Zoe Financial
JANUARY 28, 2025
Market Timing vs. Time in the Market Updated January 28th, 2025 Reading Time: 4 minutes Written by: The Zoe Team Though these terms may sound similar, market timing is not the same as time in the market. What do these mean, and which is a sounder investment strategy? Lets take a poll. Raise your hand if youve ever heard someone brag about how they bought Amazon stock right before its share price doubled.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 29, 2025
Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Inflation Adjusted House Prices 1.1% Below 2022 Peak Excerpt: It has been over 18 years since the housing bubble peak. In the November Case-Shiller house price index released yesterday, the seasonally adjusted National Index (SA), was reported as being 77% above the bubble peak in 2006. However, in real terms, the National index (SA) is about 12% above the bubble peak (and historically there has been an upward slope to real house prices).
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Nerd's Eye View
JANUARY 31, 2025
Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that following the change of administration (and a new incoming chair of the SEC), the Investment Adviser Association is seeking to find ways to help RIAs (particularly smaller firms) manage the compliance responsibilities they face.
Abnormal Returns
JANUARY 29, 2025
Podcasts Christine Benz and Dan Lefkovitz talk with John Rekenthaler about his long career writing about investing. (morningstar.com) Peter Lazaroff on how much money you need to retire. (peterlazaroff.com) Family Every decision we make has trade-offs: the case for staying home to care for small children. (readthejointaccount.com) When are you children mature enough to discuss estate issues?
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Automation generally supercharges any process and brings its value to the forefront. See how infusing automation such as ART (our month-end close solution), into your close can get you to the next level of closing. We will share a live demo of SkyStem's solution, ART and share the key elements of month-end close automation. Through ART, we'll take a look at: What month-end close automation entails Which process steps can and should be automated Benefits of achieving process automation, and Why i
Wealth Management
JANUARY 29, 2025
Clearly explaining the technical aspects of the planners proposals aids in the successful implementation of estate plans.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 28, 2025
S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for November ("November" is a 3-month average of September, October and November closing prices). This release includes prices for 20 individual cities, two composite indices (for 10 cities and 20 cities) and the monthly National index. From S&P S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index Records 3.8% Annual Gain in November 2024 The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Abnormal Returns
JANUARY 28, 2025
Surprises Stuff happens every year that no one foresaw. (ritholtz.com) How markets deal with surprises. (behaviouralinvestment.com) Yesterday shows how dependent the stock market is on the AI theme. (herbgreenberg.com) Strategy Your allocation (or not) to international stocks matters, but not a lot. (ofdollarsanddata.com) Investing success is more about temperament than intelligence.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 30, 2025
Advisor Thomas Chadwick allegedly lost clients $11.1 million, and several of them blame Fidelity's lack of supervision, according to a statement filed with FINRA.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 31, 2025
Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Freddie Mac House Price Index Increased in December; Up 4.0% Year-over-year A brief excerpt: Freddie Mac reported that its National Home Price Index (FMHPI) increased 0.54% month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted (SA) basis in December. On a year-over-year basis, the National FMHPI was up 4.0% in December, up from up 3.9% YoY in November.
Alpha Architect
JANUARY 31, 2025
In 2024 investors were provided with nine lessons. Many of them are repeats from prior years. Unfortunately, too many investors fail to learn themthey keep making the same errors. Nine Lessons the Market Taught in 2024 was originally published at Alpha Architect. Please read the Alpha Architect disclosures at your convenience.
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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
Abnormal Returns
JANUARY 28, 2025
Lottery-like behavior Does legal sports betting shift manager risk profiles? (papers.ssrn.com) Does high inflation increase gambling like behavior? (papers.ssrn.com) Earnings How highly covered stocks react post-earnings announcement. (klementoninvesting.substack.com) Sell-side analysts do help in assessing earnings reports. (papers.ssrn.com) Why investors shouldn't take growth guidance at face value.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 27, 2025
A study by Wilshire Indexes found that while higher allocations brought greater risk-adjusted returns, they also significantly increased risk concentration.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 31, 2025
The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for December: Personal income increased $92.0 billion (0.4 percent at a monthly rate) in December , according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI)personal income less personal current taxesincreased $79.7 billion (0.4 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $133.6 billion (0.7 percent).
The Big Picture
JANUARY 29, 2025
LOL Me in a suit and tie! About a decade ago, one of my Bloomberg columns helped kick off a debate about minimum wages and large, for-profit companies using the taxpayer to subsidize their payrolls. This led to much debate, including some embarrassing revelations for Wal-Mart and especially McDonald’s. Ultimately, it led to an appearance on The Daily Show, where I got to spend the better part of the day shooting a remote segment with the delightful Samantha Bee.
Speaker: Claire Grosjean, Global Finance & Operations Executive
Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.
Abnormal Returns
JANUARY 31, 2025
Strategy Timing the market requires getting two decision right. (awealthofcommonsense.com) On the benefits of embracing failure. (theatlantic.com) Trading Questions remain about how all-day stock trading would work. (on.ft.com) Kalshi is moving to make its contracts available more widely. (nytimes.com) Apple Services revenue keeps growing at Apple ($AAPL).
Wealth Management
JANUARY 31, 2025
The Zelin Group and its five advisors made the move after the lead partner, Jonathan Zelin, had been with Merrill for more than seven years.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 28, 2025
Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 3.8% year-over-year in November Excerpt: S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for November ("November" is a 3-month average of September, October and November closing prices). November closing prices include some contracts signed in July, so there is a significant lag to this data.
Fortune Financial
JANUARY 28, 2025
U.S. housing is in an interesting spot. The housing stock is increasingly aged, housing starts are only just beginning to catch up with the long-term average, and mortgage rates are much higher than they have been for years, making homeowners (some 40% of whom now own their homes outright*) reluctant to sell. These factors combine to make for an interesting setup for all sorts of housing-related construction and services as the housing market works to find an equilibrium.
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.
A Wealth of Common Sense
JANUARY 31, 2025
Financial markets are always interesting in the information age because the narratives change even faster than Ali Larter’s mood swings at a family meal in Landman.1 Two years ago everyone was convinced we were going into a recession. It was the most over-forecasted recession of all-time that never happened. Now no one thinks a recession is a possibility and the worries have shifted to concerns about a speculative b.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 30, 2025
Florida is the best state to retire in in 2025. But after that, states out West like Colorado and Wyoming rank high for retirement.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 28, 2025
From the MBA: Delinquency Rates for Commercial Properties Increased in Fourth-Quarter 2024 Delinquency rates for mortgages backed by commercial properties increased during the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) latest commercial real estate finance (CREF) Loan Performance Survey. " The delinquency rate for commercial mortgages increased during the final three months of 2024 , with increases across most capital sources and property types, said Mike Frata
Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT)
JANUARY 26, 2025
By Amy Wakem During the 20 years of being a financial advisor, my agency has gone through a lot of transitions. And I’ve been asked a few times, At what point did your numbers start becoming consistent and you were making MDRT regularly? Our production became more consistent when we started becoming deliberate with the words we use when interacting with prospects or clients.
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.
NAIFA Advisor Today
JANUARY 29, 2025
Jesus U. Lopez Sotos journey into the financial services industry began with a simple goal: to find a work-from-home opportunity for his pregnant wife. Initially, he saw it as a way for her to earn extra income. However, after being introduced to the industry by a coworker and friend, Jesus realized that this was not just a job for his wifeit was an opportunity for him to build a meaningful career as well.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 28, 2025
Ray Dalio warned that the runup in values of AI-tied firms is a reminder of dotcom bubble excesses, reports the Financial Times. Single-stock ETFs magnified some of the losses in markets amid the DeepSeek fallout, according to etf.com. These are among the investment must reads we found this week for wealth advisors.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 29, 2025
Fed Chair Powell press conference video here or on YouTube here , starting at 2:30 PM ET. FOMC Statement: Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. The unemployment rate has stabilized at a low level in recent months, and labor market conditions remain solid. Inflation remains somewhat elevated. The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run.
A Wealth of Common Sense
JANUARY 26, 2025
Institutional investors made a huge push into hedge funds following the bursting of the dot-com bubble. It was the perfect environment because you had a situation where expensive stocks crashed while cheap stocks were a wonderful hedge. Going long cheap and short expensive allowed them to win in both directions.1 The S&P 500 got clobbered so it wasn’t hard to sell hedge funds to all of the pensions, endowments a.
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Based off SkyStem's popular e-Book, the book of secrets to the month-end close will be revealed in this one-hour webinar. Learn leading practices when it comes to building a strong and sustainable month-end close that has room to grow and evolve. Learn about the power of precise estimates, why reconciliations are critical to closing the books, how and when to automate, and how the chart of accounts play into your close process.
Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT)
JANUARY 28, 2025
By Alain Quennec, CFP, CIM Fifteen years ago, a client and I were cycling when he introduced me to one of his friends. He said, Hi, this is Al Quennec. The friend said, Who is Al to you? He said, Oh, hes my money guy. My heart fell right away because this client didnt understand the breadth of the work and complex financial planning we had done for him in the previous five or 10 years.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 27, 2025
The volume of fundraising for alternative investment vehicles through the retail channel reached $122 billion, reports Robert A. Stanger & Co.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 29, 2025
From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Mortgage applications decreased 2.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Associations (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 24, 2025. This weeks results include an adjustment for the Martin Luther King holiday.
A Wealth of Common Sense
JANUARY 28, 2025
A list of things I never plan on doing: I will never go all in or all out with my portfolio.I’m never going to take my entire portfolio to cash because I’m worried about a crash or some terrible economic outcome. Sure, I hold the majority of my investment portfolio in stocks but it’s diversified across geography, market cap and strategy.
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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?
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