November, 2015

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Tis The Season

The Irrelevant Investor

I tend to be on the skeptical side when it comes to investing based on seasonal trends. I'm almost always of the mind that less is more and seasonality encourages more decision making, not less. Making changes to your portfolio based on this type of study would probably not be in your best interest when taking into consideration taxes, transaction costs, and most importantly, the cost of being wrong.

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Strategic Advisory Letter | 2015 Year-End Planning Checklist

Brown Advisory

Strategic Advisory Letter | 2015 Year-End Planning Checklist. achen. Thu, 11/12/2015 - 11:10. As 2015 comes to a close, we remind our clients and friends of how important it is take time to review new tax rules, consider tax-saving opportunities and review investment and asset-protection plans before year’s end. As autumn rolls on and the holiday season approaches, it is once again time to consider a thorough review of your overall financial picture and your progress toward your long-term object

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The Upward Drift

The Irrelevant Investor

Cliff Asness is out with a new interesting paper, "Market Timing Is Back In The Hunt For Investors." In it, he discusses the efficacy of using valuations, specifically the CAPE ratio, to help time the market. One thing Asness addresses is the valuation drift upward which U.S. stocks have experienced over the last century. Here's Cliff: "As alluded to earlier when discussing the long-term upward drift in CAPE, another related but distinct headwind for contrarian stock market timing in the second

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Right Place, Right Time

The Irrelevant Investor

Amazing things can come to people that work hard, persevere, and are lucky enough to be born in the right place at the right time. Malcolm Gladwell talks a lot about this in his book Outliers: The Story of Success , in which he explains why two-thirds of Canada's pro hockey players were born in January or February. Expanding on the idea that when and where you're born are everything.

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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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When Is the Right Time to Sell Big Winners?

The Irrelevant Investor

The largest gains are enjoyed by investors with the longest time horizons. Let's take Amazon, obviously an extreme example. From the time of its IPO through the end of 2014, Amazon gained 12,600%. Even after such a remarkable run, Amazon is up over 100% through the first ten months of this year! However, the reality is having any sort of risk management would make it all but impossible to enjoy these outsized returns as even the best performing stocks have experienced massive drawdowns.

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Do People Want to be Fooled?

The Irrelevant Investor

"Magicians are the most honest people in the world. They tell you they're gonna fool you, and then they do it." -James Randi I recently watched "An Honest Liar" on Netflix, which is the story of The Amazing Randi, a magician and escape artist who dedicated his life to unveiling the charlatans. He went on a crusade, targeting the psychics and faith healers and exposed them for the con artists that they were.

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Necessity’s Mother

The Irrelevant Investor

Guns, Germs and Steel is one of the most fascinating books I have read in a while. Jared Diamond masterfully tells the story of how and why civilizations have developed differently across the globe. I wanted to share a passage which questions the common thinking that "necessity is the mother of invention." The starting point for our discussion is the common view expressed in the saying 'Necessity is the mother of invention.