Investing Active Versus Passive in a Down Market Posted on October 23, 2016October 21, 2016 By Matt The Wall Street Journal has been publishing articles about passive investing recently. Many of these articles look like they are pro-passive, but are written by active management shops looking to damn passive with faint praise. My last post addressed the ‘settle for average returns’ fallacy. The second argument I often… Read more
Investing Why Settle for Average? Posted on October 21, 2016 By Matt With the recent flood of Wall Street Journal articles about passive investing, now is a good time to review the space. Money is pouring into firms like Vanguard and iShares, the leaders in the indexing revolution. Investors are seeing that despite perennial declarations of a “stock-picker’s market”, active managers consistently… Read more
Investing Eight Years Ago Posted on October 14, 2016 By Matt Eight years ago, we were in the midst of financial crisis. Warren Buffett penned an op-ed in the New York Times encouraging investors to “Buy American, I Am”. So did you buy American? Too many investors were scrambling to do the opposite. On the front page of the New York… Read more
Fairway Harvard’s Endowment Posted on October 5, 2016October 5, 2016 By Matt Fairway’s third quarter commentary has been published. Keeping up with the Joneses has distracted Harvard’s endowment from its true mission. Here is some background on what happened: First, the actual endowment report. Harvard lost 2% over the last year, driven into the ground by what I call conspicuous sophistication. The… Read more
News Weekend Reading Posted on September 15, 2016September 15, 2016 By Matt Some articles for your down time this weekend. Don’t forget the Northeast Ohio PKD walk is this weekend! Man clocked doing 88mph in DeLorean Liz Ann Sonders – “The media, more than most, persistently look for a narrative to explain every daily move in the market. It’s rarely that simple.” Why… Read more
Due Diligence The Angels’ Share Posted on September 14, 2016April 13, 2017 By Matt As a whisky (whiskey here in the States) matures, it loses about 2% of its volume to evaporation each year. Distilleries call this The Angels’ Share. They fill oak casks with a precious liquid knowing that each year part of their hard work will simply disappear. I can’t help but think… Read more
Investing The Bull and the Swan Posted on September 8, 2016 By Matt Preparing for the swan, it’s possible to miss out on the bull. In my monthly commentary for Fairway, I asked “What does a 20% gain feel like?” Spoiler alert: it feels like right now. The S&P 500 is up about 20% since the bottom in February. However, no sales people… Read more
Due Diligence He Called It Posted on August 26, 2016 By Matt He called 5 market crashes and now has three more dates for you to worry about. Technical analyst Sandy Jadeja is predicting financial devastation on three dates. Well, now that I read the article, he doesn’t really say that at all, only that there will be sharp market movements in… Read more
Investing Fed Minutes Posted on August 18, 2016 By Matt On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its latest meeting. The minutes of these meetings are basically a form letter now with the Fed relaying its thoughts on the economy and rates via tweaks in the vocabulary used. Changing “modestly strong” to “strong” can move markets. There is… Read more
Due Diligence The Tyranny of the Calendar Posted on August 8, 2016 By Matt We are all beholden to the tyranny of the calendar. Monthly or quarterly account statements tie a nice bow on a period of time, but can lend false significance to a time period’s returns. If you’ve got a brokerage account or 401(k), you probably got a statement ending on 6/30/2016. As… Read more