The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 30, 2017
I recently received an email about a piece of software that would allow us to stress test our portfolios. Some of the scenarios included: What if interest rates rise back to historical levels or above, with 10-year treasury rates at 5%, as a result of renewed growth in the US economy? What if the S&P has a strong correction and falls 20% over a short timeframe?
Brown Advisory
MARCH 28, 2017
Starting Points achen Tue, 03/28/2017 - 14:11 The numbers tell a clear story about the growing number of investors interested in sustainable investing. Assets in investments aligned to environmental, social or governance factors increased nearly fivefold between 2012 and 2016, according to US SIF Foundation. Still, nearly three out of four investors wait for their advisors to raise the topic of sustainability in relation to their portfolios, according to a 2013 survey by Calvert Investments.
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The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 29, 2017
[link] Eighteen years ago today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 10,000 for the first time ever. But under the surface, some funky things were happening. Here's Gretchen Morgenson from the New York Times: A lurking concern, however, is just how narrow the market's advance has been. A growing portion of Americans' investment money is devoted to the 30 well-known companies in the Dow and the components of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which rose near its record yesterday
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 28, 2017
From 2007 through 2015, $835 billion was yanked out of active mutual funds and $1.2 trillion plowed into index funds. Below is the most compelling image I've seen to explain why this secular change is taking place. Index funds aren't perfect, as Ben recently laid out , but assuming you can control your behavior, which is more important than whether you own every stock in an index or only 20% of them, indexing gives investors the best chance of capturing whatever returns the market will deliver.
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Brown Advisory
MARCH 28, 2017
Know What You Own achen Tue, 03/28/2017 - 14:26 Some Wal-Mart stores sell rifles, some Starbucks coffee shops sell alcohol, and GE builds engines for jet fighters and bombers. Some investors feel strongly about these and other issues, to the extent that they choose to screen out companies that do not agree with their values or societal priorities. We help many of our clients align their portfolios with their values, and screening is one of the tools we employ to accomplish that alignment.
Brown Advisory
MARCH 28, 2017
Impact Investing: Five Ways To Make Your Mark achen Tue, 03/28/2017 - 14:58 Henry David Thoreau did not live to see the rise of impact investing, but he captured the spirit of it with a simple insight—“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.” Impact investors align their assets behind their advocacy, whether it be for advances in environmental stewardship, human livelihood or public policy.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Brown Advisory
MARCH 28, 2017
Know What You Own. achen. Tue, 03/28/2017 - 14:26. Some Wal-Mart stores sell rifles, some Starbucks coffee shops sell alcohol, and GE builds engines for jet fighters and bombers. Some investors feel strongly about these and other issues, to the extent that they choose to screen out companies that do not agree with their values or societal priorities.
Brown Advisory
MARCH 28, 2017
Impact Investing: Five Ways To Make Your Mark. achen. Tue, 03/28/2017 - 14:58. Henry David Thoreau did not live to see the rise of impact investing, but he captured the spirit of it with a simple insight—“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”. Impact investors align their assets behind their advocacy, whether it be for advances in environmental stewardship, human livelihood or public policy.
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 24, 2017
It’s funny, I thought my life would change when I had a baby, and it certainly has, but one thing I didn’t count on is how much more time I would have. He sleeps, and he eats. That’s it for now. So I’ve been either home or at the office and I’ve consumed more content in the past three weeks than over any other three week period in recent memory. I know that will change quickly, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some incredible stuff from this week.
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 24, 2017
A recent WSJ report says that "Revenues at HFT firms from U.S. equities trading were an estimated $1.1 billion last year, down from $7.2 billion in 2009." That's an 85% decline in under a decade! When it comes to business and markets in particular, edges don't last very long. The brilliant mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot said it best, “Winning strategies tend to have a brief half-life.
Speaker: Claire Grosjean, Global Finance & Operations Executive
Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 20, 2017
When I sat down this morning to create a "Wall of Worry" chart, the hard part wasn't coming up with the list, but rather choosing what to leave off. Since stocks bottomed in 2009, there have been so many potential reasons to sell that it wasn't possible to fit them all. Below are a few that didn't make it: MF Global Bankruptcy All the quantitative easing programs Ashton Kutcher is a venture capitalist China hard landing(s) Occupy Wall Street Is Deutsche Bank the next Lehman?
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 16, 2017
It seems like everybody wants to be a contrarian these days. Predictably, there were a lot of "Bill Ackman is out of Valeant, that's your buy signal" comments this week. I want to talk about the three different types of contrarians: those who are early, those who are late, and those that are right. On the early side, for example, are those who have argued that U.S. stocks are too expensive, or people saying this bull market is long in the tooth.
Brown Advisory
MARCH 13, 2017
Emerging Market Banks: Promise Amid Skepticism achen Mon, 03/13/2017 - 10:37 For many investors, emerging markets are an enigma and represent a dichotomy between risk and reward. While these markets offer growth potential supported by secular tailwinds, these are also historically volatile markets and factors such as liquidity problems, political risks, weak regulations and currency instability compound investors’ fears of negative surprises.
Brown Advisory
MARCH 13, 2017
Emerging Market Banks: Promise Amid Skepticism. achen. Mon, 03/13/2017 - 10:37. For many investors, emerging markets are an enigma and represent a dichotomy between risk and reward. While these markets offer growth potential supported by secular tailwinds, these are also historically volatile markets and factors such as liquidity problems, political risks, weak regulations and currency instability compound investors’ fears of negative surprises.
Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 10, 2017
[link] During the Russian financial crisis of 1998, the NASDAQ fell 33% from July through October, but during the final 58 days of the year, it shook off those losses and went vertical, adding 50%! This move was just the appetizer of what would become one of the most memorable entrées in all of financial history, 1999. New highs were the theme of the year, here are some amazing statistics: The NASDAQ Composite experienced 70 new highs in 1999, or one every 3.5 days.
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 7, 2017
The S&P 500 fell 57.69% from October 2007 to March 2009, but real earnings fell even more, from a high of $98.43 in June 2007 to a low of $8.01 in April 2009, a 91.86% decline. Some might think that this historical collapse is inflating the CAPE ratio. In other words, if real earnings didn't experience their deepest drawdown ever , stocks wouldn't appear so expensive.
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 6, 2017
Adam Smith once said “Show me a portfolio, I’ll tell you the generation.” It's safe to say if he peeked inside a brokerage account today, he wouldn't recognize which generation he was in. The story we keep hearing about is the shift from active to passive, and while it's true that dollars are leaving stock pickers for indexes, it's even more the case that they're going from high cost to low cost.
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 2, 2017
“For bubbles, I want a systematic way of identifying them. It’s a simple proposition. You have to be able to predict that there is some end to it. All the tests people have done trying to do that don’t work. Statistically, people have not come up with ways of identifying bubbles.” - Eugene F. Fama, June 2016 Bubbles are like snowflakes. No two are exactly alike, but they all share similar features; innovation, a run up in price, increased volatility, and expanding multiples, to name a few.
Speaker: Erroll Amacker
Automation is transforming finance but without strong financial oversight it can introduce more risk than reward. From missed discrepancies to strained vendor relationships, accounts payable automation needs a human touch to deliver lasting value. This session is your playbook to get automation right. We’ll explore how to balance speed with control, boost decision-making through human-machine collaboration, and unlock ROI with fewer errors, stronger fraud prevention, and smoother operations.
Brown Advisory
MARCH 31, 2017
Global Leaders Investment Letter - Q1 2017 ajackson Fri, 03/31/2017 - 09:50 Global Leaders Strategy Investment Letter - Q1 2017 The team discuss the reversal of the market ‘rotation’ from the previous quarter and areas where they were able to take advantage of short-term weakness. They also discuss their views on behavioural biases: The Investing Ape (‘Homo Investus’).
Brown Advisory
MARCH 31, 2017
Global Leaders Investment Letter - Q1 2017. ajackson. Fri, 03/31/2017 - 09:50. Global Leaders Strategy Investment Letter - Q1 2017. The team discuss the reversal of the market ‘rotation’ from the previous quarter and areas where they were able to take advantage of short-term weakness. They also discuss their views on behavioural biases: The Investing Ape (‘Homo Investus’). . .
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 8, 2017
You've probably already heard that this week marks the eighth anniversary of the bull market. Some would argue, myself included, that bull markets don't start at the depths of a bear, but whatever, let's just go with it for the purposes of moving past a dead and beaten horse. The United States has only experienced three bull markets before this current one, and with so many variables, it would be futile to look at such a small sample and say something like "The market typically peaks when valuat
The Irrelevant Investor
MARCH 17, 2017
It'a funny, I thought my life would change when I had a baby, and it certainly has, but one thing I didn't count on is how much more time I would have. He sleeps, and he eats. That's it for now. So I've been either home or at the office and I've consumed more content in the past three weeks than over any other three week period in recent memory. I know that will change quickly, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some incredible stuff I read this week.
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