Calculated Risk

MAY 29, 2024

From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Mortgage applications decreased 5.7 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 24, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

Sales 328

Sales Marketing Marketing 328

Wealth Management

MAY 30, 2024

Vanilla and Wealth.com are among the early frontrunners, but the field of contenders is increasingly crowded—and diverse.

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Abnormal Returns

MAY 29, 2024

Nvidia It's hard to overstate just how big a rally Nvidia ($NVDA) has seen. (downtownjoshbrown.com) Then again, few large companies have grown this fast. (theirrelevantinvestor.com) AI A look at the AI tech stacks for various players in the industry. (stratechery.com) Why Zuck and Meta ($META) have embraced an open AI standard. (nytimes.com) AI spending is going to grow as more countries jump into the game.

Financial Advising 292

Financial Advising Manufacturing Economy Media 292

The Big Picture

MAY 29, 2024

At The Money: Your Financial Captain with Peter Mallouk (May 29, 2024) Who’s in charge of all of the details of your financial life? Not just the stocks and bonds, but your taxes, your will, your estate, any trusts, insurance, credit line, real estate, and anything that affects your financial health. In today’s ATM, we discuss the advantages of having a financial captain in charge of all of your financial affairs Full transcript below. ~~~ About this week’s guest: Peter Mallouk

Risk Management 291

Risk Management Taxes Estate Planning Financial Planner 291

Advertisement

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

Clients

Calculated Risk

MAY 31, 2024

Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in shelter from the CPI report and housing from the PCE report this morning, both through April 2024. CPI Shelter was up 5.5% year-over-year in April, down from 5.6% in March, and down from the cycle peak of 8.2% in March 2023. Housing (PCE) was up 5.6% YoY in April , down from 5.8% in March, and down from the cycle peak of 8.3% in April 2023.

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Wealth Management

MAY 29, 2024

Understanding the outsized influence of Gen Z.

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Nerd's Eye View

MAY 29, 2024

Small business owners often treat their businesses not only as their source of income during their working years, but also as an asset that can be sold to fund their retirement. And while many businesses can build up substantial value over the years, the downside is that, when that value is realized upon the sale of the business, a large amount of it is treated as taxable income.

Sales 246

Sales Taxes Assets Retirement 246

Calculated Risk

MAY 30, 2024

The DOL reported : In the week ending May 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 219,000 , an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 215,000 to 216,000. The 4-week moving average was 222,500, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average.

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Wealth Management

MAY 31, 2024

A Boston advisory team with $1 billion in assets is joining Citizens, the latest of a number of former First Republic advisors and teams to leave JP Morgan.

Numbers 305

Numbers Assets 305

Abnormal Returns

MAY 28, 2024

Research Average performance can obscure some bad outcomes. (portfoliocharts.com) No matter where you look, momentum shows up. (alphaarchitect.com) Why don't more investors use equal-weighted indices? (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) How LLMs can be used to do security analysis. (papers.ssrn.com) Hedge funds outperform when markets are expensive. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) How fund flows can cause an unsustainable feedback loop.

Marketing 285

Marketing Marketing 285

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.

Management

Nerd's Eye View

MAY 27, 2024

The first few years of building an advisory firm from scratch are typically the most demanding for solo advisors since this often means putting oneself 'out there' as much as possible – working through lead generation services, trying to network with Centers Of Influence (COIs) and the community at large, and battling through all of the "no" s needed to get a "yes" (and therefore a client).

Marketing 245

Marketing Marketing Clients Media 245

Calculated Risk

MAY 29, 2024

The FDIC released the Quarterly Banking Profile for Q1 2024: Reports from 4,568 commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) report aggregate net income of $64.2 billion in first quarter 2024, an increase of $28.4 billion (79.5 percent) from the prior quarter. A large decline in noninterest expense because of several substantial, non-recurring items recognized by large banks in the prior quarter, as well as higher noninterest income and lo

Numbers 312

Numbers Banking Insurance Assets 312

Wealth Management

MAY 31, 2024

After Washington, Missouri is the second known state to send warning letters to advisors over the use of wealthtech tools that can access data in client retirement and banking accounts.

Retirement 299

Retirement Banking Accounting Clients 299

Abnormal Returns

MAY 31, 2024

Markets There is still more than $6 trillion in money market funds. (apolloacademy.com) Is Japan's stock market finally ready for prime time? (on.ft.com) Strategy We should judge systems by their outcomes, not by their aims. (anildash.com) Good investing advice is timeless. (blogs.cfainstitute.org) Finance Private equity is not recycling capital very quickly.

Financial Advising 278

Financial Advising Food Media Economy 278

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.

Numbers

Nerd's Eye View

MAY 31, 2024

Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” - this week’s edition kicks off with the news that the Financial Planning Association and Money.com are planning to publish a “Best Financial Advisors” list based on advisors’ education, credentials, and experience, as well as harder-to-quantify areas such as trust factors and client communication.

Financial Planner 238

Financial Planner Ethics Financial Advisor Taxes 238

Calculated Risk

MAY 28, 2024

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 6.5% year-over-year in March; FHFA: House Prices Increased 0.1% in March, up 6.6% YoY Excerpt: S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for March ("March" is a 3-month average of January, February and March closing prices). March closing prices include some contracts signed in November, so there is a significant lag to this data.

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Wealth Management

MAY 30, 2024

“We see the broad RIA community as a very attractive client base for Goldman Sachs,” according to President and COO John E. Waldron.

Planning 299

Planning Investing Investments Clients 299

Abnormal Returns

MAY 30, 2024

Markets Trading in Nvidia ($NVDA) shares dwarf other large companies. (sherwood.news) The 0DTE market just keeps growing. (ft.com) Strategy How much to allocate to private equity, if you must. (morningstar.com) Pay less attention to your investments. (timharford.com) Crypto Gemini customers are finally going to start getting their money back. (cnbc.com) Signs that a Mt.

Financial Advising 276

Financial Advising Media Economy Economics 276

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.

Accounting

The Big Picture

MAY 31, 2024

This week, we speak with Jeffrey Sherman , deputy chief investment officer at DoubleLine Capital. Sherman oversees and administers DoubleLine’s investment management subcommittee; serves as lead portfolio manager for multisector and derivative-based strategies; and is a member of the firm’s executive management and fixed-income asset allocation committees.

Asset Allocation 190

Asset Allocation Math Portfolio Management Engineering 190

Calculated Risk

MAY 30, 2024

What this means: On a weekly basis, Realtor.com reports the year-over-year change in active inventory and new listings. On a monthly basis, they report total inventory. For April, Realtor.com reported inventory was up 30.4% YoY, but still down almost 36% compared to April 2017 to 2019 levels. Now - on a weekly basis - inventory is up 36.5% YoY. Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market.

Sales 299

Sales Marketing Marketing 299

Wealth Management

MAY 29, 2024

FSI Wealth Management, a San Diego, Calif.-based team with $215 million in assets, is joining LPL from Securities America, in the wake of Osaic's integration and rebranding efforts.

Wealth Management 298

Wealth Management Assets Management 298

Abnormal Returns

MAY 26, 2024

Mentions Sam Ro's favorite free finance newsletters. (tker.co) The 18 best investing blogs of 2024. (thecollegeinvestor.com) Top clicks this week The 18 best investing blogs of 2024. (thecollegeinvestor.com) 11 investing principles from Bill Miller including how to avoid value traps. (investmenttalk.co) Sam Ro's favorite free finance newsletters. (tker.co) Why don't more people engage in probabilistic thinking?

Investing 277

Investing Investments Marketing Marketing 277

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Accounting

The Big Picture

MAY 26, 2024

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures: • Realtors Are in Crisis—and Home Buyers Could Be the Winners : A wave of lawsuits over fees paid to agents has put the giant trade association on the defense; ‘it got arrogant’ ( Wall Street Journal ) see also Powerful Realtor Group Agrees to Slash Commissions to Settle Lawsuits : The National Association of Realtors will pay $418 million in damages and will amend several rules that housing experts say wil

Commission 163

Commission Management Government Retirement 163

Calculated Risk

MAY 25, 2024

At the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter this week: Click on graph for larger image. • New Home Sales Decrease to 634,000 Annual Rate in April • NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 4.14 million SAAR in April • Watch Months-of-Supply! • Single Family Built-for-Rent Up 20% Year-over-year in Q1 • 4th Look at Local Housing Markets in April; California Home Sales Up 4.4% YoY in April This is usually published 4 to 6 times a week and provides more in-depth analysis of the housing market.

Sales 286

Sales Marketing Marketing 286

Wealth Management

MAY 31, 2024

Also, PureFacts Financial Solutions selects BridgeFT’s WealthTech API and MyRepChat founder Derrick Girard joins AdvisorNet Financial as chief growth officer.

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Abnormal Returns

MAY 26, 2024

Markets Consumer discretionary stocks have been underperforming for awhile now. (allstarcharts.com) Every big market trend eventually hits an 'air pocket.' (downtownjoshbrown.com) Strategy The economy is not the stock market, and vice versa. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Why you should pay attention to your emotions when investing. (wsj.com) Some words of wisdom from Ed Borgato.

Financial Advising 267

Financial Advising Economy Education Media 267

Advertisement

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?

Sales

Alpha Architect

MAY 31, 2024

There is strong empirical evidence demonstrating that momentum (both cross-sectional and time-series) provides information on the cross-section of returns of many risk assets and has generated alpha relative to existing asset pricing models. Ma, Yang, and Ye’s findings provide another test of both robustness and pervasiveness, increasing our confidence that the findings of momentum in asset prices are not a result of data mining.

Assets 143

Assets Investments Investing 143

Calculated Risk

MAY 31, 2024

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Fannie and Freddie: Single Family Serious Delinquency Rate Decreased in April, Multi-family Increased Slightly Brief excerpt: Single-family serious delinquencies decreased in April, and multi-family serious delinquencies increased slightly. Freddie Mac reports that the multi-family delinquencies rate increased to 0.35% in April, up from 0.34% in March, and down from 0.44% in January.

Marketing 280

Marketing Marketing 280

Wealth Management

MAY 28, 2024

The American Council of Life Insurers, the Insured Retirement Institute and Finseca are among the plaintiffs in the newest suit against the Labor Department’s rule. This is the second suit filed against the rule in Texas this month.

Insurance 298

Insurance Retirement 298

Abnormal Returns

MAY 28, 2024

Strategy Wealthy Americans invest a lot in alternatives, but that doesn't mean you need to. (ofdollarsanddata.com) The case against concentrated funds. (behaviouralinvestment.com) Finance T+1 is here. (finance.yahoo.com) London wants to regain its spot atop the finance game. (nytimes.com) How the PE slowdown affects investors downstream. (ft.com) Companies Apple and Amazon have both missed an opportunity in AI.

Financial Advising 264

Financial Advising Economy Government Media 264

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

Management