The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 29, 2016
The S&P 500 is about to wrap up its eight consecutive year of positive returns. If this continues into next year, it would match the longest streak of all-time. For some context, in the nine years from 1991-1999, the S&P 500 gained 450%; In the recent 8 year period, the S&P 500 is up 193%. In addition to strong performance from U.S. stocks, you've probably noticed that international stocks haven't been keeping up.
Brown Advisory
DECEMBER 5, 2016
TEDxWilmington | Jump to the New S Curve: Unleash the Power of Inclusion. ajackson. Mon, 12/05/2016 - 07:33. Speaker: Dune Thorne. Dune Thorne explores the statistic that 70% of high school valedictorians are girls yet 4% of S&P CEOs are women. How can businesses be more supportive of women and gender diversity? Dune illustrates the “S curve” as a potential solution and discusses the need for a new approach and a new conversation—which can benefit women and benefit businesses.
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The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 27, 2016
"Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less than you think." - Randy Pausch When I finished reading When Breath Becomes Air , my wife walked into our bedroom and found me with tears running down my face. I'm not talking about a single renegade tear that fought its way down my cheek, this was a whole army of them. I had a similar experience while reading The Last Lecture (although this time I made sure to lock the door!).
The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 23, 2016
Odey Asset Management, a London hedge fund which was seeded by George Soros in 1991, is having a rough year. The fund has lost nearly half its value, because "Passive investing has taken money which typically would have been in the bond market and deposited it in the equity market." I cannot imagine how an investor feels after reading this. This is on the same are you f*king kidding me level as when Bernstein claimed indexes were worse for society than Marxism.
Speaker: Erroll Amacker
As businesses increasingly adopt automation, finance leaders must navigate the delicate balance between technology and human expertise. This webinar explores the critical role of human oversight in accounts payable (AP) automation and how a people-centric approach can drive better financial performance. Join us for an insightful discussion on how integrating human expertise into automated workflows enhances decision-making, reduces fraud risks, strengthens vendor relationships, and accelerates R
The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 22, 2016
Human beings do not do well with decisions. Whether we're wrestling with who to start in fantasy football, which line to get on at the store, which stock to buy, or even what to choose from on a dinner menu, there are certain glitches in our brain that are really hard to avoid. We anchor to meaningless numbers, we make decisions that will minimize potential regret, we use information that comes to mind immediately, and we use simple rules of thumb.
The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 21, 2016
Richard Feynman once said "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool." This is true in all walks of life- we think we're better looking than we really are, we think we're smarter, better drivers, better parents, and better children. Of all the places that self-deception exists, investing has to top the list.
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The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 14, 2016
Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal recently had Victgor Haghani, co-founder of LTCM and CEO of Elm Partners Management, on the Odd Lots podcast. Haghani told a story about an experiment he did in which subjects were given a loaded coin. They were told that the coin will land on heads 60% of the time. The subjects were given half an hour to flip the coins and there was real money on the line.
The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 9, 2016
Ben Carlson recently wrote about the parallels between dieting and personal finance. In both cases, we know exactly what we're supposed to do, but just knowing is not nearly enough. Our brains function in such a way that sometimes it helps to completely remove our mind from the equation. Other times we have to introduce a barrier to the way we think.
The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 7, 2016
In a recent Bloomberg article, Luke Kawa writes how investors are positioning themselves as interest rates rise: Cumulative inflows into the iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF (NEAR), Floating Rate Bond ETF, SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Short Term High Yield Bond ETF, PowerShares Senior Loan Portfolio , and the Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF topped $400 million in total for the first session of the week, the highest since the inception date of the most recent member of this product group.
The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 5, 2016
This was the subject line of an email that came into my inbox tonight and it's something I've been thinking about for a while. No, not how to use MACD to perfection, but how investors think about signals and indicators. A few weeks ago I was riding the subway, when after a minute or two of sitting at a station, on came the dreaded “we are delayed due to train traffic ahead of us.
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Brown Advisory
DECEMBER 5, 2016
TEDxWilmington | Why Investing in Public Education is So Risky. ajackson. Mon, 12/05/2016 - 08:20. Speaker: Atnre Alleyne. Atnre Alleyne talks about our track record of investing in the right thing - and the wrong thing, using Solyndra, the Snuggie, and the movie "Moneyball" as examples. We’ve got to think differently. To advance we need to reconsider our investments and disrupt the inequitable system.
Brown Advisory
DECEMBER 5, 2016
TEDxWilmington | Better Health, Lower Cost—Absolutely! ajackson. Mon, 12/05/2016 - 09:12. Speaker: Janice Nevin, M.D., MPH. Janice Nevin shares her family’s story of caring for her terminally ill father - and the significant challenges they faced despite their collective expertise. She contrasts this with the more common challenges faced by other patients who are less advantaged.
The Irrelevant Investor
DECEMBER 2, 2016
For the last 35 years, the classic 60/40 portfolio returned 10.5% a year. It's hard to imagine that these results will be matched over the next 35 years, which has a lot of people looking to alternative ways of managing a portfolio. Today I'm going to examine one of these alternatives, the "Permanent Portfolio," which was outlined in William Bernstein's "Deep Risk" (and elsewhere).
Brown Advisory
NOVEMBER 29, 2016
Making More From Less. achen. Tue, 11/29/2016 - 14:44. The directors at many nonprofits today are finding that, by some measures, working for the common good has never been so tough. The budget gap for nonprofits has widened because of a slump in their three sources of funds—donations, grants and portfolio returns. Charitable giving to foundations in 2015 shrank 3.8% from the previous year to $42.3 billion, according to Giving USA. 1 Also, from fiscal year 2009 until fiscal year 2016, federal ag
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Like being inches from the end zone, many advisors are frustratingly close to their next level of success. You work hard. You put in the hours. But if your closing rate is stuck or your pipeline feels like a revolving door… something has to change. Most advisors are just one small shift away from dramatically increasing their revenue. The difference?
The Irrelevant Investor
NOVEMBER 27, 2016
The costliest mistake 2% investors make is timing the market. They sell after losses and buy back only when the coast is clear. The problem is not just the money you leave on the table this time, but these mistakes leave behind scar tissue that compounds in our brains. It doesn't take long before we're unable to think objectively. Rather than viewing a buy/sell decision as independent from all others, we think about the outcome of previous mistakes and the regret we felt after buying or selling
The Irrelevant Investor
NOVEMBER 22, 2016
The S&P 500 just made an all-time high for the 11th time this year, and the 1134th time since 1928. Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 19,000 for the first time ever. The natural inclination is that now might not be the best time to put new money to work. The data doesn't support this, at least not in the short term. The table below shows that average returns six months and one year following an all-time high has been stronger compared with all other days.
The Irrelevant Investor
NOVEMBER 18, 2016
"The fact that something so unthinkable could occur has had a lasting impact on my view of life and on investing in particular" - Peter Bernstein I'm extremely proud of the event we put on this week, the Evidence-Based Investing conference. There were a lot of like-minded investors in the room and on the stage, so we ended the day with a panel called "The Limitations of Evidence.
The Irrelevant Investor
NOVEMBER 16, 2016
Our brains were built to save us from ourselves. We misremember the past and pretend we can predict the future. We're able to make sense of things when there is no sense to be made. Here's an example- I was staying at a hotel a few weeks ago in San Diego and I walked into the shop to get some sunscreen. I was going to speak onstage the next day and I burn faster than most people.
Speaker: Aaron Berson
Managing spend is more than a cost cutting exercise – it's a pathway to smarter decisions that unlock efficiency and drive growth. By understanding and refining the spending process, financial leaders can empower their organizations to achieve more with less. Explore the art of balancing financial control with operational growth. From uncovering hidden inefficiencies to designing workflows that scale your business, we’ll share strategies to align your organization’s spending with its strategic g
Brown Advisory
NOVEMBER 8, 2016
Commanding Heights: Amazon, Microsoft Expand Profits in the Cloud achen Tue, 11/08/2016 - 10:54 Amazon and Microsoft have expanded their market share and strengthened their dominance of cloud computing in much the same way that mainframe manufacturers came to rule their sector 50 years ago. The two companies in the most recent quarter boosted earnings and increased profits from the sale of computing power and data storage via the Internet by stepping up sales of sophisticated software, data anal
Brown Advisory
NOVEMBER 8, 2016
Commanding Heights: Amazon, Microsoft Expand Profits in the Cloud. achen. Tue, 11/08/2016 - 10:54. Amazon and Microsoft have expanded their market share and strengthened their dominance of cloud computing in much the same way that mainframe manufacturers came to rule their sector 50 years ago. The two companies in the most recent quarter boosted earnings and increased profits from the sale of computing power and data storage via the Internet by stepping up sales of sophisticated software, data a
The Irrelevant Investor
OCTOBER 28, 2016
Stocks always have a positive expected return. With the passage of time however, these expected returns turn into realized returns and obviously they're not always positive. We just can't know what the market will deliver, so it's best to plan and prepare for a wide range of outcomes. This range is determined by a number of factors, including but not limited to the business cycle, valuations, interest rates, inflation, and the collective mood of millions of investors.
Brown Advisory
OCTOBER 28, 2016
Asset Allocation: Caution Toward High Dividend Yielding Stocks achen Fri, 10/28/2016 - 11:25 Why Have High Dividend Yielding Sectors Done Well This Year? Reach for yield. In response to weak nominal growth, central banks have maintained accommodative monetary policies, pushing interest rates to historic lows. Given this low-yield environment, investors have flocked to stocks that yield more than traditional U.S.
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.
Brown Advisory
OCTOBER 28, 2016
Asset Allocation: Caution Toward High Dividend Yielding Stocks. achen. Fri, 10/28/2016 - 11:25. Why Have High Dividend Yielding Sectors Done Well This Year? Reach for yield. In response to weak nominal growth, central banks have maintained accommodative monetary policies, pushing interest rates to historic lows. Given this low-yield environment, investors have flocked to stocks that yield more than traditional U.S.
The Irrelevant Investor
OCTOBER 26, 2016
2016 got off to a volatile start, it felt like every day was either up or down one percent. In fact, when I made this chart on March 11th, 28 of the first 46 days of the year fit this criteria. Now seven months later, that number has fallen off a cliff, collapsing to just 22%. And just as we all thought would happen, volatility vanished as we got closer to the election.
The Irrelevant Investor
OCTOBER 19, 2016
There are a lot of people who don't believe in the merits of technical analysis. It doesn't make sense to them that you can look at past price movements and determine future price movements. If stock prices are driven by earnings, how can a chart provide any insight? Well, yea, stocks are driven by earnings in the long-run, but in the short-run they’re driven by sentiment, which can be observed by measuring supply and demand.
The Irrelevant Investor
OCTOBER 18, 2016
The recent Wall Street Journal article, The Dying Business of Picking Stocks, has generated a lot of buzz over the last day and a half. Despite the tidal wave of money going out of stock picking and into indexes, and the thousands of articles that accompany them, it's still not entirely clear what it means to be an active or passive investor. Here is how I think about it: The active investor attempts to beat a benchmark by either picking individual securities or by timing the market.
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.
Brown Advisory
OCTOBER 18, 2016
Investment Perspectives | Seeking Yield achen Tue, 10/18/2016 - 11:03 Late September announcements by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) underscore that today’s extraordinarily low interest rates are likely to persist for some time to come. The Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged means that its quarter-point hike in December 2015 stands as the only increase in more than 10 years despite significant economic progress over the period.
Brown Advisory
OCTOBER 18, 2016
Investment Perspectives | Seeking Yield. achen. Tue, 10/18/2016 - 11:03. Late September announcements by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) underscore that today’s extraordinarily low interest rates are likely to persist for some time to come. The Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged means that its quarter-point hike in December 2015 stands as the only increase in more than 10 years despite significant economic progress over the period.
The Irrelevant Investor
OCTOBER 17, 2016
Today on The Halftime Report's fifth anniversary show, legendary investor Carl Icahn was asked for his thoughts about the market. At one point he says that he looks for "things that are obvious, but not apparent." I thought this was an interesting sound bite, but what does that really even mean? While many of the best investors are able to clearly communicate their philosophy, many of the investors that have earned their legendary status might not be able to get to the root of what drove their
The Irrelevant Investor
OCTOBER 16, 2016
A good litmus test for whether or not I enjoyed a book is to go back and see how often I marked it up. This one passes the test, my pen got a lot of exercise during the reading of Giles Milton's When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain. I'd guess just 10% of the writing I do in the margins are words and thoughts, the other 90% are stars and underlines.
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