Advisor Perspectives
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Investors should embrace a genuine long-term perspective, extending their time horizons to at least 20 to 30 years. The traditional notion of long-term investing (five to 10 years) may fall short of realizing the full benefits of long-term strategies.
The Big Picture
NOVEMBER 22, 2023
We spend way too much time trying to predict the future (especially this time of year). Rather than engage in futility, let’s look at the coincident indexes in all 50 states over the past 3 months, via the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (October 2023). Note: I have been occasionally eyeballing this map since 2008 , and it does a good job of showing the overall trend of the economy (on an obvious lag).
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Calculated Risk
NOVEMBER 23, 2023
Here are five economic reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving. (Hat Tip to Neil Irwin who started doing this years ago) 1) The Unemployment Rate is Below 4% The unemployment rate was at 3.9% in October. The unemployment rate is down from 14.7% in April 2020 (the highest since the Great Depression). The unemployment rate is up from 3.7% a year ago (October 2022).
Wealth Management
NOVEMBER 22, 2023
Pay close attention to the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision.
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Abnormal Returns
NOVEMBER 19, 2023
Also on the site this week Over a lifetime, you can accumulate a lot of stuff. The chances are nobody wants any of it. (abnormalreturns.com) Top clicks this week Why it's a great time to be an investor. (blog.validea.com) Some behavioral hacks to prevent you from blowing up your portfolio. (ritholtz.com) What it going to happen to all those assets in money market fund when yields eventually fall?
The Big Picture
NOVEMBER 23, 2023
My Turkey Day reads: • The Wild World Inside Your Gut : We tackled everything from heartburn, stress, spicy foods and colon cleanses to antibiotics and more. So grab a kombucha, get comfortable and read on for everything you’ve wanted to know about the wild world inside your gut. ( New York Times ) • These People Are Responsible for Thanksgiving’s Most Polarizing Food : How did a berry synonymous with one day of the year become the crown jewel of a billion-dollar business cooperative?
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Wealth Management
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Firms will have to be transparent, provide adequate guardrails and deliver impactful strategies to succeed because while AI won't replace humans it is not going away.
Abnormal Returns
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
Quant stuff Good luck trying to explain ML models. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) A round-up of recent research on return expectations including 'Inflation Expectations and Stock Returns.' (capitalspectator.com) Earnings Using AI to suss out future earnings surprises. (klementoninvesting.substack.com) People like working for companies that beat Wall Street earnings expectations.
Nerd's Eye View
NOVEMBER 24, 2023
Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” - this week’s edition kicks off with the news that FINRA has issued a proposal to allow broker-dealers to advertise hypothetical performance data to institutional and high-net-worth investors, which would bring the rules for broker-dealers largely in line with those for investment advisers, but also raises questions about the comparative roles and regulations for the two groups.
Calculated Risk
NOVEMBER 22, 2023
From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Mortgage applications increased 3.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 17, 2023. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 3.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.
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.
Wealth Management
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
Gen X, millennials and Gen Z each require a tailored approach based on their values and beliefs.
Abnormal Returns
NOVEMBER 19, 2023
Markets Cullen Roche, "The worst narrative in finance is this idea that stocks generate 10%+." (disciplinefunds.com) Why you should believe in stocks for the long run. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Diversify when you feel like you don't need it. (creativeplanning.com) Cash is a drug for investors. (etoro.com) Fund management The ESG wave has crested. (wsj.com) Fidelity files for a spot Ethereum ETF.
The Big Picture
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
The transcript from this week’s, MiB: Brad Gerstner, Altimeter Capital & Invest America , is below. You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube , and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here. ~~~ This is Masters in business with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio 00:00:07 [BARRY RITHOLTZ] This week on the podcast.
Nerd's Eye View
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
As marketing and prospecting processes become increasingly digital for financial advisors, many prospective clients learn about advisors and what they offer not from an introductory call, webinar, or speaking event but from the advisor's website itself. Talking about money is often highly personal and can leave individuals feeling vulnerable, so choosing who to serve in such a high-trust role as a financial advisor can have immense stakes.
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.
Wealth Management
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Meant to eliminate conflicts of interest on self-directed trading apps that use AI and predictive analytics, the rule would in fact cut off market access for many of the investors who use them, a lawyer for the tech firm argued in a recent public forum.
Abnormal Returns
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
Strategy Hedge funds are piling into the Big Seven stocks. (ft.com) Diversification always means having something underperform. (ofdollarsanddata.com) Why moats matter. (investmenttalk.co) Crypto Another domino falls in the crypto space as Binance CEO CZ plans to plead guilty to money laundering charges. (wsj.com) Meanwhile there are plenty of other goings-on in the exchange space.
The Big Picture
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
My Two-for-Tuesday morning train WFH reads: • The Share of Americans Who Are Mortgage-Free Is at an All-Time High : Almost 40% of US homeowners own their homes outright as of 2022—many of them baby boomers who refinanced when rates were low. ( Businessweek ) see also Why Your Office Space Continues to Shrink : Despite more than a billion square feet of empty office space in the US, a return to roomier layouts and private offices does not seem to be in the cards. ( Bloomberg ) • Satoshi Is Black
Nerd's Eye View
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
Welcome back to the 360th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! My guest on today's podcast is Suzanne Powell. Suzanne is a Senior Financial Advisor at Meridian Wealth Management, an RIA based in Lexington, Kentucky, where she oversees approximately $110 million in assets under management for nearly 150 client households. What's unique about Suzanne, though, is how she grew to more than $100M of AUM by intentionally organizing her schedule from month to month throughout the year, cl
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.
Wealth Management
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
The national healthcare advisory firm will merge its wealth management business, Curi Capital, with RMB.
Abnormal Returns
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Markets The U.S. stock market hasn't made a new high in nearly 500 trading days. (awealthofcommonsense.com) How this yield curve steepening is different. (integratinginvestor.com) Strategy ESG or not, people are going to invest according to their values. (ritholtz.com) On the downside of focusing on high dividend yields. (insights.finominal.com) Crypto Do futures-backed Bitcoin ETFs have a future?
Calculated Risk
NOVEMBER 24, 2023
Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market. Here is their weekly report: Weekly Housing Trends View — Data Week Ending Nov 18, 2023 • Active inventory increased slightly, with for-sale homes 1.5% above year ago levels. Active listings exceeded last year’s levels again this week, falling in line with last week’s trend. • New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were up this week, by 5.0% from one year ago.
Nerd's Eye View
NOVEMBER 22, 2023
For all of the myriad ways financial advisors can structure and run their practices, firm owners generally encounter similar stages in the development of their firms. At some point, solo advisors will need to decide whether to increase their headcount, and an ensemble practice may later evolve into a centralized brand with significant enterprise value.
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Wealth Management
NOVEMBER 22, 2023
Integrations, analytics and measured innovation are the guidelines the former AssetMark CEO will follow in stitching together the firm’s bundle of businesses into a unified wealthstack.
Abnormal Returns
NOVEMBER 23, 2023
Books An excerpt from "Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature" by Dan Sinykin (newrepublic.com) An excerpt from "The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos" by Mark Chiusano. (nymag.com) An excerpt from Richard C. Cytowic’s book "Synesthesia." (thereader.mitpress.mit.edu) Business The big consulting firms have, at the very least, an image problem.
The Big Picture
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Most people don’t know that it is the editors, not the writers, who craft headlines. This should be common knowledge among media consumers (but it’s not). Perhaps this is why well-written articles are often skewed or even undone by clickbait headlines. Case in point: Wall Street’s ESG Craze Is Fading As the article points out, “investors withdrew more than $14 billion from sustainable funds this year” after weak performance traced in part to higher interest rates.1 But the article also points o
Calculated Risk
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Notes: The expansion to the Panama Canal was completed in 2016 (As I noted several years ago ), and some of the traffic that used the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is probably going through the canal. This might be impacting TEUs on the West Coast ( recently the drought in Panama has slowed canal traffic ). Container traffic gives us an idea about the volume of goods being exported and imported - and usually some hints about the trade report since LA area ports handle about 40% of the nati
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Like being inches from the end zone, many advisors are frustratingly close to their next level of success. You work hard. You put in the hours. But if your closing rate is stuck or your pipeline feels like a revolving door… something has to change. Most advisors are just one small shift away from dramatically increasing their revenue. The difference?
Wealth Management
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
Japan’s government pension fund is investing $1 billion in funds managed by Brookfield and Blackstone, reported Bisnow. Private investors have been increasingly focusing on retail real estate in recent months, according to JLL. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.
Abnormal Returns
NOVEMBER 22, 2023
AI Sam Altman is back at OpenAI, but everything has changed. (bigtechnology.com) Om Malik, "If you are a startup, an organization, or a large company, you need to learn from the past five days [at OpenAI] and start building resilience in your product plans." (om.co) The OpenAI fiasco highlights the importance of corporate governance. (theatlantic.com) Finance Banks are planning to start.lending again.
The Reformed Broker
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
Join Downtown Josh Brown and Michael Batnick for another round of What Are Your Thoughts? On this week’s episode, Josh and Michael discuss the biggest topics in investing and finance, including: ►Sam Altman – OpenAI turmoil. ►Buyback SURGE – “$QQQ largest weekly inflows on record this past week.” ►NVDA Earnings – “The chip maker’s earnings beat Wall Street expectations in.
Calculated Risk
NOVEMBER 18, 2023
The key economic report this week is Existing Home sales. -- Monday, November 20th -- No major economic releases scheduled. -- Tuesday, November 21st -- 8:30 AM ET: Chicago Fed National Activity Index for October. This is a composite index of other data. 10:00 AM: Existing Home Sales for October from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for 3.93 million SAAR, down from 3.96 million in September.
Speaker: Aaron Berson
Managing spend is more than a cost cutting exercise – it's a pathway to smarter decisions that unlock efficiency and drive growth. By understanding and refining the spending process, financial leaders can empower their organizations to achieve more with less. Explore the art of balancing financial control with operational growth. From uncovering hidden inefficiencies to designing workflows that scale your business, we’ll share strategies to align your organization’s spending with its strategic g
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