Broker Check

Blog

Fred's Kollege of Financial Nowledge

Saturday, July 8, 2023

A few weeks ago, upon the death of Harry Markowitz, I wrote briefly on both his importance in the galaxy of of economic (financial) super stars but also of his importance to both you (assuming you’re one of our investors) and me,...

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

The underlying philosophy and principles of our portfolio construction is based upon significant historical and independent academic research. This is not guesswork, but simply acting on what the long-term, empirical data tells us. The...

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

I’ve advised that on our first Fred After Dark broadcast of the year we’d look into our crystal ball(s) and come up with some predictions about the future. Predications are always a fun exercise – for me at least,...

Monday, November 14, 2022

You don't have to know everything about investing -- if you know the right things. This is one of the "right things!"

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Everybody knows what a “stock” is, but how many know how that term was derived. Obviously, today a share of stock is a piece of paper denoting ownership in a corporate enterprise entitling the owner to the benefits derived...

Show All

Thursday, October 6, 2022

An old friend at DFA, Wes Wellington (one of those really smart people I mentioned in one of my recent emails and whose musings I like to share) penned a very interesting article on not only what drives equity returns but also...

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Obviously, while working out of town a great deal has gone on in the global markets over the last couple of weeks, but not necessarily anything that was really unexpected. We have been back and forth within the confines of a bear...

Monday, May 16, 2022

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

The Zoom broadcast we started over a year ago was created due to an observation made to both JT and I regarding our lifestyle – which was articulated as: “you two live the good life and others would like to learn how to...

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

In An Inflationary Environment Does Gold Make Sense Right now, inflation seems to be on everyone’s (including investors) minds. And, given the actions of our denizens of the swamp in D.C. this is a reasonable concern. I get some...

Monday, April 19, 2021

One of the problems that professionals in any field of endeavor have is in communicating in terms the general public can understand. A lot of communications are oft referred to as "inside baseball," meaning that it is information that...

Monday, March 1, 2021

I've written on multiple occasions and discussed in meetings with clients the importance of those of a certain age (I'd suggest 60+ as a starting point) setting up and having a "family meeting" where children of age are brought into...

Friday, February 26, 2021

The "garden path" many investors are trapped into following is not much different (keeping within a garden metaphor) than insects being attracted to the venus fly trap or a pitcher plant. The promise of sweet nectar results in their...

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

A frustrated president Harry Truman once opined that what he was looking for was a one armed economist. The reason being: when he asked for an economic forecast he always received as an answer, "on the one hand... then again, on the...

Friday, February 19, 2021

One of the reasons we have chosen MatsonMoney as a primary, core investment manager for most of our clients (when appropriate to their circumstances) is their firm foundation and relationships with academia and leading academics in the...

Thursday, January 7, 2021

January 7, 2021 Fortunately, I was preoccupied most of yesterday and didn't have access to news so I was pretty much aware of the riot taking place within the halls of congress. Fortunately, when it comes to investments and investing,...

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

A brief recap of the year that was as well as a look ahead to the coming year. Obviously, as we leave the current year, it was dominated by two important occurrences, both of which had investment implications: the Covid19 pandemic and...

Monday, November 2, 2020

No doubt some of you will have concerns regarding your investments depending upon the outcome of the U.S. election. While these concerns are understandable, unless you are a short term trader or have immediate short term needs...

Monday, October 26, 2020

On our Zoom broadcast last Thursday evening (“Cocktails With Fred”) an excellent question was posed by one of our attendees. Specifically, what did I think of using a “put option” to protect one’s...

Thursday, July 30, 2020

In the world of portfolio management, where chasing “hot stocks” and the objective of “beating-the-market” seem to rule the day, many investors inevitably lose out by suffering huge losses and destroying their...

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

A conundrum faced by all investments both now and over the last ten years since 2008 is how they can generate income – both for retirement income as well as an add on to portfolio returns in a diversified, non-correlated...

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

May 31, 2020 Why Even Consider Investing In International Stocks Before getting deeply into a discussion regarding the how’s and why’s of including international stocks in a well engineered portfolio, its probably best to...

Monday, April 13, 2020

I have always been an optimist about our country -- even in what appeared to be her darkest hours of wartime, assassinations, rioting, runaway inflation and economic distress. I always knew, as Americans we could truly "overcome," find...

Thursday, April 2, 2020

I've oft described there are nuances to the investment process that add to the returns that are lost upon those who only focus on the internal costs of index funds. The mistake many investors make is, as I've pointed out before is...

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Attempting to time markets involves a twofold decision: not only when to get out of the markets but also when to get back in. Missing only of the few better days can be enormously costly to a portfolio as the graph (Courtesy of...

Monday, March 23, 2020

In an earlier tome I talked about context and revisited the 1918 pandemic (Spanish Flu) and the succeeding period which was known as "The Roaring Twenties" when this country and the stock market experienced exceptional growth. It even...

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Markets are reflective of and report to us on human behavior via their pricing mechanisms. As an old friend, psychology Prof Ed Timmons from LSU once explained to a small group of us, when you take into account the human brain has...

Monday, March 16, 2020

Dear Clients & Friends, To begin with, I hope this letter finds you and your family safe. It is certainly a chaotic time, but as is often stated, “this too shall pass.” First off, it’s okay to be nervous about the...

Thursday, March 12, 2020

I've often written that one of the problems undisciplined, uncoached investors have is they always seem to be focused on picking up pennies while they miss seeing the dollars that would be otherwise available to them -- in other words...

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Sanity In An Insane World As is often the case when an occurrence takes place that lights the fuse of a market/economic decline, a great deal of irrational behavior comes to light – that which both precedes the event (see...

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

This is a guest video created today by my good friend Mark Matson. I commend it to you because it addresses today's events and investors' responses to it that is all to human. I have addressed this issue in several turbulent markets...

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Obviously, this is the type of week and global market action that the media loves (if it bleeds it leads) and tends to bring the pundits out of the woodwork as various talking heads and the public look for some sort of explanation and...

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Every so often I like to revisit an earlier writing and see how well it may have held up over the years. In this case, I went back to December, 2010 almost ten years ago and shortly after the 2008 - 2009 bear market -- which still...

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

As most of my readers know, our fundamental approach to investing is guided by specific principles (for which their creators received a Nobel Prize), namely: a passive approach (except where client circumstances dictate otherwise),...

Friday, April 12, 2019

I've written in my commentaries, before, about the hidden costs of investing – some which are not readily available to the average investor either from stock brokerage firms, financial planners or mutual fund purveyors. Among...

Friday, April 12, 2019

OK, its a teaser headline. I'm not aware of anyone, with any tool or tools who can consistently make correct market timing calls – of when to get in or out of the market(s) or which asset class(es) to move into and which to move...

Friday, April 12, 2019

In perusing one of the trade journals I was struck by a listing of "the best performing funds," which was followed by a list of the worst. What interested me was the fact that I found the "leading loser" was a (formerly) highly...