Blog
Financial journalism from advisors who rather dislike Financial Journalism™
Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword
Be careful what you wish for...
Read MoreWhat's a Loan Worth, Anyway?
A brief story about debt valuations...
Read MoreSaaSpocalypse
Stock prices are a number today multiplied by a story about tomorrow. The story can change suddenly...
Read More2025's Reasons to Worry
A recap of the investor's journey last year...
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Clairvoyance
It wouldn't necessarily make you a better investor...
Read MoreAll Men are Created Equal. All Yields are Not.
If it seems too good to be true...
Read MoreTen Years Later...
A few thoughts on the first ten years of my career, as well as the next forty...
Read MoreStocks Returned to Their Rightful Owners
“In a bear market, stocks return to their rightful owners...”
Read MoreBuying the Behemoths
Will the second quarter of the 21st century look the same as the first in the stock market?
Read MoreThoughts on the Recent Pullback
Participation trophies don't feel good...
Read MoreSome Things Never Change
In the long run, this time will be no different...
Read MoreShort Term Pain, Long Term Gain
No pain no gain? That applies to investing too.
Read MoreIt's Not About the Producers...
One headline from China and everyone has forgotten the substance of the A.I. investing thesis...
Read MoreThe Hidden Cost of Success
Maybe You Shouldn’t Covet that Michelin Star...
Read MoreDon't Fight the Fed?
The stock market is the financialization of human ingenuity, and human ingenuity is undefeated.
Read MoreIf It Sounds Too Good To Be True...
About those levered products...
Read MoreThe Paradox of Progress
Pessimists sound smart, optimists make money.
Read MoreThe Value of The Thing vs. The Thing
More thoughts on the election and your portfolio...
Read MoreThe Lesson of American History
Investing during presidential elections...
Read MoreThe Fatal Conflict of Interest
A few thoughts on conflicts of interest and fees…
Read MorePulling the Goalie (Some Math Would Have Sent the Preds to the Playoffs Last Year)
A few thoughts on hockey strategy and portfolio construction...
Read MoreThe Biggest Risk
The biggest risk is the one no one sees coming...
Read MoreThe Law of Conservation of Risk
Investing and the First Law of Thermodynamics.
Read MoreEverything is Survivorship Bias
Burning the ships worked well for Cortes. But...
Read MoreDeath, Taxes & Death Taxes
Ben Franklin said there is nothing certain but death and taxes. The IRS put their own spin on that observation...
Read MoreOutperforming Your Own Investments
Sometimes dollar cost averaging looks like magic...
Read MoreKids and Money #3
It’s been a little while since I’ve written about this topic. Teaching kids about money and finance…and everything else is a little tougher than expected. I don’t know when kids start to understand...
Read MoreBurry's Bearish Bet (things are not as they seem)
The financial journos are deceiving you again...
Read MoreZIRP killed TINA (but the stock market doesn’t care)
What does "risk-free" mean, anyway?
Read MoreCarvana Math
6th grade math has some startling implications for investors...
Read More"AI Will Change the World"
Could a genie have helped you make money in the stock market at the dawn of the internet?
Read MoreDe-Dollarization (Or Not)
Our thoughts on the Media Panic Merchants' latest favorite headline...
Read MoreThe Best of Days, The Worst of Times
Charles Dickens unwittingly made a good point about investing...
Read MoreThe Secret Sauce
When Warren Buffett titles a section of his annual shareholder letter "The Secret Sauce," we pay attention...
Read MoreThe Investor's Fundamental Attribution Error
A few thoughts on the S&P 500 flipping investors the bird...
Read MoreThe Iron Law of Bond Math
A few thoughts on interest rates, money cannons, and Silicon Valley Bank...
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Kids and Money #2
The second blog of how it's going with teaching my kids about money.
Read MoreThe Resolute Investment Philosophy
Our 10-point investment philosophy.
Read MoreThe 2nd Law of Large Numbers
Just how good of an investment is an NBA team anyway?
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The Winner's Trap
Picking stocks is hard. Even if you win, you may still lose...
Read MoreA Secret Little Formula
Sometimes portfolio performance doesn't tell the whole story...
Read MoreA Different Model
A different business model in the wealth management business.
Read MoreThe Political Portfolio
A short story on mixing politics and portfolios
Read More2023 Annual Client Letter
A different take on an annual letter to begin the year...
Read MoreKids and Money #1
An ongoing blog about how my journey of teaching my kids about money goes.
Read MoreHarvey Dent's Wisdom
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain...
Read MoreHow to Buy a Lambo!
Buying that Lamborghini may be easier than you think...
Read MoreFTX, Ponzi Schemes, & Custody
There are a lot of things to be said about the recent blowup of the crypto exchange FTX. I suspect much of it is irrelevant to the readers of this blog. I don’t think they have much invested in the crypto space. I’m happy...
Read MoreCredit Cards Points
If you could take a trip to anywhere in the world, where would you go? Is it a domestic trip? International? Why haven’t you done it yet? Could it be the cost, or time, or...
Read MoreHabits...Good and Bad
A quick internet search of “How to build good habits” yields a lot of results. ~399 Million actually. Dang, that is a lot of info. It’s funny because I think pretty much everyone knows how to...
Read MoreThe Impact of Mistakes
I don’t consider myself a good golfer. I’ll play and then think, if I just cleaned up my mistakes, I would be awesome. That is what separates pros from amateurs. I played with a...
Read MoreAdventures in Financial Journalism
A quote from TIME Magazine published on September 28th:If America’s economic landscape seems suddenly alien and hostile to many citizens, there is good reason: they have never seen anything like it. Nothing in memory has prepared...
Read MoreThe Peril of Responsibility
An interesting study was published in the Journal of Economic Psychology in 2007. The authors examined the behavior of soccer goalies during penalty kicks. We’ve all seen the videos. Penalty kicks are difficult to block. Just as...
Read MoreIgnore the Dog
Bill Bernstein recounts hedge fund manager Ralph Wanger’s brilliant analogy of the markets:He likens the market to an excitable dog on a very long leash in New York City, darting randomly in every direction. The dog’s owner...
Read MoreRafiki's Wisdom
“The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.” The enduring words of Rafiki, the eccentric baboon, spoken after walloping Simba on the head with his staff. Sound advice for the lion...
Read MoreThe Good & The Bad
Rory suggested I join him training Jiu Jitsu about a year and a half ago. I liked the idea of becoming proficient in a martial art. Of being able to handle myself. And I’ve seen the John Wick movies. Who doesn’t want to be...
Read MoreAn Anniversary of Infamy
Inflation has been the dominant narrative in the markets of 2022. Inflation is up and everything else is down. Equities? Down. Bonds? Down. Gold? Down. Bitcoin? Down.I believe a well-diversified portfolio of equities is the greatest...
Read MoreThe Difficulty - Duration Paradigm
Rory, my business partner, shared something recently that struck me. He thinks doing something moderately difficult for a long period of time is far more difficult than doing something extremely difficult for a short period of time.I...
Read MoreThe "R - Word"
You probably heard the news. At 7:30am CST this morning GDP for the 2nd quarter was reported to be a negative number. That’s two consecutive quarters of negative GDP prints. That meets the technical definition of the “R...
Read MoreNumbers & Dollar Signs
Suppose you commission a psychological study. Recruit a handful of participants and find a few cameras to record facial expressions and an electroencephalogram to measure brainwaves. Then measure emotional reactions when the...
Read MoreThe Ingenuity Discount
People like to make forecasts. Predictions. Models. It’s quite easy to make a prediction seem plausible. We all try to think logically. If events A and B occur, then C will be the result. But we’re poorly equipped to...
Read MoreWe Don't Understand, Pt. I
You and I have a common flaw. We think linearly. No fault of our own, we were designed that way. Most of the time it’s helpful. When investing, it’s not. It makes sense that you and I are linear thinkers. We perceive...
Read MoreWe Don't Understand, Pt. II
I wrote recently about compound interest. Everyone thinks they understand compound interest. They remember some quote from Einstein about it.My point is that we don’t understand it. Our linear brains register exponential...
Read MoreSchrodinger's Portfolio
Remember learning about quantum mechanics in high school? Neither did I. Until I picked up a book on the subject a few years ago. Quantum mechanics is the study of subatomic particles. It’s… weird. Trying to understand...
Read MoreCrystal Ball
The most difficult part of investing is the uncertainty. Investing requires faith in the future. But the future is unknowable. It’s difficult to have faith in the future. There’s no shortage of negative news. Plenty of...
Read MoreJust Another Day
It was another Friday night in August of 2015. I lived in Nashville (still do), and I was single and in my twenties. So I went to a concert. Just another Friday night in Nashville. NEEDTOBREATHE was playing at Ascend Amphitheater...
Read MoreThe Commoditization of Miracles
I normally use the bathroom sink first thing in the morning. I presume that’s typical. For a reason I can’t recall one morning the first sink I turned on was in the kitchen. Turned the knob, and… nothing. Uh oh. I...
Read MoreSilver Platter
People say you can’t predict the market’s short-term moves.But sometimes the market serves you a trade on a silver platter.At least that’s what the market timers and the folks vying for attention on CNBC thought...
Read MoreDefining the Opportunity
Do you believe the market will eventually recover to its previous high? If you have a well-diversified portfolio – one invested in hundreds of companies across dozens of sectors and countries, I believe you ought to believe...
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