The Big Picture
JULY 7, 2024
@TBPInvictus here If you’re tired of California-minimum-wage-and-its-impact-on-limited-service-restaurant-employment stories, I understand. Leave this page immediately. I’m tired of it, too, but some stories are so factually challenged that they demand a response. So, allow me to address a hot mess of a story that appeared recently in the California Globe.
Abnormal Returns
JULY 14, 2024
Top clicks this week How the rise of automated investing has changed the stock market. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Why Bill Ackman spends so much time on Twitter. (sherwood.news) The CAPM doesn't work. Maybe this measure does. (klementoninvesting.substack.com) Why young men around the world are breaking hard to the right. (politico.com) Today's constructive CPI report rang a bell for financial markets.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
A Wealth of Common Sense
JULY 21, 2024
Hendrik Bessimbinder has produced some of my favorite stock market research. Bessimbinder discovered that four out of every seven stocks in the U.S. have underperformed cash (one-month T-bills) since 1926. And just 4% of companies accounted for all the wealth gains for the entire stock market in that time. The stock market runs on power laws over the long run.
Carson Wealth
JULY 3, 2024
Running a small business involves juggling multiple responsibilities. Managing the business’s finances is one of the most crucial aspects. Proper financial management can be the difference between a thriving business and one that struggles to stay afloat. Here are eight essential financial tips for small business owners to help ensure long-term success. 1.
Speaker: Hilary Akhaabi, PhD - Founder, Chief Financial & Operations Officer at Go Africa Global
In the fast-paced world of corporate finance, staying ahead of the curve is crucial for sustainable growth and profitability. This exclusive webinar with leading expert Hilary Akhaabi, PhD, will teach you practical ways to navigate complex financial landscapes and enhance your company's revenue management capabilities. Whether you're aiming to refine your financial strategies or seeking innovative solutions to drive performance, this new session is for you!
Calculated Risk
JULY 8, 2024
Here is another monthly update on lumber prices. SPECIAL NOTE: The CME group discontinued the Random Length Lumber Futures contract on May 16, 2023. I switched to a physically-delivered Lumber Futures contract that was started in August 2022. Unfortunately, this impacts long term price comparisons since the new contract was priced about 24% higher than the old random length contract for the period when both contracts were available.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 29, 2024
The firm’s board is already conducting a search for his successor. Additionally, Greg Davis has been appointed as president in addition to his current role as chief investment officer.
Fortune Financial
MARCH 7, 2024
Signed into law in 1956 by then President Dwight Eisenhower, the Federal Highway Act created the Interstate Highway System , which would become the largest and costliest public works project in history. Measuring almost 48,000 miles in total distance, the Interstate Highway System was completed only in 1992, more than three decades after work began, and for a total cost in today’s dollars of more than $500 billion. ( source: Wikipedia Commons ) Inspired in large part by the German Autoba
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.
Trade Brains
MAY 10, 2024
Bearish Engulfing Candlestick Pattern: Technical analysts rely heavily on chart and candlestick patterns to conduct comprehensive analyses of stock prices and accurately predict their future movements. Each pattern formed in the market has a clear and justified reason behind its formation and indicates the market’s direction. Here in this article, we shall discuss a two-candlestick pattern called the bearish engulfing candlestick pattern with its meaning, formation, indication, and how to
Advertisement
As we step into 2024, the lending landscape evolves rapidly with technology, regulations, and market dynamics driving change. For banks and financial institutions to stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of their customers, these drivers must be understood and engaged with. Lenders can anticipate significant transformation fueled by technological advancements, regulatory shifts, and changing consumer behaviors.
The Irrelevant Investor
APRIL 9, 2024
The most important thing that determines how successful you are in life cannot be quantified. Success is a loaded word that means different things to everyone. At its core, success is happiness. Hard stop. If you’re rich and miserable, you’re not successful. There’s a hierarchy of happiness. At the foundational level is health. Without that, you have nothing.
The Big Picture
APRIL 11, 2024
Confused about where we are today? A favorite exercise is to go back to first principles to consider how we got to where we are. (That is a favorite way to find fresh insights). On the equity side, you have to go back a century or so. Equities were considered speculative endeavors, best suited for gamblers and punters. The exceptions? A handful of “Widows & Orphan” stocks, like Ma Bell, some railroads, utilities and the rare bank that was not suffering regular runs.
Abnormal Returns
JULY 7, 2024
Top clicks this week How major asset classes performed in June 2024. (capitalspectator.com) Just how useful is historical financial markets data? (retirementresearcher.com) Don't forget, stocks are real assets. (downtownjoshbrown.com) Europe's stock market has badly lagged the U.S. How much longer can it last? (awealthofcommonsense.com) Beware small sample sizes.
A Wealth of Common Sense
APRIL 23, 2024
There was a recent poll about my home state of Michigan where they asked people for their thoughts on the state of the nation’s economy today. Just 35% of people described the economy as excellent (6%) or good (29%) while 65% described it as either not so good (28%) or poor (37%). But when asked how they would describe their own personal financial situation these days, a majority of people (61%) described their circ.
Speaker: Joe Buhrmann, MBA, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC® Senior Financial Planning Practice Management Consultant eMoney Advisor
During an era of evolving consumer preferences, the banking sector is undergoing a profound shift. As customers continue to broaden their perspectives, banking professionals must support their customers' financial wellness by providing holistic financial advice that aligns with individual goals and circumstances. Without adapting, financial institutions will find that loyalty may crumble amid uncertainty.
Carson Wealth
JUNE 10, 2024
The Summer Rally Continues Another week and more new highs for the S&P 500. As we’ve noted before, summer rallies are actually quite normal in an election year and we didn’t think this year would be any different. In fact, the three summer months are up more than seven percent on average in an election year and higher more than 75% of the time, the best out of any three-month period.
Calculated Risk
FEBRUARY 14, 2024
From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Mortgage applications decreased 2.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 9, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 31, 2024
The latest Chicago Purchasing Manager's Index (Chicago Business Barometer) fell to 35.4 in May from 37.9 in April. This is the sixth straight monthly decline and the lowest level for the index since May 2020. The latest reading is worse than the 41.1 forecast and keeps the index in contraction territory for a sixth consecutive month.
Wealth Management
JULY 19, 2024
The outage began early Friday morning with a software update from the cybersecurity provider Crowdstrike as the likely culprit. Schwab posted on its website a message warning users of potential issues.
Speaker: Carolina Aponte - Owner and CEO, Caja Holdings LLC
In today's rapidly changing business environment, building a resilient balance sheet is crucial to the survival of any business. A resilient balance sheet allows a company to withstand financial shocks and adapt to changing market conditions. To achieve this, companies need to focus on key strategies such as maintaining adequate liquidity, managing debt levels, diversifying revenue streams, and prioritizing profitability over growth.
Discipline Funds
JULY 16, 2024
The combination of the Great Financial Crisis period and the Covid era created some of the most interesting economic experiments in history. They also resulted in some of the worst narratives in finance and economics. Here are three bad narratives that are dead, but won’t yet be laid to rest because economic narratives are hard to bury. 1 Bad Narrative #1: Raising Interest Rates Adds to Inflation.
Alpha Architect
FEBRUARY 2, 2024
While the evidence makes clear that active management is a loser’s game (one that it is possible to win but so unlikely you should not try), we don’t want active managers to disappear. Hope should continue to triumph over evidence, wisdom, and experience because active managers help eliminate market anomalies and inefficiencies created by the misbehavior of investors (such as noise traders).
Trade Brains
MAY 17, 2024
In today’s world, we’re constantly surrounded by a symphony of technology. From the quiet hum of our laptops to the dazzling display of our smartphones, these marvels rely on a hidden partnership between batteries and electronic solutions. Batteries and electronics are the unsung heroes of our modern world. Their seamless partnership is so deeply embedded in our daily lives that we often take them for granted.
The Big Picture
JUNE 9, 2024
@TBPInvictus here. About a decade or so ago, the city of Seattle undertook to raise its minimum wage, over time, to $15/hour. (Massive credit to my friend Nick Hanauer for his efforts to make that happen.) What followed in the immediate aftermath of both the announcement and implementation was nothing less than a apocalyptic, collective head explosion on the right about the devastating effects the increase would have, particularly in the food services sector: However, there’s little doubt that t
Speaker: Wayne Spivak, President and CFO of SBA * Consulting Ltd., Industry Writer, Public Speaker
If you’re lost in the world of spend management needs and your GAP analysis is lacking perspective on the future state of your business performance, listen up! With the advancement of technology, the implementation of spend management best practices and concrete GAP analyses is more streamlined and accessible than ever before. And while this may sound like great news for you and your clients, it won’t be worthwhile unless you have the latest techniques to back up your ambitions!
The Big Picture
FEBRUARY 22, 2024
A quick note to answer this question: What happens after markets make a new all-time high (after a year w/o one)? Check out the table above, via Warren Pies. He spoke with Batnick and Josh earlier this month. Going back to 1954, markets are always higher one year later – the only exception was 2007. That was after housing had peaked, subprime mortgages were defaulting, and the great financial crisis was about to start.
The Big Picture
JUNE 27, 2024
I’ve been observing how radically unusual various sentiment readings have been for a few years now. It made little sense to me that the post-pandemic era saw sentiment levels far below major dislocations such as the ‘87 crash, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Dotcom implosion, or the 08-09 great financial crisis. We have tried to identify the causal factors by considering social media , increases in partisanship , ignorance, even trolling of pollsters.
The Big Picture
MARCH 28, 2024
“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: Our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.” – Daniel Kahneman The loss of Danny Kahneman is a reminder that we should review some of his work and apply them to the current market. I am fascinated by the idea of Narrative Fallacy (the term was actually coined by Nassim Taleb in “ The Black Swan “) and how it applies to pretty much ewverything.
The Big Picture
JUNE 17, 2024
A quick break from book authorship to share a fascinating set of data and charts, via Sam Ro. In his weekly missive, Sam points to some amazing charts from Global Financial Data. They are based on historical data that looks at 200 Years of Market Concentration. You might be surprised at the findings. As the chart above shows, there are long periods of market concentration.
Speaker: Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach®
Niche markets represent a huge opportunity for the financial services industry in America. From college students and women to communities of color and low-to-moderate-income households, niche populations have specialized financial needs – but they often underutilize many valuable financial products and services. How can you better connect with these consumers?
The Big Picture
MAY 16, 2024
The Misery Index — the combination of Inflation and unemployment — failed as a bearish criticism of the economy. Unemployment remains at 60-year lows, and Inflation has plummeted from 9% down to the 3s. If you have a bearish mindset , and seek confirmation of that perspective, then the next economic critique after the Misery Index you try on for size is “Stagflation.” We have heard the S-word from Jamie Dimon , Stanley Druckenmiller , Bank of America , Barclays , Fox , Ma
The Big Picture
MARCH 15, 2024
We sometimes say “Demographics is Destiny,” but that’s abstract. To get a visual sense of what that looks like, see the above chart (via Blackrock ) showing the distribution of various age groups from 2075 to 2050. Note bars in Red are not in the workforce. The post U.S. population distribution, 1975-2050 appeared first on The Big Picture.
The Big Picture
JUNE 13, 2024
@TBPInvictus here A few days ago, Barry and I detailed how unscrupulous bad actors had taken Not Seasonally Adjusted data to falsely claim that California’s new $20/hour minimum wage had cost the state almost 10,000 quick-serve restaurant (QSR) jobs. I wrote: It appears to me that the Journal got that number from BLS. However, BLS only offers the series without seasonal adjustment; this makes a very meaningful difference.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
338 
Let's personalize your content