November, 2018

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A Second Challenge to Judgment

The Irrelevant Investor

The first edition of the Journal of Portfolio Management opened with an article from its founder and editor, the great Peter Bernstein. In What this Journal is About , he wrote: The maiden issue of this Journal appears at a critical time for our profession. The dismal of record of portfolio management over the past five years needs no elaboration.Our profession probably receives a wider variety of information from more sources than any other group in the world.

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2018 Impact Report: Sustainable Core Fixed Income Strategy

Brown Advisory

2018 Impact Report: Sustainable Core Fixed Income Strategy ajackson Mon, 11/26/2018 - 08:01 A Letter of Introduction From The Portfolio Managers Brown Advisory is deeply committed to sustainable investing. As of Sept. 30, 2018, our firm managed approximately $4.1 billion* in client assets under various sustainable investment mandates for individuals, families and institutions.

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Animal Spirits: Passive Income

The Irrelevant Investor

On this week's Animal Spirits, we discuss: The truth about the content business How much should you charge? Option selling When cash outperforms everything Nothing is making money this year The private equity pillage This is a weird story Is a recession coming? Recommendations Factfulness Banana The Next Millionaire Next Door Joe Rogan and Jake the Snake Marc Maron and Michael Douglas Listen here: Charts mentioned: Tweets mentioned: [link] [link] The post Animal Spirits: Passive Income appeared

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Ridiculous Outcomes

The Irrelevant Investor

ETFs are having a bad year. Wait a minute, "ETFs are having a bad year?" That doesn't make any sense. There are ETFs that track a stock index There are ETFs that invest in commodities. There are ETFs that invest in emerging market stocks with low volatility. These investment vehicles come in all different shapes and all different sizes. General statements like "ETFs are having a bad year" lack any meaning.

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How to Streamline Payment Applications & Lien Waivers Through Innovative Construction Technology

Speaker: Dylan Secrest, Founder of Alamo Innovation and Construction Digital Transformation Consultant

Construction payment workflows are notoriously complex when you consider juggling multiple stakeholders, compliance requirements, and evolving project scopes. Delays in approvals or misaligned data between budgets, lien waivers, and pay applications can grind progress to a halt. The good news? It doesn't have to be this way! Join expert Dylan Secrest to discover how leading contractors are turning payment chaos into clarity using digital workflows, integrated systems, and automation strategies.

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The Nifty Fifty

The Irrelevant Investor

The bear market of 1969 absolutely wrecked small stocks. In just 17 months, they lost 56% of their value, leaving investors once bitten, twice shy. People saw how quickly smaller companies could lose their value, so they turned to a new group of "one decision" stocks. These were blue-chips that had such high growth prospects that no price was too high to pay.

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2018 Impact Report: Sustainable Core Fixed Income Strategy

Brown Advisory

2018 Impact Report: Sustainable Core Fixed Income Strategy. ajackson. Mon, 11/26/2018 - 08:01. A Letter of Introduction From The Portfolio Managers. . Brown Advisory is deeply committed to sustainable investing. As of Sept. 30, 2018, our firm managed approximately $4.1 billion* in client assets under various sustainable investment mandates for individuals, families and institutions.

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A New Look at the Shrinking Public Market

The Irrelevant Investor

There has been a lot written this year about the shrinking public stock market. Two of the more common reasons provided are the rise and depth of private markets as well as regulations making it more costly to come public. There is a new paper out, Technological Disruptiveness and the Evolution of IPOs and Sell-Outs , that takes a different approach to answer this question.

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Timing the Market

The Irrelevant Investor

In August 2017 I wrote "This will be my last post on the CAPE ratio." I made it 16 months, which means I pretty much kept my word. I was listening to Invest Like the Best when Cliff Asness said, "You do not want to make a career trying to beat the stock market based on whether it is cheap or expensive." This sent me back to the drawing board. There are no universal agreements as to what makes something cheap or expensive, but if you'll indulge me for a minute, I'll try to quantify this very b

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Investment Perspectives | Diversification

Brown Advisory

Investment Perspectives | Diversification ajackson Tue, 11/20/2018 - 08:45 Last month’s sudden stock market “correction” serves as a vivid reminder that prices can move down at least as easily as they move up. While some investors were mystified by the severity of the pullback in the absence of meaningful incremental news, others argued that the pullback was long overdue, given the extended rally in what now has become the longest-running bull market in modern history.

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Investment Perspectives | Diversification

Brown Advisory

Investment Perspectives | Diversification. ajackson. Tue, 11/20/2018 - 08:45. Last month’s sudden stock market “correction” serves as a vivid reminder that prices can move down at least as easily as they move up. While some investors were mystified by the severity of the pullback in the absence of meaningful incremental news, others argued that the pullback was long overdue, given the extended rally in what now has become the longest-running bull market in modern history.

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You upgrade everything else. Why not your close process?

You wouldn’t keep using a 2009 flip phone - so why settle for outdated close processes? It’s time for an upgrade. SkyStem's Guide to Month-End Close Software walks you through what today’s best tools can do (and what your team shouldn’t have to deal with anymore). Get smart, fast, and a whole lot less stressed when it’s time to close the books.

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles Real income for the bottom 20% of wage-earners grew by a nearly identical amount as the top 5% from 1950 to 1980. By Morgan Housel People need to believe in something By Nick Maggiulli Sam’s entire family has terrible luck when it comes to the timing of their retirement. By Ben Carlson You are what you consume By David Perell Misleading stock tips By Jamie Catherwood The merry-go-round of psychological torture By Corey Hoffstein We need to find other ways to get people to give us a try

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How to Read Performance

The Irrelevant Investor

Things were going well for crude oil in 2018. After a few rough years, it was looking to deliver a double digit return, with a 27% gain through early October. The black gold hit nearly $77 a barrel, reaching its highest level in four years. But then, with no warning and without an apology, it swiftly fell 16% from its highs and finished the month with a -11.8% return.

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Animal Spirits: How to Create the Perfect Fund

The Irrelevant Investor

On this week's Animal Spirits, we discuss $1,000 a month, no strings attached Universal basic income is ahead of its time Are quants facing a crisis of confidence? Hedge fund bloodbath Survey of the week Robinhood has to make money somehow Million dollar neighborhoods The decline in youth sports Banks have a lot of data Listen here Recommendations Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy Gridiron Genius Charts mentioned The post Animal Spirits: How to Create the Perfect Fund appeared firs

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Learning The Wrong Lessons

The Irrelevant Investor

Every time there is an article about buy and hold investing, somebody inevitably is in the comment section with "now show Japan." This is often used as the knee-jerk response to people like myself, who believe that buying and holding should be the default setting for most people with most of their money. Japan experienced one of the most spectacular stock market bubbles of all time.

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Your Accounting Expertise Will Only Get You So Far: What Really Matters

Speaker: Victor C. Barnes, CPA, MBA

In the climb from contributor to leader, the rules quietly change. If you’re aiming for the summit, the air gets thinner—and what got you here won’t be enough to get you to the top (a concept first popularized by Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There ). What made you successful early in your finance career—technical accuracy, sharp analysis, flawless execution—won’t be what carries you to the next level.

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Private Credit: A Surprisingly All-Weather Asset Class

Brown Advisory

Private Credit: A Surprisingly All-Weather Asset Class. ajackson. Thu, 11/08/2018 - 09:35. Private credit has experienced a post-recession boom, but with rates rising steadily and default risk possibly increasing as well, some view the asset class with caution. We think differently about private credit. We believe that the “big tent” of private credit has something to offer investors at nearly all phases of the credit cycle.

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Animal Spirits: Spirit Animal

The Irrelevant Investor

On this week's Animal Spirits, we discuss: How close are we to the next bear market? Midterm election years Tech CEOs lost money Bonds for the long run 3 in 10 Americans consider themselves financially healthy (survey) Headline mismatch How much money should you charge? Berkshire's getting into FinTech More student loan talk.This guy literally moved to a jungle to avoid his student-loan debt Social media sucks for a lot of teenagers Listen here Charts mentioned Recommendations Our spirit animal

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I Remember When

The Irrelevant Investor

I was eating a bagel this weekend when my wife said to me, "I can't believe you like their tuna, it's really fishy." I hadn't noticed, but she was right, it was fishy. I hate fish. I'll have tuna on a bagel, but would never order tuna in a restaurant. The reason why I suffer from taste bud dissonance is pretty simple, I've had tuna fish on a bagel since I was a child.

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Gratitude

The Irrelevant Investor

Larry Page and Sergey Brin are are largely responsible for the fact that most noobwhale investors stumble across value investing early on in their journey. If you Google " best investing books ," The Intelligent Investor is right at the top of the list. What jumps right off the cover is a quote from Warren Buffett- "By far the best book on investing ever written.

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How To Overcome Change Fatigue In Finance With Neuroscience-Backed Strategies

Speaker: Kim Beynon, CPA, CGMA, PMP

The most overlooked, yet most critical, element of transformation is preparing people for change. Automation and AI aren't just technical upgrades, they’re cultural shifts which can challenge identities. That’s why change management isn’t a side project—it’s the foundation. In finance, where precision and process rule, navigating change can feel especially disruptive.

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles How can we determine what is skill and what is luck when there are so many close calls? By Corey Hoffstein When you consistently hold a large majority of your entire portfolio in cash all it does is add pressure to the timing of your buy and sell decisions By Ben Carlson A lot of decisions are statistically wrong but intuitively right for the person making them.

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2018 Year-End Planning Letter

Brown Advisory

2018 Year-End Planning Letter. ajackson. Wed, 11/28/2018 - 08:38. Each year, we send a letter to clients to help guide our year-end planning discussions with them and to offer ideas for them to consider with their other advisors. Our goal in year-end discussions is to ensure that client plans are updated as needed, based on changing external conditions as well as the client’s circumstances, so that we stay on track to deliver the long-term outcomes that each client seeks.

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Bubbles and Crises: Twenty Years of Lessons Learned

Brown Advisory

Bubbles and Crises: Twenty Years of Lessons Learned ajackson Wed, 11/14/2018 - 10:25 Chief Investment Officer Paul Chew reflects on his experiences during past market disruptions, and how those lessons inform his thinking today. Last month, I was co-hosting one of our firm’s daily Morning Meetings with Jacob Hodes, our firm’s head of private equity.

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Bubbles and Crises: Twenty Years of Lessons Learned

Brown Advisory

Bubbles and Crises: Twenty Years of Lessons Learned. ajackson. Wed, 11/14/2018 - 10:25. Chief Investment Officer Paul Chew reflects on his experiences during past market disruptions, and how those lessons inform his thinking today. Last month, I was co-hosting one of our firm’s daily Morning Meetings with Jacob Hodes, our firm’s head of private equity.

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2025 Industry Index: How Top Advisors Are Scaling Smarter (and Faster) This Year

Where are top advisors focusing in 2025? AcquireUp’s 2025 Industry Index reveals it all. Based on insights from 200+ financial professionals nationwide, discover why 74% say seminars and referrals deliver the best ROI, how automation is helping advisors scale faster, and why only 8% are tapping into niche marketing (a major growth opportunity!). Whether you're refining your client acquisition strategy or scaling your practice, this report gives you the real-world data, benchmarks, and action ste

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles In hindsight, we can see that the value in 2014 $AAPL was real while the value in 2014 $IBM was fake. By Jesse Livermore, Chris Meredith, and Patrick O'Shaughnessy The problem we will face throughout life is how to differentiate between causation and correlation—between signal and noise. By Nick Maggiulli The fact that high beta firms tend to have lower quality and higher financial leverage is perhaps one good reason why the outperformance in bull markets is more than erased during bear

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Animal Spirits: How to Ask the Right Questions

The Irrelevant Investor

This week's Animal Spirits is presented by J.P. Morgan Asset Management On today's show, we discuss: The 401(k) turns 40 years old The automatic 401(k) transfer Asking the right questions Ben's morning routine Retirees have regrets Why the American dream is dying People don't finish books Druck says Listen here Charts mentioned Tweets mentioned [link] Recommendations Holy Ghost Who is Michael Ovitz?