Look to the Future, at Every Age 

It’s a new year and it feels like a great time to think about the future. There is often no better way to plan our future than to begin with a lesson or two from the past. I remember in Elementary school how excited we all were when the teacher showed up with a projector.…

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Don’t Underestimate Momentum

This year’s new college football playoff schedule is certain to bring some exciting games. We’ve already seen several great games during the regular season with the Miami/Cal game standing out as one of them. Trailing badly in the third quarter 35-10, Miami seemed to be on the ropes and heading towards a disappointing loss, but…

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The Miracle of a Successful Retirement

On January 15, 2009, US Airways 1549 departing LaGuardia airport hit a flock of geese, causing the extremely rare loss of both engines. What followed became known as the Miracle on the Hudson in which all 155 people on board miraculously survived, although the geese didn’t fare quite so well. The recent movie “Sully” has…

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Creative Destruction Rears its Head Again

While going through some old boxes I stumbled across my investment research records going back to the 80’s. I found dozens of notebooks on which I had written down my daily market trades. Every page was filled with stock ticker symbols and pricing, as well as the financial results of each transaction. A flood of…

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Beware of Risk Creep in Up Markets

While hiking in Switzerland years ago, Launa and I were surprised to see someone jump from a nearby cliff wearing what we later learned was called a wing-suit. Just before hitting the ground, the jumper pulled a small parachute and landed on his feet to great excitement from a nearby crowd. This was followed by…

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Investors Love the Underdog

Americans have always had a soft spot for the underdog. Our natural compassion leads us to cheer for those who face great adversity and yet are still willing to put everything on the line, even when they know their chances of success are low. This may be partly due to our own historical underdog status…

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It Doesn’t Have To Be That Complicated

I was in Salt Lake City this week for a large event. Tens of thousands of people had come to town and the city was quite crowded. As I stood at my window on the 7th floor I looked down at the heavy traffic on the street below. The sidewalks were full, the crosswalks were…

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Wall Street, the Democratization of Investing

In my most recent article I discussed some of the challenges from the early days of Wall Street. As it happens, my son Jared had the opportunity to have a private tour of Wall Street last week as part of some business research. He gained some valuable insights that I would like him to share…

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Market Storms – A Necessary Cycle

As a new pilot I was taught that all weather on earth is caused by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun. This uneven heating causes moisture to rise and fall and air to move. As this happens, energy from the sun is distributed unevenly around the globe which, at times gets…

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Pay Attention to the Little Things

The weather this week has reminded me of a time I took off from El Paso on a hot August day. It was 115 degrees when I climbed into my plane at the little Texas airfield. There was smoke in the air from local fires and the southwest heat wave was in full swing. As…

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