As recent global markets continue to test the patience of even some of the most stoic among us, how are you holding up? Are you finding it feasible (if not necessarily fun) to stick with your existing strategy, or have you been eying it with increasing suspicion of late? If you fall into the latter […]
Patience and Personal Persistence So far in our investment basics series, we’ve explored the history of investing; how important it is to save (so you have money to invest); how to invest efficiently in broad markets; and why to avoid chasing or fleeing rising or falling prices. By applying these logistics, you are much better […]
The Price You Pay Matters In our last piece, we described our marvelous markets, and how to account for their being both robust and random at the same time. Today, we’ll look at how stock pricing works, and why Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe was correct when he reminded us: “Asset prices are not determined […]
Our Marvelous Markets In our last piece, we introduced the importance of saving, which is the first of five basics that have served investors well over time. Today, we’ll look at where stock market returns really come from, and why that matters to your investing. You can’t invest if you haven’t saved. Markets are inspired […]
First Save, Then Invest In our last piece, we wrote about how recency bias can damage your investments by causing current crises to loom large, while rewriting your memories of past challenges. Recency tricks us into overpaying during heady times, and bailing at bargain rates, when our confidence fades. One of the best ways to […]
Well, it’s official. Third quarter has ended in bear market territory across multiple markets. To place that news in meaningful context, we pose two questions: In better times, had you boldly “pre-decided” what you would and would not do during the next bear market? “Great investment experiences treat most portfolio decisions as non-decisions. They’ve been […]
Remembering Summers Past There were so many big events competing for our attention this summer … said nearly every investor, almost every summer, ever. We’re not making light of this summer’s uncertainties. Inflation is real, and needs to be managed; we also can’t rule out the possibility we’ll still see stagflation and/or a recession. Heightened […]
Even though we know it was just dumb luck, can we get a round of applause for seeming to forecast last month’s surprisingly strong market returns? It’s almost (but not really) as if the market were reading our mind when three broad U.S. stock indexes ended July 2022 with their best returns since 2020—up 9.1%, […]
There’s been a lot of talk about recessions lately: Whether one is near, far, or perhaps already here. Whether we can or should try to avoid it. What it even means to be in a recession, and how it’s related to current market turmoil. To put market and recessionary concerns in perspective, it might […]
Welcome to the second half of 2022. What’s up next? As always, your guess is as good as ours. If anything, the past quarter has demonstrated how even familiar shores can shape-shift on us with each tide. Following are a few of the ways in which the financial landscape has been disorienting us lately. The […]