Greatest hits.
Greatest hits.
10. The man with the big picture — an interview with Barry Ritholtz (Part 1)
One of the companies that’s setting the standard for advisory firms of the future is Ritholtz Wealth Management. I recently met its founder, Barry Ritholtz, at his office in New York. In Part 1 of our interview, Barry talked discusses his career, the future of wealth management.. and the one piece of advice he would give to every investor.
The man with the big picture — an interview with Barry Ritholtz (Part 1)
9. Why the investing industry loves complexity
Investment professionals love complexity. That, combined with a lack of investor education, is how they make their profits. As a former Goldman Sachs money manager once revealed, “The quickest way to make money on Wall Street is to take the most sophisticated product and try to sell it to the least sophisticated client.”
Why the investing industry loves complexity
8. Why fund houses couldn’t give a fig about poor performance
There’s been so much scorn heaped on hedge funds for their dismal performance and exorbitant fees that you could be forgiven for wondering how much longer the industry can survive. The fact that two of the most famous living investors, Warren Buffett and Bill Gross, have now joined the chorus of criticism, may even prompt a few nervous hedge fund executives to start to explore alternative employment. Or will it?
Why fund houses couldn’t give a fig about poor performance
7. The basic arithmetic the fund industry won’t acknowledge
Of all the charges levelled against those of us who advocate an evidence-based approach to investing, perhaps the most inapt is that we’re dogmatic. Zealots, fanatics, militants — those are some of the more polite terms I’ve seen used to describe us.
Evidence-based investing is surely the antithesis of dogma. It’s an approach that’s based on more than 60 years of independent, peer-reviewed and time-tested evidence. Nor is it set in stone; this is a living body of evidence that continues to grow and that’s being constantly refined and re-evaluated by academics around the world.
The basic arithmetic the fund industry won’t acknowledge
6. How I learned to invest the right way — an interview with Michael Batnick (Part 1)
Millennial investors in the US should feel very fortunate to have so many good financial bloggers to learn from. The likes of Josh Brown, Ben Carlson, Morgan Housel, James Osborne, Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Cullen Roche are all worth reading. I would particularly recommend Michael Batnick, aka The Irrelevant Investor, who is also Director of Research for Ritholtz Wealth Management. In this, the first in a two-part interview, Michael recalls his early career and how it taught him valuable lessons.
How I learned to invest the right way — an interview with Michael Batnick (Part 1)
5. Having your cake and eating it — the myth of downside protection
There are all sorts of myths that it suits the fund industry to perpetuate, perhaps the most insidious of which is that active funds are better than passive in bear markets. Index funds, we keep being told, fall with the markets whereas active funds provide the reassurance of “downside protection”.
Having your cake and eating it — the myth of downside protection
4. Whose money is it anyway?
There’s a vast (and growing) body of peer-reviewed academic evidence which consistently shows how most investors should simply buy and hold a diversified portfolio of index funds and occasionally rebalance it. Yet the fund houses, aided and abetted by stockbrokers, fund shops, advertisers, PR professionals and the majority of investment journalists, constantly encourage us to do the very opposite.
3. Warning — this man could seriously damage your wealth
Jim Cramer has one of the most famous faces on US television. A former hedge fund manager and best-selling author, he’s now a full-time celebrity who imparts his stock-picking expertise to anyone who will listen. And they do. The CNBC presenter is fast approaching a million followers on Twitter — many of them presumably hanging on his every stock tip.
Warning — this man could seriously damage your wealth
2. Just because it looks like skill doesn’t mean it is
You can’t blame fund managers for taking the credit for outperformance. After all, as only around 1% of them beat the market with any degree of regularity, they rarely have the opportunity. It’s natural, too, that most financial advisers ascribe strong returns to managers’ expertise; they’ve built their business models on their ability to pick the best funds. Journalists too are predisposed to emphasise skill; star managers make great copy, quite apart from the advertising revenue they generate.
Just because it looks like skill doesn’t mean it is
1. Why financial planning is so important — an interview with Barry Ritholtz (Part 2)
In Part 1 of our interview, Barry talked about his investing philosophy. In this, the second and concluding part, he explains why everything his company does starts with a financial plan — and why he devotes so much time to his blog.
Why financial planning is so important — an interview with Barry Ritholtz (Part 2)
Greatest hits.
ROBIN POWELL is a freelance journalist and the founding editor of The Evidence-Based Investor. Based in Birmingham, England, he founded Ember Television and Regis Media, and he specialties in helping disruptive financial firms to grow. He also campaigns for a fair, transparent and sustainable investing industry. You can follow him on Twitter at @RobinJPowell.
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Robin is a journalist and campaigner for positive change in global investing. He runs Regis Media, a niche provider of content marketing for financial advice firms with an evidence-based investment philosophy. He also works as a consultant to other disruptive firms in the investing sector.
