Investors are paying 56% more for every dollar of real earnings in modern times than they used to. Prior to 1983, the average CAPE ratio was 14.7, and for the last 33 years it has risen to 23. There are plenty of reasons (stories?) for why multiples expanded in the bull market of the 80s…

Articles What seems like a simple change can have dramatic effects By Isaac Presley The year after Clinton’s impeachment, the S&P 500 Index rose more than 21%. By Barry Ritholtz Stocks don’t have to crash every time they fall. By Ben Carlson Nothing feels better than the satisfaction of watching everyone lose money just after…

Why does it feel like every time stocks falls a little, they’re going to fall a lot? This is probably a permanent feature of the stock market, but it seems like that drum is beating very loud these days. I believe there are two main reasons why some investors have three feet out the door….

I worked at an insurance shop in Manhattan for almost two years right out of college. Just prior to my arrival, the agency had transitioned owners and after only a few weeks of being there, my manager went back to being a producer. So for the next eighteen months or so, without any knowledge or any…

Amazon went public twenty years ago today. A headline in The New York Times read, Investors Offer Amazon.com A Warm First-Day Reception. Yet despite the warm reception, a 30% day-one pop, few could have seen that it would go onto become one of the greatest stocks of its generation. It’s incredible to think that just ten…

Articles The federal tax code now totals 74,608 pages. The Constitution fits on three pages. By Henry Hebeler Luck is so important that two investors holding the same assets over different time periods can have wildly different investment outcomes. By of Dollars and Data If a fund company isn’t disciplined enough to price its products…

The stock market is the best place to grow your wealth over time, with few exceptions. If you’ve already arrived at that conclusion and decided that you’re going to invest for the long-term, then the chart below should serve as a sobering reminder that buying and holding is not for the faint of heart. The…

Floating in outer space and looking down on earth, one would see a perfectly smooth, spherical ball. But zoom in and you’ll find valleys drilled thousands of feet into the surface, and mountains shooting miles into the sky. There is a world of difference between glancing at a map and traversing the terrain. Likewise, looking at…

You’ve probably seen a chart that compares what $1 would have grown to if you just bought stocks and left it alone. You might also have seen the same chart showing how much worse the returns would have been if the 25 best days weren’t included. Finally, you might also have seen a similar chart…

Articles Real financial planning is so much more than pontificating about the benefits of a low-cost, globally diversified portfolio. By Tony Isola Successful long-run investing is a mental game more than anything else. By James Osborne The assumption that you can keep the returns of owning stocks while getting rid of the downside has turned…