November 2017

Animal Spirits: Bitcoin, Bubbles & Bananas

Why Bitcoin Matters Coinbase has more accounts than Schwab Bitcoin surges past $9,500 This poll is incredible. Poll Results: higher the price of Bitcoin, less people believe it's a bubble, more people believe it's undervalued. pic.twitter.com/zxYIr6S7kV — Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) November 22, 2017 New managers and career risk. Ok, I have something to get off…

This is Not Normal

Netflix, Facebook and Amazon are each up 60% in the first 11 months of the year. Apple, is up 50%. Google, the laggard, is up just 34%. These five stocks have added over $900 billion in market capitalization in the first eleven months of the year. The tech-heavy index, of which these companies represent one…

These Are the Goods

Articles No invention has been more disruptive to the asset-management industry in the last quarter-century than the exchange-traded fund. With Crystal Kim Dave Nadig, Barry Ritholtz, Corey Hoffstein, and Ben Fulton Systematic, rather than faith-based. By Phil Bak So are all liquid alternative funds bad? By Jeremy Schwartz Staying cheap is not hard. Staying number…

The Worst Advice I Ever Got

My first job out of college was working in a sales role at an insurance company. They liked to think they were doing holistic wealth management, but all that meant was once all your insurance needs are filled, they could also sell you a financial plan and sprinkle in some mutual funds. It’s easy to…

Animal Spirits- Wave Pools and Market Inefficiencies

On today’s show, Ben and I speak about how career risk creates inefficiencies in the market, signs of froth, the Vanguard of alternatives, and ETF price wars. Links to articles discussed below. AQR: The Vanguard of Alternative Investing Asness Says Active Management, Not Passive, Is Too Big Small IPOs are Dying Why Vanguard Isn’t Freaking Out…

These Are the Goods

Articles Saving is passive, prioritizing is active. By Mike Dariano The process for producing legal filings runs like an assembly line for making widgets. By Stacy Cowley and Jessica Silver-Greenberg Everyone has an itch By Craig Shapiro We would wager that few other arguments have the power to turn off the critical thinking elements of…

Chart Crimes

Stretching a linear axis vertically to prove a point. Don’t do this. Some things should be shown as a level, not a percent change. The ten-year yield going from 2% to 2.1% is not a 5% change, it’s a ten basis point move. The same holds for the VIX. Don’t do this. So many things…

These Are the Goods

Articles An accelerating number of Americans are now recipients of independent advice and are talking to their friends about it By Shirl Penney  The look we get is always the same — like they just dropped their towel and we saw more than we should have. By Dina Isola Even the bulls are scared By…

These Are the Goods

Articles We focus a lot on the basis points and probably not enough on the percentage points. By Jason Zweig So we write 2,000 books on how Buffett sizes up management teams when the biggest and most practical takeaway from his success is, “Start investing when you’re in third grade.” By Morgan Housel In short,…