Businesses, Stock Markets & the Economy Dimensional at 40: Timeless Lessons from My Decades in Finance (By David Booth, Executive Chairman and Founder of Dimensional) “…I believe people keep falling into the same old traps. They might chase the latest fads and keep picking stocks. (Just in the past year, we’ve seen frenzies surrounding FAANG stocks, Tesla, and GameStop.) They might try to time markets. Too many people may have sold at the bottom of the...

Think back to April 2020. A year ago, many investors were scared, some wanting to move to cash, even as most stock markets staged remarkably strong and surprising recoveries. This year, we’re seeing many of those same investors tempted to chase all kinds of hot holdings, as now they seem to have no fear. We hope favorable markets continue. But investing is no game of chance. If you were a client of...

Businesses, Stock Markets & the Economy David Booth on the Value of Flexibility (By David Booth, Executive Chairman and Founder of Dimensional) (sic- Dimensional discusses how they handled the recent volatility in GameStop stock in their portfolios) “Our ideas are grounded in academic research, but to successfully go from whiteboard to market requires a nimble and flexible approach, with a process built to make bounded judgment calls along the way. At Dimensional, we...

Businesses, Stock Markets & the Economy   The less you look, the easier it gets. pic.twitter.com/ZuCF3Xuhd1 — Daniel Crosby (@danielcrosby) March 29, 2021 Too Much, Too Soon, Too Fast “A good summary of investing history is that stocks pay a fortune in the long run but seek punitive damages when you try to be paid sooner. Virtually all investing mistakes are rooted in people looking at long-term market returns and saying, “That’s nice, but...

Businesses, Stock Markets & the Economy Four Things Everyone Needs to Know About the Markets (Ben Carlson) Excerpt-> 4. Markets are constantly changing. “The United States made up just 15% of global equity markets in 1900. Now look at it — like Pac Man eating the rest of the world. Britain’s share has shrunk by a factor of six. Germany and France have seen similar slippage. Then you have countries like Japan and China...

Businesses, Stock Markets & the Economy Bull? Bear? How About a “Bunny” Market?” (Schwab) Source: Charles Schwab, Bloomberg data as of 3/12/2021. VIDEO: Market Snapshot: Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders shares her perspective on the U.S. stock market and economy in her latest monthly video. (Schwab) Your Finances & other Wealth Management links How the Pandemic Has Changed Your Taxes. “New rules for a new reality, from stimulus payments to retirement withdrawals to unemployment insurance,...

WHAT IS ASSET ALLOCATION AND WHY DOES IT MATTER TO YOU AS AN INVESTOR? Asset allocation combines individual asset classes to build and manage a portfolio that reflects your personal goals, risk tolerance, and risk capacity. Step One: Stocks vs. Bonds – We begin by determining an appropriate balance between stocks and bonds. Bonds help you preserve your wealth, but they are unlikely to help you build a great deal more of it....

Businesses, Stock Markets & the Economy One year in four charts (Axios Capital author Felix Salmon) “The past year of COVID-19 has produced no shortage of spiky charts. Stocks plunged and then promptly rebounded; deaths rose and fell; employment fell and then bounced back to a level about 9 million jobs short of where we were.” Watch-> Understanding What Drives Bull Markets (Barry Ritholtz) “I spoke with Tom & Lisa about technology, why Inflation...

WHAT ARE RISK TOLERANCE AND RISK CAPACITY AND WHY DO THEY MATTER TO YOU AS AN INVESTOR? Risk tolerance and risk capacity may sound similar, but they are not the same things. What is Risk Tolerance? This is your ability, as an investor, to handle volatility and potential losses in your portfolio, or the degree of uncertainty you can handle. What is Risk Capacity? This is the amount of risk you can take, as an...

Businesses, Stock Markets & the Economy What If Interest Rates Don’t Matter as Much as We Think? (Ben Carlson, CFA) “Just because stocks have done fine when rates have risen in the past doesn’t mean it will happen in the future. But interest rate levels, in and of themselves, aren’t the sole cause of every market movement. They are just one factor among many that impact how people allocate their assets. And maybe, just maybe, they don’t...