealthofcommonsense.com) A big wealth transfer is under way in the U.S. (nytimes.com) Copper prices have rolled over. (allstarcharts.com) What does it really cost to own a home?

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Nerd's Eye View

MAY 26, 2023

Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” - this week’s edition kicks off with the news that while banks have been able to attract a younger and more diverse set of financial advisors compared to the rest of the industry, thanks in part to their built-in referral stream, a relative lack of independence and dated technology could lead some of their advisors to explore options with independent RIAs.

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The Big Picture

MAY 21, 2023

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures: • The War on Poverty Is Over. Rich People Won. The sociologist Matthew Desmond believes that being poor is different in the U.S. than in other rich countries. How is poverty different in America than in its peer countries? Matthew Desmond: We have more of it. We have double the child-poverty rate of Germany and South Korea.

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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.

Accounting

The Reformed Broker

MAY 20, 2023

I’m coming out to Texas and I’m bringing the squad with me. June 12th, 13th, and 14th we’ll be posted up downtown ready to talk about your portfolio, your plan, your estate situation, your retirement and anything else you’re looking for answers about. We do this for wealthy families all over America, day in and day out. Now’s your chance to see what we bring to the table, live and in-person.�.

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Abnormal Returns

MAY 25, 2023

Investing Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley on what tasks AI is going to take over. (pionline.com) Igor Tulchinsky, "Using AI to move between visual and text is an interesting way of harnessing algorithms to potentially identify opportunities or shape conclusions that may be more obvious when seen by the human eye." (semafor.com) Expect more ETFs to be marketed based on the use of AI.

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Nerd's Eye View

MAY 22, 2023

Traditionally, financial planning internship programs have offered students who are aspiring financial planners a way to prepare for entering the workforce by gaining real-world experience in advisory firm settings (as well as a way to get their foot in the door with prospective employers). But when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, many firms shut their offices and went fully remote, which forced them to either rapidly reconfigure their internship programs or – as was more commonly t

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The Big Picture

MAY 20, 2023

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads: • The Forgotten Titanic of the Pacific: A tale of disaster, survival, and ghosts. A person prone to superstition might be forgiven for thinking that the Valencia was cursed. Built in 1882, the ship was fired upon the following year near the island of Curaçao, and again four years later, this time by a Spanish warship just off the Cuban coast.

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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.

Accounting

A Wealth of Common Sense

MAY 25, 2023

A reader asks: Ben showed the numbers for U.S. stock positive returns over the long-term. How does the data look for global ex-U.S. performance? Fair question. Here is the data I showed in a recent blog post: Since 1926, the U.S. stock market has experienced positive returns: 56% of the time on a daily basis 63% of the time on a monthly basis 75% of the time on a yearly basis 88% of the time on a 5 year basis 95% of th.

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Abnormal Returns

MAY 23, 2023

Markets What price does Apple ($AAPL) need to hit to get to $5 trillion in market cap? (allstarcharts.com) 30-year mortgage rates are pushing 7% again. (mortgagenewsdaily.com) Good luck trying to predict the future shape of the yield curve. (mailchi.mp) Crypto Prosecutors are pouring through a ton of evidence in the SBF case. (nytimes.com) Coinbase ($COIN) is not sitting back in its fight with the SEC.

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Calculated Risk

MAY 26, 2023

The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for April: Personal income increased $80.1 billion (0.4 percent at a monthly rate) in April , according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $79.4 billion (0.4 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $151.7 billion (0.8 percent).

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The Big Picture

MAY 26, 2023

I joined Pete Dominick to discuss the Debt Ceiling, Inflation, markets, and more. I pop into the pod around the 30-minute mark. (Before that, Pete discusses how his teenage daughter got scammed out of $5k by a fake border police grift, and why there is a sort of happy ending). We also discuss my thesis of the “ Disloyal Opposition ” as it applies to Debt Ceilings, fiscal stimulus, and even vaccines.

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Marketing Marketing 290

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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.

Banking

Alpha Architect

MAY 22, 2023

According to research by the authors, stocks and bonds have been submerged for about 75% of the time since 1980; and treasuries have been submerged 80% of the time. Submergences are therefore both commonplace and significant, which means that handling them is very important for investors and their investing strategies. Submergence: A Tool to Assess Drawdowns and Recoveries was originally published at Alpha Architect.

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Abnormal Returns

MAY 26, 2023

Cash How to choose between T-bills and CDs. (wsj.com) Investors have poured some $600 billion into money market funds YTD. (ft.com) Retail investors are increasingly snapping up T-bills at auction. (barrons.com) Strategy The stock market is long term proposition. (awealthofcommonsense.com) When trading, it's okay to hit the reset button. (allstarcharts.com) Companies In the past decade, Nvidia ($NVDA) stock has gone up some 250x.

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Calculated Risk

MAY 24, 2023

From the Fed: Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, May 2-3, 2023. Excerpt: The economic forecast prepared by the staff for the May FOMC meeting continued to assume that the effects of the expected further tightening in bank credit conditions, amid already tight financial conditions, would lead to a mild recession starting later this year, followed by a moderately paced recovery.

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The Big Picture

MAY 24, 2023

This week saw the release of the Fed’s big annual research report, Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2022. It’s chock full of great charts and analyses, covering everything from Income, Employment, Expenses, Banking and Credit, Housing, Student Loans, Retirement and Investments, and Overall Financial Well-Being. Peter Coy fleshes out lots of the details here: “ Unemployment Is Low, But So Is the National Mood.” He notes: “The Fed report is consistent with ot

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Medical Media Economics Retirement 289

Speaker: Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader

In today’s competitive market, pricing is more than just a number — it’s the cornerstone of profitability. The right pricing strategy ensures that you capture the true value of your offering, paving the way for sustainable growth and long-term success. Join Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader, in this exclusive session where he will explore how a well-crafted pricing approach balances customer perception with business objectives, creating a powerful tool for securing both competitive advantage a

Numbers

Advisor Perspectives

MAY 23, 2023

We must understand our clients’ purposes and how they fit together in their lives. We need to take the initiative when rebalancing is in order.

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Abnormal Returns

MAY 24, 2023

Podcasts Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson talks with Ramit Sethi about his new Netflix show 'How to Get Rich.' (awealthofcommonsense.com) Doug Boneparth and Morgan Housel talk with Kevin Kelly author of "Excellent Advice for Living." (youtube.com) Christine Benz and Jeff Ptak talk with Mike Piper author of "More Than Enough: A Brief Guide to the Questions That Arise After Realizing You Have More than You Need.

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Calculated Risk

MAY 22, 2023

Altos reports that active single-family inventory was up 0.9% week-over-week. Click on graph for larger image. This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of May 19th, inventory was at 424 thousand (7-day average), compared to 420 thousand the prior week. Year-to-date, inventory is down 13.6%. And inventory is up 4.6% from the seasonal bottom five weeks ago.

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The Big Picture

MAY 25, 2023

My morning train WFH reads: • Debt-Ceiling Fight Sends Investors Hunting for New Havens : Traders worried about a potential U.S. default are swapping their go-to safe haven for the bonds of America’s top-rated companies. Just days or weeks before the government faces a possible funding shortfall, investors are shunning U.S. Treasury bills that will mature over the next several months while paying a premium to buy debt issued by Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, two of the highest-rated U.S. c

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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.

Financial Advice

A Wealth of Common Sense

MAY 26, 2023

As of Wednesday’s close, NVIDIA had a market cap of $755 billion. Just one day later, the chipmaker sported a market cap of $939 billion. That one day gain of $184 billion itself is bigger than the market caps of companies like Nike, Comcast, Disney and Netflix. It’s hard to believe this is a stock that had lost two-thirds of its value from all-time highs during the tech wreck last year: Those losses have all.

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Marketing Marketing 124

Abnormal Returns

MAY 25, 2023

Books An excerpt from "Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most" by Adam Alter. (bigthink.com) A Q&A with Simon Johnson, co-author of "Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity." (fasterplease.substack.com) An excerpt from "Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital" by Elise Hu.

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Calculated Risk

MAY 23, 2023

The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 683 thousand. The previous three months were revised down, combined. Sales of new single‐family houses in April 2023 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 683,000 , according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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