If you are new to our site or haven’t yet signed up for our free weekly Portfolio Strategy service, below is just a taste of what you missed this year. And these are just my posts. Each week our goal is to bring you our most cogent thoughts on the economic and financial landscape. Our weekly email service helps investors, both novice and expert, cut through the noise and invest their serious money with the savvy and sophistication of a seasoned pro. If you have family or friends who you would like to share our free Portfolio Strategy service with, just click the button with the envelope on … [Read more...]
You Know How to Buy, but do You Know When to Sell?
Why are investors better at buying stocks than they are at selling? This question and more were on my mind while reading Michael Lewis’ new book The Undoing Project. At the heart of it, the book is a love story (platonic) between two men, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, and their incredible work on how the mind alters our perception of reality. I won’t tell you more than that. But if you’ve read Moneyball by Lewis, you know the mind can play tricks on you. Reality isn’t an obvious thing. This book, as a continuation of the thinking in Moneyball, is about why it plays … [Read more...]
Financial Strategies of the Super Wealthy
Every wonder how the super wealthy manage their vast fortunes? Here the WSJ reports on some of the financial strategies of the ultra-wealthy ($10 million or more in investable assets). Consolidate Your Accounts To prepare for his portfolio defense, Mr. Lerner created a spreadsheet of all his accounts, assets and liabilities. Putting everything down on one spreadsheet helped him get a clear, organized picture of what he owns and owes, he says. It also reminded him of something he thinks when he gets yet another financial statement in the mail. “I have too many accounts,” he … [Read more...]
This Pension Still Blind to its Ways
The good news is that Rhode Island pensions are getting out of hedge funds. The bad is that some of the proceeds are going into private equity. “In some cases, you’ve just seen the emperor has no clothes,” Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner said in an interview. Rhode Island in September decided to halve its hedge-fund investments, and it is redeeming from firms including Brevan Howard and Och-Ziff. It isn’t invested in York. The state plans to redeploy some of its hedge fund money into private equity. High fees helped drive the decision. Mr. Magaziner said more than half the … [Read more...]
Fidelity Investments: 6 Simple Habits to a Better Life
You need a plan. That’s my #1 takeaway from Fidelity’s “Six Habits of Successful Investors.” One of the most common problems I come across when speaking with prospective clients of Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., is their lack of a plan. A lot of times they own good stuff. But they don’t know how everything fits together. Picture this: You’ve set up a room full of presents, your family is anxiously awaiting by the fire, and you forgot to label the gifts. That’s how it feels to own good stuff without a plan. The power of investing to build wealth and achieve long-term goals has been proven … [Read more...]
Fidelity Investments: 5 Social Security Myths
The myths and misconceptions regarding Social Security are many. When can you get your full benefits? Can you claim a small amount early, and get bumped up later to a higher benefit? Can your ex-husband or ex-wife take part of your Social Security? What part of your life are your wages based on? Will you get all your money back? These are some of the questions Fidelity answers here in, Five Social Security myths debunked. Below I've sampled some of the more common misconceptions people have about Social Security benefits. Many people are adamant that Social Security benefits must begin … [Read more...]
Fidelity’s Simple Rule for Controlling Portfolio Risk
Portfolio rebalancing is a necessary chore that all investors should consider, but too few do. Portfolio rebalancing is counter to many investors' behavioral biases. When you rebalance you are often selling your winners and buying your losers. Why would anybody sell their winners and buy more of their losers? Here Fidelity offers some insight on how rebalancing can help control portfolio risk. Higher markets and risk levels Let’s say the last time you decided to rebalance your portfolio was during the bear market in January of 2009. Since then, the market will have made some big changes … [Read more...]
Election Investing: You Need to Be Like This
President Obama is credited with this bull market in stocks. But let’s not forget it took an “end of the world” like crash to set it up thanks to the real estate debacle. It’s unfortunate and it’s a disservice to investors that the media spends so much time on this election/market stuff. I’d bet the average investor completely missed this bull market because the media made them so panic stricken they sold at the bottom or near it and they never got back into the market. The most successful investors, the ones I’ve been taught by, like Dick Young, don’t flinch regardless of the market. I … [Read more...]
What the Ozone Layer and Investing have in Common
In his most recent issue of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, Jim Grant quotes Charles Moore of the London Spectator. This has nothing to do with investing and everything to do with investing. One point that struck home was how scares run in fashions. According to Ridley, the hole in the ozone layer is very much the same size as it was when we all got worried about it in the 1980s, yet few today live in fear as they did then. Even Al Gore has fallen silent in his claim that the hole was sending rabbits living in the Tierra del Fuego blind. A yet more curious example of the change in fashion is … [Read more...]
Are Stop-Losses More Dangerous in Today’s Volatile Markets?
I have warned investors many times about the undependability and general riskiness of using stop-loss orders. When markets get volatile it's hard to beat the folks with the best technology. And even when you're competing on even ground, markets can simply become overwhelmed with stop-losses in a panic. Then your money is facing terrible odds. Dick and Matt Young and I made not using stop-losses our number one recommendation for 2016. This turned out to be good advice, especially if you were trading in currencies this year. Chelsey Dulaney writes at The Wall Street Journal. A report from the … [Read more...]
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