News For William’s First Day of Second Grade Posted on August 22, 2017 By Matt Today’s post is a departure from the norm of investment news and snark. I’m going to share a bit about my son, William, and ask you to spend a minute of your day to think about his cause. William was born in 2010 with Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease, or… Read more
Due Diligence No, the Secret Sauce Posted on August 15, 2017 By Matt “I thought you guys had some sort of insider’s edge and that’s how you get returns for your clients’ investments…?” My friend was grilling up burgers and dogs for his kid’s birthday party while picking my brain about investing. He was surprised to find out how vanilla our investment philosophy… Read more
Opinion Who is Holding Your Leash? Posted on August 11, 2017 By Matt On PIMCO’s blog, Gene Frieda writes that “markets do not explode every time volatility is low, but volatility has always been extremely low when markets have exploded.” This reminded me of the variable or intermittent reward system I stumbled upon when researching training techniques for my dog. The idea is… Read more
Chasing Risk Posted on August 4, 2017 By Matt I read the Howard Marks memo last weekend and you should, too, if you haven’t already. The memo got me to revisit some of my investing viewpoints. It’s easy to listen to the same investment philosophy on repeat. My fear is that one day I’ll look up and find… Read more
Investing As Seen on TV Asset Allocation Posted on July 14, 2017July 14, 2017 By Matt I want to saw a boat in half, then tape it back together and take it out on the water. I didn’t know I wanted to do this until I saw a commercial that runs during Cleveland Indians games. The spokesperson could be the dad on any sitcom, straight out… Read more
News Argentina and the Frog Posted on June 23, 2017 By Matt Like many classic fables, the story of the frog and the scorpion can be traced back to many cultures, each with their own twist. Aesop’s version is here. A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across… Read more
News It’s a Major Award! Posted on June 22, 2017 By Matt Walk into certain advisors’ offices and you’ll see plaques lining the walls with titles like ‘Chairman’s Roundtable’ . Have they been honored for their investment prowess? Perhaps their trustworthy nature? It certainly sounds important – like a major award. In reality, it’s a sales award. That’s not something you’d generally… Read more
Due Diligence Outsourcing to an Absentee Investment Committee Posted on June 13, 2017 By Matt They say there’s no such thing as a stupid question. They are wrong. Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers. The Let Me Google That For You website is the perfect passive-aggressive answer to many stupid questions. Rather than simply answering the question, LMGTFY provides a link that walks through the… Read more
Investing This Weekend’s Fiduciary Test Posted on June 12, 2017 By Matt The first phase of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule went into effect on Friday. This is the rule that mandates that your financial advisor must act in your best interest. The whole thing doesn’t go live until 2018, but it will be interesting to see who makes what kinds… Read more
Investing Two Numbers You Need to Know Posted on May 30, 2017 By Matt How much is your electric bill? What about media (cable, Netflix, etc)? Or your phone bill? You probably have at least a general idea, and if you had to know the exact number, you could find it relatively easily. The two numbers you need to know in investing are how… Read more