An investor came to me for advice this week saying, “I spend all day long watching every show, joining every webcast and following every analyst I can find, and I’m still confused and don’t know what to do.” I responded that if I did the same thing, I wouldn’t know what to do either. I get…
DetailsNot long ago I wrote that according to statistics from the Department of Labor, over half of all financial advisors had never experienced a bear market first-hand. I can safely set that statistic aside now. This crisis has been quite an education for investors and their advisors. Based on some younger financial advisors who have…
DetailsMy copy of the masterpiece, Dante’s Inferno, is in Italian, so I will attempt to translate into English the sign that hung above the gates of hell in that poem. It said, “Leave behind all hope, you who enter here.” To Dante, the loss of hope was the loss of everything. I thought of that poem…
DetailsAs of this writing, the DOW average has just climbed through 22,000 on hopes of a massive government stimulus package. The stock market is acting like the crisis is over. Just a couple weeks ago investors panicked as the DOW average was falling through that same number. It is a testament to the irrational emotions…
DetailsI can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t run a business, and every business taught me valuable lessons. Like many others my age, my first business was a lemonade stand at the age of six, which I shared with two of my siblings. I learned a lot in that short-term business, most…
DetailsAll my life I have loved to fix things. I was never content letting someone else do it. I had to do it myself. At age 7 when my gas-powered airplane wouldn’t start, I put my little brain to work. I knew it needed fuel, air and battery in the right quantities to start. I…
DetailsSeveral years ago I began writing columns on computer generated trades, and more recently on the new Robo Advisor platforms. I have mentioned there are pros and cons to allowing computers to make your investment decisions. On the “pro” side, computers may remove emotion from the process. Emotions have damaged many investor portfolios. Although, one…
DetailsIt’s been a wild week on Wall Street with the Dow average falling about 12% over five days. At times like this I look at history for perspective. I got my introduction to market volatility in October of 1987 when the Dow average fell almost 23% in a single day. By today’s standards that would…
DetailsIn our office investment committee meeting, we made the decision a couple weeks back to make a few changes in many of our client accounts in response to the Corona Virus scare. As a result, we had a few clients call for more clarification on the changes. It would come as no surprise to people who…
DetailsTen years ago I published an article informing those in their 70’s, that many would live to be 100. I thought the column would be viewed as good news but the responses I received were generally the opposite. One man summed up what several others had said with these words: “With all the trouble in…
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