If you think your question regarding a particular stock is treated with analytical rigor, think otherwise.
These are, or should be, merry times, with kindness and joyful thoughts taking precedence over normal daily venting. Yet, not of my own volition, I keep finding myself in circumstances which elicit the vilest emotions.
Throughout the year, as part of a thoughtful approach to wealth management, I try to minimize the potential taxes clients owe from gains in their portfolio. Often, in December clients will start asking about the January effect and whether they can take advantage of it.
While we are waiting.
In his latest book(1) Michael Lewis describes how the US Government funded the study of destructive weather phenomena. Over decades, this activity has delivered enormous improvements in predicting where they occur. Tornadoes, though, have two characteristics which remain out of reach: where they will touch the ground and where they will move from there; these are random.
Does money equate to happiness? It all depends on your perspective. 1
“I’m rebuilding everything. I lost it all when I got sick and that included going through my retirement accounts” shared my friend. At the age of 34, she was told by heart specialists that nothing was wrong. Five years later, almost dead, she underwent emergency open heart surgery.
Unless you really learn something from it.
Much has been written recently on the events of the global financial system ten years ago. Correspondingly, little has been offered in terms of useful explanations and lessons to be learned from it.
Better Than Cheap?
Long ago, when I played on my class soccer team, I had a lucky break. During a game in which we were losing 0-4, I accidentally found myself in scoring zone and, just as accidentally, I hit a diagonal head-shot into the upper right corner of the goal. I went wild, even for my age, and to this day I recall how invigorating it felt. A free pass to glory.
Should there be anything else in the mind of clients aside from sound financial and investment advice?
Last week two articles in the Financial Times reminded me of the power of creativity. The first (here) describes aggressive tactics for acquiring customers in high-end retail banking, a novel twist on the sophisticated wining and dining for the super-wealthy.
For investors, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the relentless stream of news about markets.
Being bombarded with data and headlines presented as impactful to your financial well-being can evoke strong emotional responses from even the most experienced investors. Headlines from the ”lost decade”[1] can help illustrate several periods that may have led investors to question their approach:
Hilarious grew up in a bad part of South London where, because of his silly name, he had to learn to run fast at a very early age. He often sought refuge in the local library, somewhere he could be sure his knuckle-dragging pursuers would never go. And it was there he developed a passion for reading, writing and Miss Peabody, the local librarian. Today, Hilarious is a freelance writer.
Are investing well and incorporating values around sustainability mutually exclusive?
We possess the freedom to express our political preferences around sustainability through the ballot box. As investors, we also can express our preferences through participation in global capital markets.